Tag Archives: magazine

Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Serial

[July 20, 1970] The Goat without Horns…among other things (August 1970 Fantasy and Science Fiction)

1 Comment

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

Of horses and streams

Tom Paine is trying the most desperate of Hail Mary passes.  Aviation Weekly just published a piece that the NASA administrator is pitching the idea of an international space station with at least six astronauts from a number of countries, possibly even from behind the Iron Curtain, to be launched in the Bicentennial year of 1976.

The price?  Diverting Apollos 15 and 19 to the Skylab program, scheduled to start in 1972, and shifting Apollos 17 and 18 to the new space station.  As a result, only two more Apollo missions would fly to the Moon.

There's some logic to this—after all, the Soviets have given up on the Moon, and we've already been twice.  Moreover, the Reds are now focusing on orbital space stations (if the recent Soyuz 9 flight and the prior triple Soyuz mission are any indication).  Shouldn't we change course, too?

I have to think this idea a plan to save the Space Shuttle.  With Senators Proxmire and Mondale sharpening their knives to gut the space agency's budget, Paine figures that the way to keep the next-generation orbital launch vehicle in business is to give it a fixed destination.  After all, once the two Apollos have been used, the only way to get astronauts to the station will be on the Space Shuttle.

A Space Shuttle Orbiter docks with the NAR Phase B Space Station using a module deployed from its payload bay and linked to the docking port atop its crew cabin. Image credit: North American Rockwell.
A Space Shuttle Orbiter docks with the NAR Phase B Space Station using a module deployed from its payload bay and linked to the docking port atop its crew cabin. Image credit: North American Rockwell. (text by David Portree)

The timing is awfully tight, though.  The Shuttle won't be done until at least 1977, which means the station will have to lie fallow for a while until the vehicle is online.  That's assuming the advanced station can even be developed and deployed in six years, which seems doubtful.  Skylab is just an adapted Saturn V upper stage.  This proposed station would probably be something entirely new.

In any event, it seems foolish to squander Kennedy's legacy and barely scratch the surface of the Moon, scientifically speaking, when an infrastructure for further exploration is already in place.  Shifting course so rapidly stinks of desperation.  As Walter Matthau once said, playing a gambler in an episode of Route 66, "Scared money always loses."

Of dolphins and dreams

The realm of science isn't the only dubious one this month.  Take a gander at the latest issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction to see what I mean…

Cover of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction's August issue, featuring 'The Goat Without Horns' by Thomas Burnett Swann and 'Isaac Asimov on astrology'-- the cover illustration is a black-haired nude white woman facing away from the viewer, standing thigh-deep in a claret sea and peering downward. Three improbably large & erect black dorsal fins tightly orbit her, cutting a circular wake, and an onyx platform floats above, out of her reach. Three crescent moons hang large in the sky, the largest one refracted through the only other feature projecting from the waves-- left of the woman is an enormous lenticular crystal within which is embedded vertically a chalky nude man, twisted to face the moon. Red and white flares lay a track of parabolic arcs charting from the horizon towards the crystal.
Cover by Bert Tanner

Continue reading [July 20, 1970] The Goat without Horns…among other things (August 1970 Fantasy and Science Fiction) →

1 Comment Leave A Comment
Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[July 14, 1970] Hit For Six (Vision of Tomorrow #11)

2 Comments

Black & White Photo of writer of piece Kris Vyas-Mall
By Mx Kris Vyas-Myall

So, Britain has a new Prime Minister. Edward “Ted” Heath (not the conductor). He couldn’t be more different from the last Conservative Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Hume. Heath is the son of a carpenter and a chambermaid. He worked in banking, is unmarried and has a passion for sailing yachts and playing the organ.

Black & White Photo of Prime Minister Edward Heath outside the door of 10 Downing Street, waving to the crowd Two microphones can be seen off the left hand side of the picture
Edward Heath moves into his new house

One of the first orders of business for him, as it would have been for Wilson, is a meeting with The Six, AKA the leaders of the six members of the European Economic Community, in order to discuss the possibility of Britain’s entry into the Common Market. This is a particular passion project for Heath, who is a known Francophile and whose previous negotiations in this era led to the press declaring him “Lord Heath of Brussels”.

In fact, Britain is not the only country trying to join. Ireland, Denmark and Sweden have all made applications to join and these have been going on for some time. There is however a reason this year will be different. That is the absence of Charles de Gaulle. Central to French politics over the last decade, he used his power to oppose any enlargement of the EEC.

Black and White Photo of the December Hague Summit 1969 showing people around a long table in The Hall of Knights in the Hague
The December Hague Summit

With his retirement and replacement by Pompidou, who has switched his approach to appeal to more liberal voters, the calculus has changed. Following the Hague Summit in December negotiations have officially begun again in Luxembourg. There are a number of points that are still subject to negotiation, but things appear to be moving forward.

In the pages of Vision of Tomorrow, Europhilia is on display and it is time for me to negotiate my way through six stories: some about major nations, some involving small grand duchies, but all will be covered with sufficient weight:

Vision of Tomorrow #11

Cover of Vision of Tomorrow #11 illustrating Last Vigil by Michael Moorcock with an advanced city with thin towering structures on a mountainous cliff edges above a stormy sea.
Cover by Eddie Jones

Continue reading [July 14, 1970] Hit For Six (Vision of Tomorrow #11) →

2 Comments Leave A Comment
Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[July 8, 1970] I'm Still Marching Some More (Orbit 7)

3 Comments


By Mx Kris Vyas-Myall

More than 1,000 women marched through armed cordons in Belfast a few days ago, in a surprising display of bravery and protest. How has such an act come to be seen on British streets?

Still from Black and White film of Women's March to Fall's Road, with a soldier trying and failing to block them.

Since last summer, when British troops were called in by Stormont, the violence has continued to worsen. When the so-called “battle of the bogside” took place in August, British troops arrived too late to stop loyalist violence.

Soon after, a split emerged in December within the IRA, with there now being two groups. First are the “official” IRA, who have adopted a Marxist platform and believe in political engagement to bring about a socialist workers republic. Second are the new militant “provisional” IRA who support armed defence of Catholic communities and believe that their campaign can only end in a single united republic of Ireland. Currently, the momentum seems to be with the provisional group, particularly with increasing loyalist violence. When a member of the official IRA came out to ask a Catholic group to disperse, he was stoned by the crowd.

Things have also been going south (pun intended) in the Republic. In April, a paramilitary group (possibly the provisional IRA or Saor Eire, but unconfirmed) committed a bank robbery and shot dead an unarmed member of the Irish Garda, Richard Fallon, the first to be murdered in the line of duty since the 40s. The next month, Jack Lynch, the Irish Taoiseach, was forced to fire his ministers of finance and agriculture as they are charged with trying to supply arms to paramilitaries in the North.

As tensions continued to ramp up between communities, it was inevitable we were in for another summer of violence. In the most recent incident, it is unclear as yet who struck first. Loyalist sources say the provisional IRA were using the imprisonment of Bernadette Devlin as an excuse to whip up violence. Republican sources say a loyalist mob were trying to drive Catholics living in the Short Strand area out of East Belfast. Whatever the cause, five people died and there was a huge amount of property damage. More importantly for what happened next, members of the provisional IRA used guns to fire back against loyalists in the Falls Road area.

A curfew was declared in the area as three thousand British Army went house to house, armed and firing tear-gas, in order to check for weapons and arrest potential IRA suspects. This, however, is not something that can be done quickly (there were more houses than soldiers) or easily, and took three days to complete. As such, supplies were running low for some households, as people even leaving to get food were liable to be shot.

This is where the march came in. Local Catholic women decided to take action themselves and marched in holding food, in full view of the press. They correctly made the calculation that the British Army would not shoot women armed only with bread and milk to be broadcast on the evening news. Some were blocked but many were able to get through and resupply the community.

Black and White film still of either police or soldiers, armed with riot gear.

It is unclear if the British raids will have done any more than American finding of caches in Vietnam but two things are definitely clear:

1. The Catholic community in the North are not going to have much trust of the British to protect them, if any indeed still remained.

2. Protection and support for the community is coming from the ground up, particularly women in these roles, rather than top down.

One place you can also see women regularly pushing things forward is in Orbit. Whilst not quite having an equal number, it is still the only place I can be certain to see multiple women writers between its two covers.

Orbit 7 ed. by Damon Knight

Cover of Orbit 7 edited by Damon Knight, listing the authors inside. The cover picture has an orange hue, showing a rocket and a set of small figures apparently trapped in a translucent dome. A sun rises over rocky mountains in the background
Cover by Paul Lehr

Continue reading [July 8, 1970] I'm Still Marching Some More (Orbit 7) →

3 Comments Leave A Comment
Fashion, music, politics, sports, Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Serial

[July 6, 1970] The Day After Judgment (August/September 1970 Galaxy)

3 Comments

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

Hello, Louie!

Enough talk about Cambodia, Israel, and the Race Problem.  How about some happy news for a change? 

Satchmo, sometimes known as Louis Armstrong, had a birthday this last Independence Day.  The famed trumpter and gravel-throated crooner, known for his ear-splitting smile and breaking racial barriers, has just finished his seventh decade.

"It's awful nice to be breathing on your 70th birthday, let alone feeling in the pink," he observed.

Photo of a smiling Louis Armstrong, with a cigarette and a bottle of cognac.

A big tribute was held in Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium for Armstrong on July 3rd, perhaps the most influential jazz musician since the genre was born.  While he did not puff his cheeks to blow his horn (he is still recovering from a kidney infection), he did sing for his audience, joined by a number of fellow jazz greats.  Proceeds from the event will go to the Louis Armstrong Statue Fund.

So, happy birthday to New Orleans' favorite son.  What a wonderful world.

Hello, Jimmy!

As Galaxy approaches its 20th birthday, I see it has reverted to the format the magazine took back in 1958: it is once again an overlarge bi-monthly (like sister mag IF, which means we essentially get three mags every two months).  On the one hand, this makes room for bigger pieces, like the superlative story that headlines this month's issue.  On the other hand, it means more room for dross like Heinlein's new serial that taillines the book.

Read on.  You'll be grateful I did the screening for you…

The cover of <i/>Galaxy. It shows a silver rocket, resembling a wide-winged airplane, speeding towards a futuristic city that is engulfed in an inferno of green, yellow, and red. A banner on the cover says, in all capital letters, 'LARGER THAN EVER — 32 MORE PAGES!'
Cover by Jack Gaughan

Continue reading [July 6, 1970] The Day After Judgment (August/September 1970 Galaxy) →

3 Comments Leave A Comment
Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[July 2, 1970] Matters of conscience (August 1970 Venture)

1 Comment


by David Levinson

A piece of the rock

Anyone who pays more than casual attention to U.S. domestic news is probably aware of the Black Power movement, but how many have heard of the Red Power movement? Those whose ancestors were in what is today the United States have been shamefully treated. They’ve been repeatedly driven from their homes and sacred lands, seen treaty after treaty ignored and violated, been robbed of their languages and religions, and much more. Now some of them are trying to regain some of what they’ve lost.

Back in 1963, the federal prison on the island of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay was declared no longer fit for purpose and shut down. A Sioux woman living in the area recalled that the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie promised that land occupied by the federal government would revert to the native peoples if it was no longer in use. In March of the following year, she and several others staged a four-hour occupation of the island and filed a claim. They left when threatened with felony charges.

Last October, a fire destroyed the San Francisco Indian Center, and the loss of the space reminded Native Americans in the Bay Area of one of the proposals for the use of Alcatraz by those earlier protesters. On November 20th, a group of 89 people calling themselves Indians of All Tribes set out to reach Alcatraz, with fourteen of them successfully reaching the island. They have since been joined by many more; there are a few hundred people there now.

Some of the occupiers a few days after arriving on Alcatraz standing before a painted sign with an eaagle reading 'INDIAN LAND'.Some of the occupiers a few days after arriving on Alcatraz.

There have been difficulties. Water and electricity are particular problems. Many hippies flocked to the island until non-Indians were prohibited from staying overnight. A fire in early June destroyed several buildings. And in May, the government began the process of transferring Alcatraz to the National Park System in order to blunt the occupiers’ claim.

However, they’ve garnered a lot of attention and support, including from many celebrities. They have also inspired other protests in favor of Indian rights. After a Menominee woman in Chicago was evicted following a rent strike over repairs not being made, a protest camp was set up in a nearby parking lot, starting with a tepee borrowed from the local American Indian Center. Since it’s right next to Wrigley Field, where the Cubs play baseball, it’s gotten a lot of attention and has been dubbed “little Alcatraz” in the local press.

Will all of this achieve anything? Maybe. The scuttlebutt in Washington is that Nixon is planning a proposal to Congress sometime this month regarding Indian rights. There are no details right now, but it’s expected that he will call for greater self-determination and an end to forced assimilation.

Continue reading [July 2, 1970] Matters of conscience (August 1970 Venture) →

1 Comment Leave A Comment
Magazine/Anthology, Science / Space Race, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Serial

[June 30, 1970] Star light… per stratagem (July 1970 Analog)

3 Comments

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

Up in the Sky

Apollo 13 may have made for great TV, but it's been terrible for NASA.  This morning, in testimony before Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, NASA Administrator Dr. Thomas O. Paine reviewed the results of the Apollo 13 accident investigations and announced that the next (Apollo 14) mission had been postponed to Jan. 31, 1971–a three month delay.  I imagine this is going to snarl up the meticulously planned schedule of Apollos 15-19, especially since Skylab is supposed to go up somewhere in that time frame.

A color image showing three satellites orbiting the Earth against a background of stars.  The orbit is indicated by a circle.  The image is titled Skylab Program Major Areas of Emphasis.  The satellite on the left is aiming a beam of light up at the top of the image, and is labeled Science: Solar Astronomy.  The satellite in the middle is aiming a beam of light down at the earth and is labeled Applications: Earth resources, materials, processing.  The satellite on the right does not have a light and is labeled Long Duration Missions: Habitability, Medical, and Work Effectiveness.

…If any of these missions happen.  In a recent poll of 1520 Americans, 55% said they were very worried about fate of Apollo 13 astronauts following mission abort, 24% were somewhat worried, 20% were not very worried, and 1% were not sure.  More significantly, a total of 71% expected fatal accident would occur on a future mission.  Perhaps its no surprise that the American public is opposed by 64% to 30% to major space funding over the next decade. 

The scissor-wielders on Capitol Hill are heeding the call.  Yesterday, Sen. Walter F. Mondale (D-Minn.), for himself, Sen. Clifford P. Case (R-N.J.), Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.), and Sen. Jacob
K. Javits (R-N.Y.), submitted an amendment to H.R. 17548 (the Fiscal Year 1971 Independent Offices and HUD appropriations bill.  Not a happy one.

It would reduce NASA's R&D appropriation by $110 million–which just happens to be the amount requested by NASA for design and definition of space shuttle and station.

A color diagram labeled Mission Evolution Through Hardware Commonality.  The legend explains the color coding of the vehicles.  Green: Space Station Module; Red: Space Shuttle; Orange: Nuclear Shuttle; Yellow: Tug.  The diagram has a black background and shows Earth in the top left corner, the Moon slightly left of center beneath, and Mars near the right corner of the image.  Curved lines connect Earth to Mars and to the Moon, and orbital circles surround each, with Earth having two orbitals.  On the smaller Earth orbital, three bodies are depicted.  An orange Nuclear Shuttle has a red space shuttle above it.  A Space Base and a Low Earth Orbit Space Station are both green and yellow.  On the outer orbital sits a green and yellow Synchronous Orbit Station.  On the surface of the moon, a green and yellow Lunar Base is perched, with a green and yellow Lunar Orbit Station on its orbital. On the curve leading from Earth to Mars, an orange Orbit Launch Vehicle carries a green Mars Spacecraft.  An unlabeled green satellite is on the Mars orbital, with a green Mars Base sitting on its surface.

Mondale excoriated the proposal: "This project represents NASA’S next major effort in manned space flight. The $110 million. . .is only the beginning of the story. NASA’s preliminary cost estimates for development of the space shuttle/station total almost $14 billion, and the ultimate cost may run much higher. Furthermore, the shuttle and station are the first essential steps toward a manned Mars landing. . .which could cost anywhere between $50 to $100 billion.  I have seen no persuasive justification for embarking upon a project of such staggering costs at a time when many of our citizens are malnourished, when our rivers and lakes are polluted, and when our cities and rural areas are decaying."

A black and white photo of Walter Mondale, a white man with dark hair wearing a suit and tie.  He is looking to the right of the viewer with a neutral expression.

This seems a false choice to me.  Surely there is such wealth in this country that we can continue the Great Society and the exploration of space, especially if we gave up fripperies like, oh I don't know, the war in Cambodia.  To be fair, I know Fritz Mondale opposes the war, too, but we're talking a matter of scale here–the shuttle and station are going to cost peanuts compared to the outlay for the military-industrial complex.

That said, maybe Van Allen is right, and we shouldn't be wasting money on manned boondoggles, instead focusing on robotic science in space.  On the third hand… "No Buck Rogers, no Bucks." 

What do you think?

Down on the Ground

A color image of the front cover of the July 1970 edition of Analog.  Beneath the magazine title, the featured story is listed: Per Stratagem by Robert Chilson.  Below, a large brown insectoid creature stands on six legs against a yellow background. It has four tentacles emerging from the top of its body and is wearing a tool belt with a pouch on it around the lower part of the carapace.  It is angled away from the viewer, such that the only feature visible on its pointed head is its large open mouth full of humanoid teeth.  Facing it, a white man with gray hair wearing a brown shirt and pants stands in a doorway, looking at the creature with a look of concern.  Another humanoid figure is in shadow behind him.
Illustration by Leo Summers

Well, if we lose our ticket to space in the 1970s, at least we'll have our dreams.  Thank goodness for science fiction, and even for the July 1970 issue of Analog.  Dreary as this month's mag is, it's got enough in it to keep it from being unworthy.

Continue reading [June 30, 1970] Star light… per stratagem (July 1970 Analog) →

3 Comments Leave A Comment
Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[June 18th, 1970] A Case of Déjà Vu (Vision of Tomorrow #10)

Leave a comment

Black & White Photo of writer of piece Kris Vyas-Mall
By Mx Kris Vyas-Myall

As I am writing this, voting in the UK General Election is taking place. However, we will have to wait until tomorrow for the results. As such, I want to address one of the biggest perpetual issues in Britain, the housing crisis.

It has become a kind of a dark joke over the last 50 years. At election time, every party leader will say how much they feel for the plight of the homeless and pledge to end the crisis. Then, as soon as voting is over, they will go back to ignoring the issue. Therefore, I feel, it is worth listing off the endemic problems causing this.

For a start, there is the obvious matter of money and organization. The UK spends a smaller share of GDP than the rest of Western Europe on housing and leaves decisions in the hands of local councils, which have a patchwork of plans. On top of that, housing building largely relies on the private sector who are more interested in high-priced luxury developments than on those for the poorest families.

Colour photo of the Ronan Point tower block, post-disaster where one corner has collapsed with ceilings hanging like loose tiles
Ronan Point, post-disaster

With this combination of political short-terminism, lack of investment and reliance on the private sector, it has led to a lot of poor-quality housing stock. An infamous example was the Ronan Point Disaster, where a gas explosion collapsed the corner of a tower block.

Black and White Advertisements for Homeless Charity Shelter. On the Left is one with a knife. The text reads: Sentenced the day he was born. He was born in a crumbling tenement, grew up in a room his family shared with rats and cockroaches. With no hope of escapee. He lived like a wild animal and was put away when he reacted like one. Over a million people live in conditions that are breeding grounds for delinquency, mental and physical illness, illiteracy, broken marriages. Shelter helps re-house some of the most badly off, and fights to get something going for the others. Our crying need is money. Give to shelter and you help give him a decent chance. The advert on the right has a razor blade. The text says: If Mrs. F. kills herself, it'll be third time lucky. For Mrs. F. death would be a happy release from the stinking hole she and her family live in. Twice she's tried suicide. To escape the stench, the damp, the flying insects, the peeling walls. At least a million people live in conditions that are breeding grounds that spawn mental and physical illness, crime, illiteracy, broken marriages. Shelter helps rescue some of the worst-hit and campaigns vigorously to get something done for the rest. But it's a big job. It takes big money. Please give all you can.
Some of Shelter’s recent advertisements

With this lack of a political solution, it is unsurprising that several groups in the voluntary sector have been trying to fill the gap. The biggest of these is Shelter and, whilst all major parties praise their work, they seem to be getting sick of the situation. They are now withholding funds from local authorities that don’t help the poorest in their communities and running advertisements blaming the current biggest social ills on the housing crisis.

There are also other groups taking more direct action. Running in the election in London is a loose party grouping called “Homes Before Roads”, opposing the plans to try to deal with London’s congestion by building a series of ring roads through current residential districts. In a different way there is also the Squatters’ Movement, who are taking control of empty housing stock and trying to get official recognition for their use by those who cannot afford to go anywhere else.

However, I am not hopeful of even direct action resulting in a solution. Whether Wilson or Heath are Prime Minister next week, I suspect the situation will still be much the same in the mid-70s: homelessness and poor-quality housing are endemic; the political parties say what a scandal this is; make vague promises at a solution; promptly ignore it again.

I am also getting a sense of déjà vu from the latest issue of Vision of Tomorrow, with an expansion of articles on the history of SF and the writers retreading old ground:

Vision of Tomorrow #10

Painted Colour cover for Vision of Tomorrow #10 (July 1970). Cover illustrating Echoes of Armageddon by Lee Harding. It shows the close up of the face of a man of ambiguous ethnicity in an environmental suit looking scared. In front of him are two people in environmental suits running along a path way dodging laser fire from futuristic flying drones. Behind this all is shadowy ruined Earth.
Cover by Stanley Pitt

Continue reading [June 18th, 1970] A Case of Déjà Vu (Vision of Tomorrow #10) →

No comments Leave A Comment
Book, Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Serial

[June 12, 1970] Something Good! and Nothing Terrible (July 1970 Amazing)

3 Comments


by John Boston

The July Amazing is fronted by John Pederson, Jr.’s second cover, an agreeable Martian-ish scene, reminiscent of nothing so much as . . . Johnny Bruck on a good day.  So maybe the new commitment to domestic artists isn’t quite the boon I thought it was.  We’ll see.

Cover for Amazing magazine, July 1970. The illustration shows a small space colony on a desert planet. In the foreground, two men in astronaut suits ride a futuristic car. Text on the cover announces stories by Piers Anthony, Bob Shaw, and Robert Silverberg.
by John Pederson, Jr.

The non-fiction this month is a bit less gripping than usual.  White’s editorial recounts his unsatisfactory encounter with a woman who wanted to write an article about SF fandom, but apparently never did (or it never got published).  He then segues to a discussion of Dr. Frederic Wertham and his campaign against comic books which culminated in his book The Seduction of the Innocent.  Then, finally, to the point: Wertham is now saying he too will write about SF fandom and White doesn’t think it will be any good.  He’s probably right, but until we see what Wertham produces, discussing it is a little pointless. 

The letter column remains contentious but is getting a little repetitive; at this point it’s hard for anyone to say anything new about New Wave vs. Old Farts, and no more inviting topic has emerged.  The fanzine reviews are as usual, and the book reviews . . . are missing, damn it!  To my taste they have been about the liveliest part of the magazine.  I hope the lapse is momentary.

But speaking of SF fandom, I’ll take this lack of much to talk about as an occasion to mention something fairly striking about the magazine’s contents under Ted White’s editorship: there is an unusually large representation of Fans Turned Pro, authors who have—like White—been heavily involved in organized SF fandom.  This issue features Bob Shaw, a leading light of Irish fandom and heavy contributor to the celebrated fanzines Slant and Hyphen, who later won two Hugo Awards as best fanwriter among other distinctions; he also had a story in the second (7/69) White-edited issue.  Greg Benford (once a co-editor with White of the also-celebrated fanzine Void) has one of his co-authored “Science in Science Fiction” articles (the fifth) in this issue, and three stories to boot in White’s eight issues, as well as regular appearances in the book review column.  Robert Silverberg, who published a slightly earlier well-known fanzine Spaceship, supplied an impressive serial novel and has a story in this issue.  Terry Carr, another renowned fan editor, had a story in the last issue.  Alexei Panshin is not to my knowledge a fan publisher but has won the Best Fan Writer Hugo for his prolific contributions to others’ fanzines.  Harlan Ellison (short story in 9/69 issue) published the legendary Dimensions in the 1950s.  Joe L. Hensley (same) is a member of First Fandom and published a fanzine in the 1940s. 

And what does it all mean?  The floor is open for sober analysis and wild speculation.

Continue reading [June 12, 1970] Something Good! and Nothing Terrible (July 1970 Amazing) →

3 Comments Leave A Comment
Science Fiction/Fantasy, Serial

[June 10, 1970] I will fear I Will Fear No Evil (July 1970 Galaxy)

9 Comments

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

Tired of it all

Antiwar protesting isn't just for civilians anymore.

About 25 junior officers, mostly Navy personnel based in Washington, have formed the "Concerned Officers Movement".  Created in response to the growing disillusionment with the Indochina war, its purpose is (per the premiere issue of its newsletter) to "serve notice to the military and the nation that the officer corps is not part of the silent majority, that it is not going to let its thought be fashioned by the Pentagon."

Reportedly, C.O.M. came about because an officer participated as a marshal at the November 15, 1969 Moratorium anti-Vietnam War march, got featured in the Washington Post, and later received an unsatisfactory notation for loyalty in his fitness report.  The newsletter and movement are how other officers rallied in his support.

Copy of a Concerned Officers Movement newsletter dated April, 1970.

Because C.O.M. work is being done off duty and uses non-government materials, it is a completely lawful dissent.  According to Lt. j.g. Phil Lehman, one of the group's leaders, there has been no harassment from on high as yet.

We'll see how long this remains the case.

Really tired of it all

After reading this month's issue of Galaxy, I'm about ready to start my own Concerned Travelers Movement.  Truly, what a stinker.  Read on and see why:

Cover of July 1970's Galaxy Science Fiction, featuring a red cover depicting the bald head of a man held by electrodes floating in the background while a short haired woman stands in front. The cover depicts the titles, 'Robert A. Heinlein's Latest and Greatest Novel I WILL FEAR NO EVIL THE ALL-AT ONCE-MAN R.A. Lafferty THE THROWBACKS Robert Silverberg
cover by Jack Gaughan

Continue reading [June 10, 1970] I will fear I Will Fear No Evil (July 1970 Galaxy) →

9 Comments Leave A Comment
Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Serial

[June 4, 1970] Something old, something new (July-August 1970 IF)

6 Comments

A white man with short gray hair poses in front of a wooden wall. He is wearing a gray blazer, yellow shirt, and black necktie, and is smiling toward the left of the viewer.
by David Levinson

Voyages into the known

Readers over 30 may remember Thor Heyerdahl and his Kon-Tiki expedition of 1947. He hoped to prove that the Pacific islands had been reached from South America before Polynesians got there from the west. The balsa log raft he built eventually ran aground in the Tuamotu archipelago in French Polynesia, demonstrating that such a voyage was at least possible. However, most archaeologists and anthropologists consider it far more likely that any contact between Polynesia and the Americas (there is some highly inconclusive evidence) was initiated by the Polynesian people, who have a proven track record of crossing vast distances into the unknown.

In any case, Heyerdahl has inspired a number of imitators hoping to travel farther, including some attempts to travel west to east. On May 29th, Spanish sailor Vital Alsar Ramirez started his second attempt to sail from Ecuador to Australia. The first attempt in 1966 failed after 143 days when the raft was rendered no longer seaworthy by teredo worms.

The new raft, dubbed La Balsa, has one major improvement over the Kon-Tiki: a moving keelboard. This will allow the raft to be steered toward more favorable currents, where Kon-Tiki could only drift with assistance from the simple square sail. Such keelboards are known to Ecuadoran natives and so are a perfectly reasonable addition. Best of luck to the four men aboard.

A black and white photo of a wooden raft on the water against a foggy background.  It has a square sail on a tall mast near the center.  On the left, a person is standing holding a line attached to the sail.  Under the sail three people are sitting.  To the right of the mast there is a small shelter with a grass roof, containing boxes and barrels. La Balsa puts to sea.

Speaking of Thor Heyerdahl, his current interest is in demonstrating that ancient Egyptians could have reached the Americas in reed boats. His first attempt last year aboard the Ra got within about 100 miles of the islands of the Caribbean before it became so waterlogged it began to break apart. Now he’s giving it another go.

The Ra II features a tether to keep the stern high, which should help keep the boat from suffering the fate of its predecessor. This is something the original ought to have had; such tethers are clearly visible in ancient Egyptian depictions of reed boats. The crew also plan to take marine samples along the way to study ocean pollution. The Ra II set out from Morocco on May 17th.

Of course, as with the Kon-Tiki, proving that such a voyage could have been made won’t prove that it was. The Egyptians were never great sailors, generally contracting ocean navigation out to more maritime cultures of the eastern Mediterranean. Still, best of luck to Heyerdahl and his crew as well.

A color photograph of a modern reconstruction of an ancient Egyptian reed boat on the water, against a clear blue sky.  It has a black sail at the prow supported by a tall mast made up of two timbers leaned together in a triangle.Oars are sticking out horizontally from the main deck. One person is standing at the prow and another at the stern, where a rudder extends into the water.  Two people are standing on the upper deck near one of the mast timbers. The Ra II under way. Note the tether keeping the stern high.

Polishing the family silver

Science fiction has a lot of tried and true plots, some better than others. But good writing can occasionally make a hackneyed, sub-par plot something better, and bad writing can turn an intriguing concept into a slog. Fortunately, this month’s IF has a lot more of the former.

The front cover of Worlds of If science fiction magazine. The magazine title is in the upper left corner, and on the lower left the featured pieces are listed with titles in black and authors in red: Second-hand Stonehenge, by Ernest Taves; Time Piece, by Joe Haldeman; and The Fifth Planet, by Larry Eisenberg.  THe cover illustration is a painting of a white man's face shown half in shadow against an abstract background. The left of the background is blank white, extending in swirls into an abstract helmet surrounding the man's face.  A headset microphone extends down the right side of his face to his mouth. The right of the background is bright red with jagged yellow and black accents, which are reflected in the left side of the helmet. In front of the man's face tiny oval spaceships fly upward in an arc, surrounded by tiny blue planets and white stars, at which the man gazes intently.Suggested by “Time Piece”. Art by Gaughan

Continue reading [June 4, 1970] Something old, something new (July-August 1970 IF) →

6 Comments Leave A Comment