Tag Archives: John Dalmas

Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Serial

[April 30, 1970] Praise for the Resident Witch (May 1970 Analog)

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photo of a man with glasses and curly, long, brown hair, and a beard and mustache
by Gideon Marcus

With the inflation scare going away, national protest attendance down to the tens of thousands, and a Supreme Court on its way to being filled, not to mention a lull in space news, I can finally turn my attention where it matters: this month's science fiction magazines!

I'm always grateful when Analog turns in a decent issue to round out the month, and this month's edition has some real bright spots.

The cover of Analog; a color image, showing a Viking riding horseback through a forest. Behind him rises a ruin, and in the sky above is outlined the faces of a woman, and a wolf.
by Kelly Freas, illustrating "But Mainly by Cunning"

But Mainly by Cunning, by John Dalmas

A few months ago, we followed the adventures of Nils the neoviking psychic in the serial novel, The Yngling, in which he spearheaded the defeat of the evil Turkish immortal, Baalzebub.  Now he's back in what seems to be an interstitial tale, roaming Bohemia in search of Ilse, the raw-boned beauty who taught Nils how to master his powers.

Black lines on white background depict three Nordic barbarians on horseback, riding out of ruins to approach an overturned cart in the foreground. Beside the cart, taking up much of the space of the page, is a desiccated corpse. Above the figures reads the title, and the legend 'The strong man is the one who can face realities and induce others to the same hard courage!'
by Kelly Freas

Though the back of Baalzebub's assault on Europe was broken in the previous adventure, thousands of desert horse barbarians still roam the countryside, pillaging and occupying so as to brave the upcoming winter.  Nils and his three Nordic companions attempt to rally a defense while they quest for our hero's lover (who, it turns out, has been captured by the marauding Arabs).

Dalmas continues to be an above-average depicter of scenery and character, and his tales read like history.  Nevertheless, there's precious little SF in this installment, and not a great deal of plot movement.  Again, this feels like a bridge piece.  I look forward to the main course after this appetizer.

Three stars.

MR Robot, by William L. Kilmer and Louis L. Sutro

A black and white photograph of a computer office. Various parts are labelled -- 'computer', 'stereo TV camera', 'long-persistence display', 'gray-scale display', and 'camera monitor'. One white man sits at the printout station, another stands in the background near the stereo TV camera.

This is a long, technical article about mimicing the human brain—specifically the sense processing and response subsystems—for implementation in Mars rovers.  Aside from this being an overly abstruse and dry piece, it has a rather fatal flaw.  Its premise is that the mind is a computer, so mimicing its structure an efficient way to design digital brains.  But the authors start their piece by modeling the brain as a computer in the first place, and then taking that model and applying it back to their theoretical rover.

That's a tautological application.  Who knows if the brain really works like a digital computer?  This all seems like an exercise in sophistry.  And it's boring to boot.

Two stars.

Resident Witch, by James H. Schmitz

An two-paneled image in black and white. On the right side, a white woman with long blonde hair and painted fingernails winds a string towards herself. This side is done with black lines on a white background. The string leads to the left panel, where the illustration becomes white lines on a black background. The string is part of many strands being pulled from a human form, which is in front of an embryo curled within an egg. Beneath the hands of the woman on the right is the title, and the following legend: 'Kyth Interstellar, a detective agency, had a problem that not even their highly skilled operatives could handle -- without Telzey, their Resident Witch!'
by Kelly Freas

Telzey Amberdon, the 16-year old psi who has been heroine of a clutch of prior stories, has returned.  This time, she is hired to find and rescue a rich magnate, who has been kidnapped by his jealous younger brother.  Said evildoer is holed up on an estate worthy of a Bond villain, with genetically modified guard dogs, dead-eyed security mooks, automatic defenses, and a psionic shield.  Telzey and her two employers must infiltrate the compound, incapacitate the abductor, and save the billionaire—if possible.

Schmitz is an excellent writer, weaving action, astral projection, and suspense with ease.  Telzey, in particular, is an interesting character: physically a teenager, but centuries-old mentally, due to her having touched so many consciousnesses telepathically.  Unfortunately, Schmitz doesn't linger too long on Telzey's interior personality, which renders her presentation a bit sterile.  Also, the depictions of the torturous depredations the tycoon suffers at the hand of his brother are a bit hard to take if you're of a squeamish nature.

Still, a well-earned four stars.

Caveat Emptor, by Lee Killough

An illustration, black lines on a white background, depicting three aliens and one human, in a rough line. From the left: A lion-headed man sitting on the floor and wearing a woolly sweater and fringed pants; a human man in a jumpsuit, holding a blanket and facing away from the viewer; a centaur with clawed feet and a foreshortened, donkey-like head; and a BEM wearing a loose tunic and pants, and checking off a clipboard. In the foreground, there is a bowl and three balls.
by Vincent Di Fate

An interstellar merchantman attempts to seal a trade deal with the human Federation.  It looks like the Terrans hold all the cards, forcing our alien hero to settle for a humiliating agreement…but sometimes a poor primitive has an ace up its sleeve.

Something of a forgettable piece, its greatest noteworthiness comes from having the extraterrestrial get the best of the human.  Analog editor Campbell has historically poopooed such tales, but I note they have been creeping onto his pages more often.  Perhaps he allowed it this time since the alien is a humanoid whose greatest distinguishing feature is his tail.

Three stars.

An illustration from the Department of Diverse Data, white lines on black background. Four creatures speed across the panel, looking rather like a cross between a flatfish and a shovelnose guitarfish. Four tubes come out of each of their back ends, streaming behind them. Underneath this image is typed the following legend: 'Jet propelled Fork-and-Platter bird Avis Messator. E.T. from Spica IX. Has an insatiable appetite but is rather untidy in its habits. Does not fly very well, due to rarified atmosphere.'
art by David Pattee

Heavy Duty, by Hank Dempsey (Harry Harrison)

This is the third tale (that I've read, anyway) set in Harrison/Dempsey's newest setting.  We are thousands of years in the future, and humanity is sending out teleportation stations out to planets settled centuries before by conventional space ships.  We follow Langli, an agent of "World Openers", as he transits to an almost uninhabitable world looking for survivors of an ancient colonization.

An illustration, black lines on a white background. On the left side, a craggy-faced spaceman tries to pull wrist restraints from a futuristic wall. On the right side, a bearded man in traditional taiga clothing crouches, ready to fling a short spear towards the spaceman. In the space above the spaceman's head reads the legend, 'What you get for nothing is worth it! And on a bleak, heavy planet -- the future can look like a free gift...'.
by Vincent Di Fate

The planet's gravity is 2.1 g, and even its summer is frigid.  Its settlers have, in fact, survived, but just barely.  Only two literate colonists are left: the chief and his beautiful (if stocky) daughter.  Their subsistence economy is on the razor's edge of viability.  They are left with the choice: sign an onerous exploitation contract with Langli's concern, or stumble onward to almost certain exctinction.

Once again, we've got an atypical story for Analog, which is something of an indictment of rapacious capitalism.  The color is interesting, too, with the setting and settlers reminiscent of (if more primitive than) the ones from Harrison's Deathworld.  Of course, the Crew/Colonist divide is reminiscent of Niven's Slowboat Cargo/A Gift From Earth.

My favorite story in this series so far, I give it four stars.

The Siren Stars (Part 3 of 3), by Nancy and Richard Carrigan

An illustration, white lines on a black background. Along a silvery river on the left side of the page, a massive satellite complex rises against the sky. On the right side, it is watched by a translucent bubble (so tall as to occlude the moon) surrounding a disembodied eye.
by Kelly Freas

Sadly, I cannot be so effusive about the conclusion to the latest Analog serial.  John Leigh, agent of SPI, infiltrates the Soviet radio telescope base to sabotage the facility, rescue the pretty Swedish biologist who guessed that the alien message picked up by the installation was really a Trojan Horse designed to subvert humanity to its own purposes, and bump off the Russian Chief Astronomer, already in the thrall of the alien Lorelei.

Maybe John Dalmas could have pulled it off.  The Carrigans are simply not up to the task.  They write amateurishly, often repeating turns of phrase in close succession.  Leigh succeeds almost at random, stumbling into lucky break after lucky break.  Really, if this were submitted to a publisher as the pilot of some kind of contemporary hero series, like James Bond or Sam Durrell (Assignment:) or Mack Bolan: The Executioner, I imagine it would have gotten rejected.  Campbell has lower standards, I guess.

Two stars.

Doing the math

A computer room, largely empty. There is only one person in the room, a white woman in a brown minidress, reading punch cards in the corner.
IBM 360

We end on a bit of a downbeat, especially since P. Schuyler Miller's book review column is strangely absent this month.  Nevertheless, there's enough good stuff in this issue to make it worth your while, rating just a hair under three stars in toto.  How does it compare with the other May-dated mags? 

A pretty middle-of-the-road bunch, actually. Galaxy's 3.2 barely edges out Fantasy and Science Fiction's 3.2. Both do better than Vision of Tomorrow (3.1), Amazing (3.1), IF (3), Venture (3), and the anthology "magazine" Infinity (2.8), but none are abyssmal.

Despite having eight short story sources this month, the four/five star material would fill just two of them.  Women wrote 7.8% of what was published.

So, my praise for Analog, the resident witch (since, as we know, witches are just humans with psi powers) is muted but not inaudible.  Still, would we rather have a very wide middle to our bell curve of science-fictional quality, or more superlative (and awful) outliers?

What do you think?

[New to the Journey? Read this for a brief introduction!]


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Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Serial

[Oct. 31, 1969] Struggling to get out (November 1969 Analog)

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Science Fiction Theater Episode #10

Tonight (Oct. 31), tune in at 7pm (Pacific) for our special, Halloween-themed episode!

photo of a man with glasses and curly, long, brown hair, and a beard and mustache
by Gideon Marcus

Inside Lebanon

Feel that?  It's the calm before the storm.

For the past week, the nation of Lebanon has been rocked from within by "Palestinian" guerrillas.  Yesterday, at the behest of leaders in Cairo, Damascus, and Tripoli, the raiders settled down, awaiting what looks like will be a significant negotiation between Arab power brokers.

I'm no expert on the issue, but here's what I've gleaned.  When Israel declared independence in 1948, a significant percentage of the Arab population within the nascent nation's borders left the former mandate of Palestine.  Some fled violence, like that inflicted by classy folk such as Menachem Begin of the Irgun, a Jewish terrorist group.  Others left at the exhortation of their Arab brethren, who proclaimed that they were about to drive the Jews into the sea.

Hundreds of thousands of Arabs ended up in neighboring countries: Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon.  Indeed, exiled Arabs now comprise 12% of the population of Lebanon—fully 300,000 people.  They live in camps administrated by the draconian Lebanese Deuxième Bureau.

The "Palestinian Liberation Organization", founded in 1964 with the goal of "the liberation of Palestine", initiated terrorist attacks against Israel after The Six Day War in 1967.  Such are being carried out from enclaves in other countries with more or less tacit permission from those countries' governments.

The recent irruption in Lebanon arose from the Lebanese cracking down on these raids.  The violence, thwarted from heading southward, flooded internally—into Beirut, Tyre, Lebanese Tripoli, and other major cities.  Egypt, Syria, and Libya all leaned hard on the Christian Arab nation to let loose the reins on the guerrillas.  Lebanon has relented, and the negotiations will proceed shortly.  Participants will be Dr. Hassan Sabri El Kholi, personal envoy of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Libyan Interior Minister Mousa Ahmed, and guerrilla chief Yasser Arafat.  While there's no telling what the outcome will be, one has to imagine the Palestinians will be allowed to resume their raids into Israel again.

With the War of Attrition occupying Israel on its western and eastern fronts, it now looks as if the Jewish state is about to be busy defending from the north, too.  Most folk are betting on the Israeli Defense Force, but can the country survive under siege forever?

Time will tell.

Inside Analog


by Vincent Di Fate

Like Lebanon, the crisis facing Analog comes from within, as evidenced by the latest issue.  From without, the magazine looks like it always has—handsome, professional.  But within, one can see the rot.  Not that it's all bad; indeed, much of it is decent.  But what works is stagnant, and what doesn't work is very much the sort of thing we expect from long-toothed editor John Campbell.

Gottlos, by Colin Kapp

Starting off, we have what looks like a Bolo story—one of those Keith Laumer tales featuring a sentient, super-tank.  Unlike Laumer's stories, this one has a lot of action, with the Fiendish mauling dozens of opposing vehicles, overruning a command post, and then meeting its match with the arrival of the ebony Gottlos.

After Fiendish is destroyed, we learn that it was actually a remotely controlled tank.  Its pilot, Manton, had so thoroughly melded with the machine, that the result was a gestalt personality, one motivated by violence and vengeance.  With his vehicle destroyed, Manton falls into an apparent funk, shaken by the appearance of a more powerful machine.  The real terror of Gottlos is that it seems to need no radio controls at all.  Is it autonomous?  A kind of cybernetic beast?

Kapp has written more of a philosophical than predictive piece, describing how a society might decay under the strain of endless war and complete mechanization.  I appreciate Kapp's skill with English, but the story itself seemed a bit implausible in its setup.

Three stars.

Telepathy – Did It Happen?, by J. B. Reswick and L. Vodonik

Oh boy.  A pair of cranks conducted a telepathy experiment.  Here's the notion: telepathy is only reliable about 1-2% of the time.  But what's really happening, they suppose, is that there's just so much interference that the message gets clogged with static. If one conducts thousands of tests using a simple message, the errors will be reduced, and the message will stand out.

The setup they used involved a binary message and transmitter.  After many trials, the experimenters determined that had gotten the error down low enough to show that something had objectively been transmitted.  Of course, the researchers admitted that their data only supported this conclusion if you read the results backwards (i.e. if the 1s of the original message were logged as 0s and vice versa.)

Given the thin margins of success, if you gotta flip the results on their heads to get any kind of answer, I suspect it's all bogus.  Which is how I'm beginning to feel about psionics in general.

One star.

Weapon of the Ages, by W. Macfarlane


by Leo Summers

Humanity is hounded by vicious extraterrestrials when they try to go to the stars.  One pilot crashlands on a neutral world, is conducted to a mysterious weapon, and manages to wipe out a set of local marauders.  The weapon's use has side effects, one which the owner's race is prepared for, but not the human who fired it.

Macfarlane is trying for a cute sting-in-the-tail story, but the whole thing is nonsensical, so it lacks the desired impact.

Two stars.

The Ambassadors, by as by J. B. Clarke


by Leo Summers

A set of three disparate aliens makes contact with the galactic organization of which the humans are a member.  Said aliens claim to be vastly superior to our federation, but they say they'll be generous and give us a few technological wonders—if only we'll give them an example of one of our best starships, so they can gauge our level of progress.  Since homo sapiens has (per the story) an unique ability to sniff out a scam, a human is sent to investigate to see if the aliens are on the level.

Things that suggest the aliens are hoaxing: they showed up in a borrowed spaceship, no one has ever heard of their stellar confederation, and their "capital" planet is a smoggy wasteland.  Points in their favor: the three wear a common uniform and despite profound apparent racial differences, work together in perfect harmony.  Conclusion, they must represent an ancient and tight-knit federation!

Much is made of the fact that most species in the galaxy are bi-sexual.  Not that you'd know from this story, whose only female human is a "pert secretary."  The leader of the alien delegation is a female, to the surprise of the humans receiving them.  Cue the snide comments about how women always have to speak for the menfolk (the implication being that such arrogance is misplaced).  In the end, the gender of the aliens is the key to unpuzzling the obvious hoax.

Clarke spends a lot of time setting up a puzzle whose solution is apparent from nearly the beginning.  The characters have to be obtuse to make the story work.  Obtuse and sexist. 

One star.

Shapes to Come, by Edward Wellen


by Vincent Di Fate

A scientist in an isolated base on the Moon has completed his work: he has perfected a spore that will inject itself into any alien genetic structure, instilling an irresistible trust of the human form.  By seeding the stars with this spore, when we meet any extraterrestrials, they will necessarily greet us with love and affection.

But before the spore can be deployed, an alien armada shows up.  Can you guess what completely unexpected result ends the tale based on the story's setup?

This is comic book level stuff.  Two stars.

The Yngling (Part 2 of 2), by John Dalmas


by Kelly Freas

Concluding the two-part serial begun last ish, The Yngling latter half is choppy but worthy.

When we last left our hero, the psi-adept Nordic warrior, Nils Ironhand, he had been sent into the lion's den.  More specifically, to the domain of Kazi, an immortal (through soul transferrence into new bodies) who reigns through unbelievable cruelty.  His armies are poised at the doorstep of Europe, and in short order, more than thirty thousand of his "orc" hordes will sweep through the Balkans bent on rapine and ravagery.

Nils presents a condundrum to the psionic tyrant as his signature trait is the lack of an internal monologue.  Thus, his mind cannot be read, barely even sensed.  He also is completely without guile.  Interestingly, while this wordless mentality is portrayed as an unique characteristic, and perhaps a side effect of Nils' psi powers, it can't be that rare in the real world.  Indeed, one of the Journey's very own, Tam Phan, possesses this trait.  Now, Tam is also a fantastic warrior, so there may be a connection.


Tam and familiar faces at a local gathering of Vikings

In any event, after Nils gets to witness some particularly gruesome examples of Kazi's barbarism, he escapse, makes it back to Hungary, and organizes a resistance comprising Magyar, Ukrainian, Polish, and Bohemian knights…as well as hundreds of his kinsman, who have just crossed the Baltic, fleeing the impending Ice Age.  The resulting battle is lengthy, desperate, and strategic in detail.  Of course, you can guess who wins.

This is a tough book to rate!  It's firmly in the genre of magical post-Apocalypse, along with Omha Abides, Spawn of the Death Machine, Out of the Mouth of the Dragon, and so on.  I happen to like this genre, and while I'm growing to loathe psi stories, in these settings, I can just pretend it's a kind of magic, or maybe lost technology.

The key to writing this genre well, and Dilmas does, is to bathe it in sensuality and adventure.  In many ways, Nils is more akin to Conan than any scientifical hero you'd expect to find in Analog.  I also greatly appreciate that Dilmas manages to convey the most unspeakable of tortures completely obliquely.  A few artful words can chill far more than pages of explicit gore.

Too, I enjoyed the grand depiction of the battle, complete with fog of war and the uncertainty that accompanies it.  So vivid is this portion of the novel, that one could probably adapt a cracking wargame from it.  Jim Dunnigan, are you listening?

It's not all roses, of course.  As in the first half, the various sections of the novel don't quite hang together well, like bricks without mortar.  Much is bridged in shorthand.  Also, Nils having to retell the same story to half a dozen European lords to rally them against the orcs was a bit tiresome.  Perhaps all of these things will be smoothed when this story inevitably gets picked up by Ace.  Or maybe not—they like their books short.

Anyway, I'd give this installment four stars, three-and-a-half for the whole.  Fans of this sort of thing, like my nephew, David, may notch up their assessments a touch.

Doing the math

Boy, Analog has been bad lately.  I know it seems like I just keep saying it over and over again, but until these doldrums end, I'll have to find creative ways to repeat myself.

At 2.3 stars, Analog is by far the lowest in the pack.  IF got 3.1; Vision of Tomorrow got 3.2; even Amazing got 3.2; Galaxy got 2.9; so did Venture; Fantasy and Science Fiction got 2.7; and New Worlds got 2.8.

Women wrote about 10% of what was published this month, and you could fit all the four and five star stuff in two digests.  Given that eight came out for November, that's a pretty weak showing.

Perhaps if Ted White, Ed Ferman, Charles Platt, and Ejler Jakobsson went over to Condé Nast headquarters for a negotiation, Campbell might loosen the reins on his writers.  Couldn't hurt!




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Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[Sep. 30, 1969] Decisions, decision (October 1969 Analog)

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photo of a man with glasses and curly, long, brown hair, and a beard and mustache
by Gideon Marcus

Options in Space

Just two months ago, men set foot on the Moon.  It was the culmination of 12 years of American progress in space, nine years of manned flights.

And yet, it is also just the beginning.  This nation has built the infrastructure to begin a new era of space exploration and exploitation.  As of this moment, the National Air and Space Administration (NASA) has no formal plans for human spaceflight beyond the flight of Apollo 20 sometime in 1973, and a somewhat inchoate, 3-man space station project—this latter to utilize a converted Saturn rocket upper stage. 

In order to turn further dreams into reality, President Nixon has created a "Space Task Group", headed by Vice President Agnew and comprising luminaries like NASA chief Thomas Paine and Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, to map what the next decade in outer space will look like.  They submitted their report, "The post-Apollo space program: directions for the future", on September 15.

The 29-page report outlines an ambitious set of proposals, even the most modest of which still sets lofty goals.  In short, the options are:

  1. Land a man on Mars by 1980; orbit a multi-person lunar station; orbit a 50-person space station in Earth orbit; develop a reusable spacecraft to shuttle personnel and supplies to and from these stations;
  2. The same, but with a deferred Mars landing; and,
  3. The same, but with no Mars landing.

With regard to the station, it appears that it won't be a all-of-a-piece spinning wheel as seen in 2001 or the old Collier's articles from the early '50s.  Instead, NASA will mass-produce station modules, which can be put together like Tinkertoys.

There are three options presented for military spaceflight, as well, but these are not fleshed out proposals, merely budget amount suggestions based on how hot or cool international tensions are over the next decade.

Only time will tell which of these options, or which portions of these plans will be implemented and when.  It is one thing for the Vice President to boost space (a consistent tradition since 1961!) It remains to be seen if Dick Nixon will commit this nation to a grand, interplanetary goal, in the vein of his erstwhile opponent, Jack Kennedy.

Options in Print

As the STG offers up a number of options for the future of human spaceflight, so Analog editor Campbell offers up a number of possible futures set further beyond in the latest issue of Analog.


by Kelly Freas

The Yngling (Part 1 of 2), by John Dalmas

It is the 29th Century, and the world is recovering from a disaster that killed off the overwhelming majority of its population.  Earth has reverted to the Dark Ages, at least in Europe.  In fact, the setting of the book strongly resembles the 9th Century, with food pressure impelling the Scandinavians to raid and settle the warmer climes to the south.  Meanwhile, an Oriental despot is plotting the takeover of Europe from his advance base in the Balkans.

The main difference between the future and our past is the existence of psi powers, specifically telepathy and precognition.  Though not widespread, it is common enough that possessors of these powers are recognized and valued.


by Kelly Freas

One such possessor is Nils Järnhand, a Svear from the frigid land of Svea.  Banished from his lands for an accidental manslaughter, he travels to many places, becoming perhaps Europe's greatest warrior.  He also develops his psi powers, using his telepathy to aid his interactions and his premonitory power to stay one step ahead of assailants.  His ultimate goal seems to be a date with destiny with the evil Kazi, the would-be dictator of all lands west of the Urals.

John Dalmas seems to be a new author, and his Nils is a character in the Conan mold—a superman who can be placed in a number of adventure scenarios.  His defining traits, asside from his martial puissance, is his adaptibility and his complete lack of an internal monologue.  He simply senses, processes, and acts, with no consideration or doubts.  This should make for a dull character, but somehow, Dalmas keeps things going, lively and interesting.  There are a couple of rough transitions where it seems thousands of words got pared for length considerations; perhaps they will be restored in the book version.

Anyway, I give it three stars for now, but it's possible the second part will raise my estimation.  I'm certainly enjoying it, at least.

A Relic of War, by Keith Laumer


by Vincent Difate

Three generations after the cataclysmic human/alien war, a battered sentient tank has become adopted by the citizens of a small town.  When a government man comes along intending to euthanize the old machine, the mayor is the first to defend their mascot.  But when Bobby the tank suddenly charges off, weapons armed, there is cause for all to reconsider their positions.

This is the Simakiest of Laumer's Bolo stories, pastoral and sensitive.  What I find so interesting about these tales is that so many take place long after the conflict for which the mammoth tanks were built.  Others would prefer to tell war stories, but not Laumer.

Four stories.

The Big Rock, by Robert Chilson


by Kelly Freas

A future-day Australia is set up on an airless world, importing criminals from six worlds whose citizens would rather offload the malcontents than pay the taxes for things like prisons and rehabilitation.  It's all part of a grand experiment: can a den of thieves become a self-sustaining population?

Chilson tells the story from the point of view of the intellectual (and much bullied) prisoner, Hargraves.  His tale is punctuated by scenes of a conversation in which one government official explains the experiment to another politician.

The setup is interesting—sort of a precursor to The Moon is a Harsh Mistress—and Chilson tells an interesting story…but the piece just ends.  Even the dialogue between the two bureaucrats doesn't tie things up.  We never find out how the experiment ends, or even if it can end successfully.

Three stars.

Proton to Proton, by R. Dean Wilson

Wilson proposes a mechanism for the abstruse but universal conversion of sunlight into the molecule ATP, which is fundamental to most biological processes.

I must confess, it's all beyond me, but then I've never taken a chemistry course in my life.

Three stars.

Test Ultimate, by Christopher Anvil


by Vincent Difate

Here is another tale of Anvil's "Space Patrol".  This time, a recruit is facing the final challenge before induction, one of courage.  He has to wade through a pool of giant piranha and then climb a 25-foot sheer facing.  Accompanying him on is a chipper guide, who exhorts him cheerfully to plunge on through, heedless of the danger.

Naturally, this is all simulated, so if said recruit gets eaten on the way, he'll only feel his death, not experience it.  Nevertheless, our hero smells something fishy (beyond what's in the pond), and responds accordingly.

It's cute, perhaps a trifle long.  Three stars.

Jump, by William Earls


by Vincent Difate

99 out of 100 Spacers have no trouble with Jump, that moment of transition between normal and hyper-space.  But Lacey is in that unlucky 1%, and despite a luminary career in the scout services, he finds he just can't take the experience anymore.  So he musters out at Titan base and tries to make a go of it as a civilian.  In the end, he determines space is in his blood, fear of the void between voids be damned.

There's not a lot to this tale, which could just as easily have been written about the Navy, with seasickness or fear of typhoons standing in for Jump aversion.  Plus, I was a bit turned off when the author had Titan be a Moon of Jupiter.  Titan orbits around Saturn!

Two stars.

Compassion, by J. R. Pierce

by Leo Summers

In the near future, New York becomes a protected enclave for Black Americans, not unlike the reservations for Native Americans (as Indians are beginning to be called).  The parallel is not specious—it is made in the story!

The heroine of the tale is Sari, a 20-year old tourguide from the Big Apple, whisked away by a handsome, middle-aged man as dark as she is, but representative of the mainstream world, progressing right along.  He introduces her to the modern era, gauges her considerable talents, and then sends her back to New York to be a leader of her society, someone who can bring promising souls into the wider world.

I'm not sure I like or buy the premise, but it is a nicely written piece, with enough consideration given both to the world (like something Mack Reynolds might spin) and to Sari's emotions and inner thoughts, to feel fleshed out.  Not much happens, but I enjoyed the story.

Three stars.

Doing the math

All in all, not a bad issue, really.  Unlike a lot of the rest of the slog this month, I never found myself dreading the next page of Analog.  Of course, a three-star average is hardly anything to brag about, but it does beat all the other collections of short SF this month, with the exception of Galaxy (3.2).

Lesser entries for October include:

You could take all the four and five star stuff and squeeze it into one overlarge magazine, and though women contributed 6.5% of the newly published material this month, you have to regard Orbit as a magazine, even though it's printed in paperback format.

We're definitely at a nadir for short SF these days.  Let's hope this is the bottom rather than a height compared to what's coming!




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