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Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[May 22, 1970] Back From The Dead (Summer 1970 Worlds of Tomorrow)

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black and white photo of a dark-haired white woman with vampiric eyebrows
by Victoria Silverwolf

Resurrection

Well, what do you know.  A magazine I thought as dead as a doornail has risen from its grave.  I've reviewed every issue of Worlds of Tomorrow from its birth in 1963 to its demise in 1967.  After three years of mouldering in the grave, like John Brown's body, it has returned.  Let's take a look at this revenant to see if it was worth digging up. 

The cover of Worlds of Tomorrow science fiction magazine. The title is written across the top in yellow capitals, with the word tomorrow surrounded by a black oval and the letters drop shadowed.  In the lower left corner some contents are listed: The Bridge, by Piers Anthony; In the Land of Love by George H Smith; Of Death What Dreams, by Keith Laumer; The State Vs Susan Quod, by Noel Loomis.  The cover art is a painting of a naked white woman emerging through a wispy white opening in a red background. The left side of her body as well as her right arm and lower leg are still submerged in the background, making it seem that she is emerging breast- and hip-first.  The silhouette of her submerged right hand is visible in shadow as it reaches up toward her face.  She is looking forward and down with a neutral expression.
Cover art by Jack Gaughan.

The first thing to note is that the magazine is all fiction.  No editorial, no articles, no letter column, no reviews.  Oh, there's a one page thing by new editor Ejler Jakobsson, but it only discusses the stories briefly, in pretty much the same way most magazines provide a short blurb before each piece.

The next thing that catches my eye is that there's a heck of a lot of art, and that it's not credited.  I had to do some detective work (visible signatures, stylistic clues, etc.) to name the artists, but I was not always successful, as you'll see below.  I could take some educated guesses (I suspect that the names Gilbert and Gaughan would appear more often if I did) but I've tried not to go too far out on a limb.  At least we know who the authors are!

In the Land of Love, by George H. Smith

Title art for In the Land of Love, a black and white ink drawing spread across two pages.  The title is at the top, crossing both pages in a wavy psychedelic font.  On the left page, a cluster of people are tightly grouped together, such that for most only the heads are showing, mostly looking down or at one another.  At the top of the cluster, a woman with wind blown hair and uncovered chest is gazing at the viewer.  On the right page, a pregnant woman with unkempt hair and apparently wearing only a necklace and loincloth sits on the ground with her legs stretched in front of her and her right hand resting on her belly.  Next to her, an old man with a long handlebar mustache is crouching on his heels and looking cranky.
Illustrations by Gilbert(full name unknown.)

In a vastly overpopulated future world dominated by India, folks in North America are crowded together in small rooms and survive on gruel.  Our protagonist, an ex-soldier well over a century old, hates living like that.  What really gets his goat is the fact that society has become a right-winger's nightmare of what might happen when the hippies take over.

Everybody is stoned all the time.  They constantly talk about love, but consider political assassins to be heroes.  They also approve of the fact that a motorcycle thug casually runs over people, killing adults and children on a whim.  They consider it to be karma.

A pen and ink drawing of Super-Zapper standing in front of his motorcycle.  He is a white man with long straight unkempt hair and an untrimmed mustache.  He is wearing only a leather vest with a death's head decoration, and a loincloth with a leather belt.  His feet are bare.  In his right hand he holds a motorcycle helmet with a string of stick figures drawn on it, and in his left he appears to be holding a cigarette.  He is facing to the left of the viewer with a smug expression.
Super-Zapper, the killer cyclist.

The old veteran yearns for death to release him, but not even that is a sure way to escape from this hippie hell.  However, maybe there's a way he can use this to his advantage.

Boy, George H. Smith (not to be confused with SF writer George O. Smith) sure hates hippies!  This is very heavy-handed satire indeed.  The twist at the end is mildly interesting, but that's all I can say about it.

Two stars.

Of Death What Dreams, by Keith Laumer

A pen and ink drawing , mostly taken up by bold lines and curves criss crossing the page.  They leave a space at the center right for the head and upper body of a man with curly dark hair and a striped shirt with a sigil on the left breast showing eight small circles surrounding a larger circle.  He is looking down and reaching forward toward the lines with his right hand.
Uncredited illustration.

This requires some explanation.  Fortunately, the Noble Editor has saved me some work, in his review of March issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.  I shamelessly steal his quotation from editor Ed Ferman:

Five of science fiction's best storytellers were asked to write a novella beginning from a common prologue (written by Keith Laumer), to be combined in a book called Five Fates.  The Anderson story and one by Frank Herbert (coming up soon) will be published in F&SF.  We suggest that you look for the book (out in August from Doubleday) in order to catch up with the others: by Keith Laumer, Gordon Dickson and Harlan Ellison.

The Poul Anderson story The Fatal Fulfillment appeared in that issue, where it won a middle-of-the-road three stars.

The Noble Editor has already reviewed the March issue of Galaxy, which featured Ellison's story The Region Between.  That one earned a full five stars.

Let's see if Laumer's version gets an A, a C, or some other grade.

A black and white drawing.  Three wheels with four spokes each seem to be rolling across the page over a person's head which is drawn in a very abstract linear style.  Long wires extend upward from the head out of the frame.
Illustration by Jack Gaughan.

Like all the other stories, this one begins with a guy named Douglas Bailey entering a euthanasia center and getting an injection that is supposed to kill him.  In this case, however, he revives in a room with a woman who seems vaguely familiar present.  Because he lost all his legal identity at the time of his attempted suicide, he has to join the criminal underground to survive.  He also feels as if he's got some purpose he has to fulfill.

This is a rigidly hierarchical, vastly overcrowded future world.  Bailey manages to put together enough cash to get himself a false ID as a member of the upper class, implant knowledge of the culture of the elite into his brain, and develop his body into that of a bodybuilder in a particularly painful way.  He bluffs his way into the ruling class (who are literally high above the ordinary folks) for reasons that don't become clear until the end.

An ink painting of a woman, her body outlined using negative-space techniques.  She has long wavy dark hair, heavily lined eyes, and is wearing a skimpy bikini.  She is posing like a model, with her right hand atop her head as if brushing her hair back and her left hand on her hip, her body turned toward the left but her head toward the right.  She is standing in front of a stylized doorway decorated with swirls and geometric shapes reminiscent of art deco.
Illustration by Phoebe Gaughan, who is married to Jack.

Given that this is a yarn by Laumer, it's not surprising that it's got plenty of action, a complex plot, and moves at lightning speed.  This is an example of the author in his serious mood, rather than his frequent attempts at comedy.  The climax adds a couple of science fiction themes that aren't clued at earlier, so that strains credibility.  Overall, worth a read, but no masterpiece.

Three stars.

The Bridge, by Piers Anthony

Title image for The Bridge.  The title is written in a swirly bold font with THE at the top of the page and Bridge at the bottom.  In the center is a line drawing of a naked woman sitting with her back to the viewer, leaning back to rest on her left hand.  Her hair is blowing in the wind past her feet, and she has turned her upper body so that her profile is visible.  She is looking at the viewer with a skeptical expression.
Illustration by Gilbert.

A guy wakes up to find a tiny woman in his bed.  She insists that they make love.  Alternating sections of the text reveal who sent her to him and why.

A pen and ink drawing of a small naked woman at the top of the page. The folds of a huge blanket extend from her navel down to the bottom of the page.
Illustration by Jack Gaughan.

Really, this is nothing but a description of a man of normal size having sex with a woman nine inches tall.  It's pretty explicit.  The explanation for what's going on is confusing and nonsensical.  The whole thing boils down to an extended dirty joke.

A printed diagram shows a thin rectangle on the left, labeled XMTR above and INPUT below. It is connected by two zigzags to a square just left of center, labeled RCVR above and STAGE I, docking & transfer below.  This is connected by multiple smaller zigzags to a much smaller square just right of center which is labeled RCVR above.  This connects by two diagonal lines to the top and bottom of a column of even smaller squares, which are labeled SMTRS above and STAGE II, filtering & subdivision below.  Each of the squares in the column is connected via a wavy line to an identical square at the right of the page, labeled RCVRS above and OUTPUT below.
An explanatory diagram that explains nothing.

One star.

Serum-SOB, by James Bassett

A black and white illustration shows a large white syringe against a black background.  The handle of the plunger is a peace sign.  On the body of the syringe is drawn an exaggerated graffiti style cartoon of a woman wearing only underpants, with her hands held up next to her shoulders with fingers splayed. She is smiling widely.
Illustrations uncredited.

A scientist discovers that human aggression is caused by a virus.  He develops a vaccine that turns people into passive, agreeable folks.  His main motive is to have sex with other women without his wife being upset.  Once the whole world is inoculated, he finds another way to amuse himself, with serious consequences. 

A cartoon drawing of a balding old man's face, smiling beatifically with eyes squinted closed, against an abstract black textured background.
The effect of Serum-SOB.

The intent seems to be comic satire.  I don't think it works.  I guess I'm supposed to be amused by the scientist's cynical manipulation of other people.  Nope.

One star.

Tell Me, by Edward Y. Breese

A pen and ink cross hatch drawing of a man with dark hair in a space suit against a shadowy background.  He is staring blankly at the viewer through his transparent helmet.
More uncredited artwork.

A space scout talks about his experience on a world populated by very human aliens at a fairly low level of technology.  You'll probably be able to figure out who he is pretty quickly.

This thing depends entirely on its plot twist, which is telegraphed in multiple ways early in the text.  It's not a terribly original idea, either.  Maybe not quite as worthless as the two previous stories, but not good.

Two stars.

The State vs. Susan Quod, by Noel Loomis

A charcoal drawing on graph paper of a naked woman from head to pubic area (which is not drawn). The arms end in scribbles at the elbows.  Numbers and illegible writing surround the figure, with lines extending toward parts of the body and face as if to indicate measurements or reference points.
Even more uncredited artwork.

The narrator tells us about his wife, who was a robot nearly indistinguishable from a human being.  He didn't know this until the end of their relationship, but he tells the reader right away.

There are lots of these androids around, and they appear to be infiltrating positions of power.  Somehow they've overcome the restrictions built into them.

The plot has something to do with the robot's grandfather taking control of the world's supply of gold, leading to economic chaos.  The narrator is a political operative who is supposed to correct this.  This leads to serious conflict with his wife, and a dramatic gesture on her part that reveals her true nature. 

There's a lot of stuff about the narrator's desire for the stunningly beautiful robot and her refusal to have sex with him until they're married.  This isn't particularly interesting, and the story is way too long.

Two stars.

Histoport 3939, by Mark Power

A black and white pen and ink drawing of a man in a space suit with a transparent face plate. Tubes run from the side of the helmet down the back of the suit.  He is looking down at several sheets of paper he is holding in the glove of the suit.
Illustrations by Jack Gaughan.

A guy joins folks mining a planet for rocks that produce a gas that causes antigravity.  The place is inhabited by asexual aliens who don't seem to have any interest in the humans at all.  Some of the miners, who must be pretty damn lonely, take the aliens as mates.

The guy tries to figure out a way to smuggle the gas, in some other form, out of the planet.  It turns out the aliens eat the rock, and that suggests a way he can succeed.  That involves marrying one of the aliens.  Let's just say that things don't work out well.

A black and white pen and ink drawing of a man in a bulky space suit and an alien, facing each other.  The man's face looks angry.  The alien is facing away from the viewer and appears to have spiky protrusions extending in all directions from its head.  The body is not clearly drawn but appears to have round bumps sticking out of it intermittently.
A man and his mate.

Besides having an implausible plot (Antigravity gas?  Humans taking spore-based, nonsexual aliens as mates?) this story is full of made-up futuristic words in almost every sentence.  A little of that goes a long way.  A centerfold of one of the aliens makes me suspect that I'm not supposed to take this seriously, but the story isn't funny.

A black and white drawing of an alien, drawn centerfold-style across two pages such that you have to turn the magazine sideways to view.  The top page shows a globelike head and a large mushroom-like upper body and a long skinny arm, all of which have spiky protrusions emanating at various angles.  The bottom page shows the other arm, as well as two bulbous legs ending in skinny, rootlike feet.  The pose is reminiscent of a Playboy model.
Eat your heart out, Playboy!

Two stars.

The Mallinson Case, by K. H. Hartley

A black and white drawing shows a lipstick print surrounded by several multi-pronged tv antennae, against a blank background.
Yet another uncredited bit of art.

This takes the form of the transcription of a legal case.  In the future, a person can put his or her consciousness into an artificial body that can be transmitted over something like three-dimensional television.  A man used this to have an affair with a woman.  Her husband sued for adultery, but the court decided the woman was not guilty, because she didn't have sex with the man's actual body.

A black and white cross hatch drawing of a man with a beard, standing three quarters in shadow, such that only his left profile, shoulder, and arm are visible against the dark background.
Illustration by Jack Gaughan.

In the present case, the husband used the same technology to kill the man.  Is he guilty of murder?  Or is he innocent, just as the woman was acquitted of adultery?

The speculative technology is interesting, and the two legal cases are decided in a way that is logical.  Besides that, the story makes for dry reading.  I suppose that's realistic, anyway, but it's pretty dull.

Two stars.

Private Phone, by Rachel Cosgrove Payes

A black and white charcoal drawing of a teenage girl lying on her back with her head toward the viewer.  Her knees are bent and her head is at an angle as though she were lying on her bed with her head off the edge.  She is holding her right hand to her ear as though talking on the telephone.
Yep; more uncredited illustrations.

A teenager wants — you guessed it — a private phone.  Mom argues against it, but Dad gives in.

A black and white illustration of a young girl facing toward the left of the viewer with a neutral expression.  Her hair and the shadows of her face and neck are a circuit diagram.
Typical teenager of the future.

The ending reveals why this story, despite its futuristic trappings, is science fiction at all.  You'll probably see it coming a mile away.

Two stars.

Worth Reviving?

Let's face it; this was a lousy issue.  Only Laumer's story even reaches the level of being worth reading.  There's a lot of sex in this mag, mostly in forms that seem like male fantasies to me. 

An ad in the magazine reveals that another old publication, that hasn't been seen since 1968 (in its first and, so far, only issue) is supposed to rise out of its coffin in the near future.  It looks like it will contain Gordon R. Dickson's contribution to the Five Fates series noted above.  My esteemed colleague Kris Vyas-Myall gave the premiere issue of Worlds of Fantasy a lukewarm review, which isn't promising.

While I long for the return of SF's heyday in the early 1950s, when there were 40 monthly/quarterly mags on the newsstands, I don't think this is the way to get there!

The endpaper of the magazine, which reads: Worlds of fantasy.  Featured in the current issue: Teddy Bear, by James E. Gunn; Walker Between the Planes, by Gordon R. Dickson; Last Night and Every Night, by James Tiptree, Jr. Watch for it on your newsstand!
My sources in the publishing industry tell me that Dickson's story will be retitled Maverick when it appears in book form.  No relation to the old Western TV show, I presume.


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