By Jessica Holmes
After a thoroughly entertaining serial last month, sadly things take a sharp downturn in the latest serial of Doctor Who. It’s got big hairy monsters and mysterious monks, but what about it has left me so cold? Let’s plough through The Abominable Snowmen.
Continue reading [October 16, 1967] A Frosty Reception (Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen)
by Gideon Marcus
We've got a triple (maybe quadruple) play for you this morning. Dig in and enjoy the bounty!
Fail-Safe, by Eugene Burdick and Arthur Wheeler
With so many new books coming out, it's not often that we at the Journey can devote inches to older titles. However, the original Fail-Safe has been staring me in the face for the past four years, and when I finally picked it up, I found I couldn't put it down. Morever, the events depicted in the book are supposed to take place in 1967, so what better year to review it?
If you've seen the movie, then you know the plot of the book: mechanical malfunction causes a flight of bombers, responding to a false threat, to head irretrievably on an atomic raid of Moscow. Indeed, the movie is in many ways a shot-for-shot rendition of the print version. The differences pertain to the medium: we get several mini-biographies of the main characters, including the translator, the war-monger, the self-loathing SAC General, the commander of the Omaha base. There are also occasional, Marooned-style depictions of the technology involved, in lurid detail.
But the events are the same, the dialogue is largely the same, the agony is the same. Fail-Safe is the story of breakdown–of huge computerized networks failing for the disruption of tiny components, of people failing when confronted with clashing instructions. Despite the fundamental tragedy of the story, it is ultimately a hopeful book. It says that people made this death trap we live in, and only people can get us out of it. And thankfully, there are still good people left in the positions that matter.
Indeed, the main divergence between the book and movie is that the two national leaders involved are not generic statesmen but real people: Kennedy and Khruschev. This is a little jarring given that neither outlasted the book's publication by very long. However, it's also fundamental to the plot. Burdick and Wheeler ascribe a basic competence and goodness to these particular national leaders, qualities that keep the world from exploding when all factors say it should.
Were the two "K"s given too much credit? Are LBJ and Kosygin men we can trust to steer us clear from the edge of disaster? Those are questions that can only be answered by biographers in the first instance, and in the moment for the second. May summits like the recent one in Glassboro ensure the latter never needs answering.
Four stars.
The Invaders, by Keith Laumer
Have you seen The Invaders? It's a dopey riff on The Fugitive, instead of Richard Kimball running from the law for a murder he didn't commit, at the same time tracking down the real killer, it's about an architect running from alien invaders, while he also plans a counterattack.
The Fugitive was, itself, a riff on Route 66, about two hunks Kerouac-ing across the country doing odd jobs trying to find themselves. The Fugitive works because Kimball has a reason to keep moving, but, as a doctor, a moral obligation to help people wherever he goes. There's a reason the show lasted four years.
The Invaders doesn't work for lots of reasons — being an architect doesn't fundamendally involve protagonist David Vincent in anything. The aliens are laughably inept, betraying themselves with crooked pinky fingers, and yet Vincent can never really get anyone to believe him.
It's a dumb show.
So, of course it has a tie-in novel. Keith Laumer probably wrote this one in his sleep and happily pocketed the $2000 royalty to pay for his next trip to London. It is cliché-ridden and tired, a typical potboiler with a B-movie plot and science decades out of date.
It's still better than the show.
It's better because Laumer's Vincent discovers the aliens through canny investigation rather than stumbling on them at an old diner (tracking several seemingly unrelated factory production orders; once the widgets are assembled, they make a ray gun). It's better because Laumer is a competent action writer. It's better because the book is highly divergent from the show, only retaining the name of the hero, the plot of invasion (even the aliens are quite different — their high temperature gives them away), and the William Conrad-esque narration that precedes and succeeds the three vignettes included in this first volume.
Three stars. Why not?
Belmont Double B50-779
The second Belmont Double, poor imitation of the Ace Double follows a similar format to the first: one old novella combined with a newly commissioned one.
Doomsman, by Harlan Ellison
These days, Harlan's name is associated with avante garde stuff, the cutting edge of the New Wave laden with emotion and impact.
Back in the late '50s, when he was cranking out material for the profusion of SF digests, Harlan's work was of more variable quality. Doomsman originally came out in the last issue (October 1958) of Imagination as The Assassin, and it is lesser Ellison.
A hundred years from now, the Western Hemisphere is dominated by the AmeriState, a totalitarian regime that ascended in the ashes of an atomic war. Power is maintained by an assassin's corps, of which one Juanito Montoya, abducted from the Pampas of Argentine in his early manhood, is a typical example. He can kill in a thousand different ways, endure most any climate, and he lacks even the rudiments of empathy or civilization.
But in one way, he is different from his peers, for he comes to learn that he is the son of Don Eskalyo, a princeling who would topple the AmeriState. Once in possession of this knowledge, he resolves to stop at nothing to meet Eskalyo and join his forces. Except, of course, that's just what the AmeriState wants him to do…
Doomsman is a brutal, unpleasant story, rife with torture and grossness. In particular, I could have done without the introduction of the lone female character, the nude and violated (but still desirable, of course!) imprisoned young woman who proves the linchpin to finding Eskalyo. Not only did I find her character a sop to the more lewd readers, but though Ellison makes it clear that she endured three months of the worst tortures without cracking, she succumbs to Montoya's techniques immediately. And we never learn what these techniques are. Obviously, it's an author's trick to imply how effective and monstrous these methods are, but it just comes off as implausible and a cheat.
The one thing Doomsman's favor is it is never dull. That's not enough. 2.5 stars.
Telepower, by Lee Hoffman
Lee Hoffman is a name I've heard a lot in the fanzines, but I've never met her because she lives in Chicago. It's always a delight to see a fan turn into a (filthy) pro, and the main reason I picked up this Double is because of her byline.
Her book takes place in and around the post-atomic ruins of Cleveland, which have settled into a sort of medieval complacency, its inhabitants placid and staid. The defense of the city is left to the soldiers, an almost robotic breed of human, who live outside the city walls. The main threat to Cleveland isn't other men–it's waves upon waves of rats. The story opens up with such an attack, and we are introduced to Beldone, one of the many anonymous drones in the ranks.
Beldone, unlike his companions, develops a spark of curiosity, of individuality. This terrifies him since such is a sign of illness, and the remedy for illness is execution. We quickly learn that this spark is externally created: inside the city dwells the beautiful, and bored, Illyna. In a fit of ennui, she developed the embers of a psychic power, initially telepathic in nature but ultimately controlling. Beldone was her first contact, and through him, she seeks to learn more about the world she inhabits–and to find a way to control it.
There's a lot of disturbing stuff in this novel. Folks who are turned off by depictions of violence, depictions of rats, and/or depictions of telepathic mind control may wish to give this piece a miss. It's also not a happy story, even when it is triumphant. But it is an interesting, well-written one, and I look forward to more of Hoffman's work.
3.5 stars.
by Joe Reid
A Shadowy Reflection
As this most intriguing and excellent season of Star Trek continues on we find ourselves delighted week after week with more thoughtful and fantastical stories. This week takes the cake! I have stated repeatedly that Star Trek is a mirror to society here on Earth, today in 1967. This episode took that mirror and held it up to its own world and its characters. Appropriately, the writers called it “Mirror, Mirror”. Let’s take a gander at it and see what’s on the other side.
The episode opens on an alien world as a storm rages. Captain Kirk is in discussion with the very human looking Halkan Council to allow the Federation to mine dilithium on their planet. Uhura, Dr. McCoy, and Scotty are with him as part of the landing party. With negotiations stalled, as the Halkans don’t wish to see their dilithium used by those who may cause harm to even a single person, Kirk decides to return to the ship due to the coming ion storm.
"Do not try to adjust your communicator. We control the horizontal and the vertical." (Vic Perrin, head Halkan, is the narrator for The Outer Limits)
As the four of them are transported to the ship, something goes wrong and instead of appearing on the USS Enterprise they find themselves wearing different clothing as they appear on a different Enterprise. They are immediately confronted with Spock sporting a goatee who then calls for the eradication of the Halkans for not giving their dilithium to the "Empire" and who is quick to painfully punish Transporter Chief Kyle for an issue with the transporters.
Performance reviews are brutal on this Enterprise
Kirk soon figures out that the four of them are in a parallel universe. Finding themselves isolated among violent familiar looking strangers, the quartet seek to find a way to save the Halkans from destruction and get themselves back home. As they attempt to masquerade as "themselves" on the brutal ISS Enterprise while trying to carry out their secret mission, Urura is forced to resist the advances of a savage and craven Sulu, while Kirk barely survives an assassination attempt by an ambitious and bloodthirsty Chekov.
"You die, Captain, and I get to sing Mickey's songs."
Soon thanks to the male voiced, magically capable ship's computer, Kirk and McCoy confirm how they ended up on the opposite side of this dark looking-glass and learn of a way to return to their universe. As amazing as that was, we soon meet the other Captain Kirk's mistress and confidant, Marlena, waiting for him in his quarters, who shows our Kirk the powerful assassination weapon that he has at his disposal to wipe out all of his enemies. Marlena threatened to use it on Spock after he made clear to Kirk that he was under orders to kill him if he failed to purge the Halkans for refusing to allow the Empire rights to the dilithium.
The new Admiral TV not only has the brightest color, but it eliminates unwanted personnel!
The action and excitement then gets fast and intense as our crew carry out their plan to get home. Uhura gets into another struggle with the wicked Sulu and has to strike and almost shank him to save herself. Goatee Spock realizes things aren't right and captures our righteous four crewmembers for answers. This leads to another fight against the powerful Vulcan. Just as they found a way around Spock, the devious Sulu returns to kill everyone and murder his way to command of the ship. After an amazing save by Marlena using the weapon she told our Kirk about, she approaches the captain, explaining that she had learned everything about them and wanted to return to their world with them.
In the end it is the unerringly logical Spock of the violent universe helps our people return to their world as Kirk made a passionate, Nomad-level logical plea for him to rescue the people of this dark universe.
"And we have better donuts."
Our crew finally made it home and things were back to normal. The final scene has all four members of the landing party stricken with surprise as they meet the normal universe’s version of Marlena for the first time.
The range that we saw in some of the actors was chameleon-like. In particular, Sulu was a completely different person with a different deck of facial expressions than we are used to. Truly unlikeable.
"Peel your apple?"
From concept to story to acting, this was the best night of television that I have seen in a dog’s age.
Five stars.
The Enemy Without
by Janice L. Newman
This week’s episode of Star Trek was about a good Kirk and an evil Kirk. Sound familiar? If you watched The Enemy Within, this episode might sound like it’s just the same idea revisited. Don’t be fooled! It’s not.
The premise of the episode, that there is a “parallel” universe similar to our own but where history took a different course, leading to a totalitarian empire instead of Starfleet and the federation of planets, is an intriguing one. The people in that universe are shaped by their environment: they are vicious, self-serving, traitorous, and sadistic. And yet, there are exceptions. Spock is still Spock, even when he is enforcing the empire’s orders. He describes McCoy as ‘soft’ and ‘sentimental’ (if McCoy is as dedicated to being a healer in this harsher world, it’s no wonder that Spock would think so).
A kinder McCoy?
The Enemy Within was a story of ‘man versus himself’, exploring what makes us human from the inside. Mirror, Mirror asks the opposite question: “How much does our environment make us who we are?” It’s an intriguing thought: who we might be if born under different circumstances. What kind of an environment creates a Hitler? Are we but one universe over from a world where someone – maybe you – pressed the button to start World War 3?
If there is anything this well-paced, well-acted episode lacked, it was screentime for the landing party’s counterparts. Unfortunately, the story simply couldn’t fit a focus on them in the hour-long runtime. I did appreciate that ‘our’ crew immediately realized that there was something wrong and locked up the alternates.
If you missed this week’s episode, I highly recommend catching the re-run next summer if you can. As much as I liked The Enemy Within, this episode is even better.
Five stars.
The middle road
by Lorelei Marcus
Star Trek gives us a future that is aspirational, and perhaps brighter than our own. The Starfleet Federation borders on utopian, with scarcity of resources becoming almost nonexistent, and the main military body existing solely for goodwill and scientific exploration. It is refreshing to see a future where people of all colors and sexes (and even nonhumans) can work and be treated equally, particularly on the decks of the Enterprise.
In today's episode, we were presented with an alternative universe completely opposite to the Star Trek we are used to. Rather than a utopia, the world order resembled a totalitarian dictatorship with security police and brutal forms of punishment. It was a shock, to say the least, to see all of our favorite characters in this new environment and how they and their hierarchies changed. The lack of women on the mirror ship particularly stood out to me, and those that were left were no longer equal with the men – forced to prostitute themselves to gain any power and security.
How to win friends and influence captains.
The parallel universe possibility intrigued me. Star Trek's main universe and this mirror universe are two ends of the spectrum. Could there be more parallel universes? And what would one that falls right in the middle of that spectrum look like? How closely would it represent our modern world? I can imagine a ship where there is still some distinction based on race and sex, if only systemically. The Enterprise would probably be sent on missions to settle the protests of disquieted colonies, or to do tactical phaser strikes on rogue planets that have sided with the Romulans. I see a universe with more poverty and more discontent with the Federation. Maybe Kirk would have an episode where he falls in love with a poor colonist girl, but she is an anti-Federationalist, and ultimately he must reject his personal life to reaffirm loyalty to his cause.
This thought experiment only makes me appreciate the world of Star Trek even more. Roddenberry really has done a spectacular job of building an independent universe that is not just a gussied up copy of our own. When I am watching, it is never hard to believe that what is on my television screen is truly the future. (Except for sometimes when they show Chekhov's hair).
The episode as a whole was fantastically done with an interesting premise and phenomenal acting.
Five stars.
"A Well Oiled Trap"
by Amber Dubin
Although this episode was most likely meant to repel the viewer with horror at the savagery exhibited by the mirror universe, the entire episode was so charged with the kind of raw, animalistic energy that it had the exact opposite effect on me.
From the very beginning of the episode, it becomes clear that the unrelenting barbarism of the mirror universe necessitates the exposure of the Starfleet's most exceptional qualities; both literally, with the flashy and extremely flattering improvements to the crewmen's uniforms, and figuratively, in the way all of them rise to the challenges they are faced with. This is displayed most dramatically by Uhura, who, bolstered by Kirk's faith in her, manages to overcome her initial fears and slips on the camouflage of a violent seductress as easily as putting on a second skin. Similarly, on the other ship, Spock's notorious intuition proves itself almost comically effective when he immediately recognizes the landing party as dangerous imposters and goes straight to work trying to get his real Captain back.
A most entertained Spock.
An even more intriguing theme in this episode is that as savage and chaotic as the behavior of the crew in this alternate universe is, their selfishness and barbarity only served to make them more human. Mirror Chekov and Sulu's actions are self-serving and violent, but their motivations are neither unreasonable nor excessively malicious in the context of their environment. If anything it could be argued that, stripped of the need to adhere to formalities, the way they behave is more honest and truer to their desires than their more 'civilized' counterparts. As our Spock says, the mirror crew were "In every way, splendid examples of homo sapiens. The very flower of humanity." This is shown best by the introduction of Marlena, a woman whose intelligence and impressive powers of intuition and seduction have allowed her to not only survive but to wind her way around the heart of a violent and psychopathic Captain Kirk. She even proves that she has not lost her moral center by saving Kirk's life even after he has revealed himself to be an imposter and wounded her ego by not succumbing to her wiles after she "oils [her] traps" for him. The alternate version of Spock shows this same level of integrity when he chooses to help the landing party return to their universe, despite the fact that this version of Kirk would logically be much easier to usurp and control than his stubborn, unreasonable, greedy and angry counterpart. The actions of these two mirror crewman suggest that this universe is not in fact evil, but may just be stripped bare of inhibitions that cause the crew we know to control or polish their true selves.
With the smooth delivery from its cast, brilliant script and mind-teasing metaphors, this episode acted upon me as a siren song that by the end had me echoing Marlena's plea to "take me with you."
Sexy Spock with a beard didn't hurt either…
This episode deserves all the stars in the universe, but since the rating system limits me to five, I give it all of them.
Women's Liberation
by Erica Frank
Uhura found herself in a universe where women’s uniforms are made with a fraction of the fabric used in men’s, where they have to endure sexual advances at work, where some women get ahead by sleeping with the boss, and nobody dares object.
So…. not too different from our world, hmm?
After the initial shock of realizing her officer's uniform was smaller than some swimsuits back home and that Sulu’s spark of interest in her own world (“I’ll save you, fair maiden!”) was an obsession here, Uhura quickly adjusted her expectations and behaviors.
She didn’t cringe from the lustful gazes that followed her everywhere. She didn’t frantically check her wardrobe, trying to find something, anything that covered more skin and was still considered a Starfleet Empire uniform. She didn't demand one of the other men escort her and protect her.
She got herself a knife.
Chief Security Officer Sulu discovers that some women prefer to manage their own security.
She knew exactly how to cope with a workplace where men are allowed to demand sexual favors… and where women are allowed to set whatever terms they’d like, as long as they back them up with force.
As much as Uhura wanted to go home — back to a world where women have status based on their skills in the workplace and not between the sheets, where promotions are assigned by talent and not assassination, where Starfleet operates on principles of compassion instead of conquest — she knew how to operate in this one.
Drawing that knife on Sulu must have been tremendously vindicating. She wasn’t just facing him, but every faculty advisor who ever stood too close, every regional manager who said “come back to my place and we'll talk about your promotion,” every police officer who did a pat-down that was more grope than inspection.
In that shining moment, Uhura acted for all of us, every woman who's been told, "Smile more; women should be pretty!" (Followed by, "What was I supposed to think? You were always smiling at me!") The mirror-universe is a dark, twisted version of our own… but that moment on the bridge explained why some women are proud and happy to belong to the Starfleet Empire.
A world where men openly harass women and require them to be sexy at all times is not unknown to us. A world where we can strike back…that’s new.
Five stars.
Speaking of Star Trek, it's on tomorrow! And it seems to star Godzilla…
Here's the invitation! Come join us.
Also, copies of The Tricorder are still available — drop us a line for details!
</small
by Victoria Silverwolf
There's a new anthology of original science fiction and fantasy stories in bookstores this month. It's certain to be the topic of a lot of discussion among SF buffs, and maybe even some arguments.
It's also big; more than five hundred pages, and it'll set you back a whopping seven bucks. It's so big, in fact, that Galactic Journey is going to slice it into three pieces and discuss it in a trio of articles. (Why three? Because it's got thirty-three stories in it, and eleven articles would be silly.)
Let's dig into the first part of this mammoth collection and see if it's destined to be the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band of speculative fiction, or just another dud.
Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
Wraparound cover art by the husband-and-wife team of Leo and Diane Dillon, who also provide an interior illustration for each story.
Before we get to the nitty-gritty of fiction, we've got no less than two forewords by Isaac Asimov and a lengthy introduction by the editor.
In The Second Revolution, the Good Doctor outlines the history of modern science fiction from Gernsback through Campbell, and into the New Wave. Astounding was the first revolution, you see, and now we're in the second one. That may be a little simplistic, but it gets the point across.
Harlan and I, on the other hand, is a personal essay about Asimov's relationship with the editor, ending with a teasing anecdote. Ellison adds a long footnote offering a different version of their first encounter.
More substantial is Thirty-Two Soothsayers, the editor's longwinded but endlessly entertaining and informative account of what this book is supposed to accomplish, and how it came to be. Ellison wanders all over the place in this piece, and it's a fun ride. In brief, the stories he chose are supposed to be both enjoyable and provocative, with new ideas that might not appear in the usual SF markets. We'll see.
(If you're wondering why thirty-two and not thirty-three, it's because one writer supplies two stories; but that's for another time.)
I should mention that each story comes with an introduction by the editor and an afterword by the author, except for the one case when those roles are reversed. You'll see what I mean in a while.
I'm going to do something a little different here. I'll rate the quality of each story with the usual one to five stars, but I'll also add an indication for how dangerous each one is. This will be determined by sexual content, violence, profanity, experimental narrative style, taboo subject matter, etc. GREEN = safe to proceed, YELLOW = caution indicated, RED = hazardous conditions.
Let's begin.
An unnamed character flees through the universe in an attempt to escape those who have overthrown his reign. To say anything else would give away the point of the story, which is an allegory.
Three stars. YELLOW for questioning the deeply held beliefs of some readers.
In a premise similar to his excellent novel Thorns, the author presents a severely injured astronaut who has been put back together by aliens. In this case, however, his body has been restored to normal, but his mind has been made more sensitive to the emotions of others. That doesn't work out well.
Silverberg has become a fine writer, one of the best now working. Like Thorns, this is an uncompromising look at human suffering.
Five stars. YELLOW for scenes of extreme cruelty.
The Day After the Day the Martians Came, by Frederik Pohl
Set in the very near future, this tale deals with humanity's reaction to the discovery of ugly, semi-intelligent lifeforms on the red planet. Mostly, people make nasty jokes about them. The intent of the story is to expose human prejudices, in a way that's about as subtle as a brick thrown through a window.
Three stars. YELLOW for dealing with a major social problem in the USA today.
Riders of the Purple Wage, by Philip Jose Farmer
This is, by far, the longest story in the book. It is also incredibly dense and fast-paced, so any attempt to describe the plot would be a miserable failure. That said, I'll just mention that it takes place in a very strange future, involves an artist and his tax-dodging ancestor, and contains a ton of wordplay. There are scenes of slapstick violence that are simultaneously hilarious and offensive. It's a wild rollercoaster ride, so keep your seatbelt tightly secured.
Five stars. RED for a Joycean narrative style and Rabelaisian humor.
The Malley System, by Miriam Allen deFord
In the future, the worst criminals receive a very unusual punishment. This is a grim story, that doesn't shy away from the horrors perpetuated by human monsters.
Three stars. YELLOW for violence.
A Toy for Juliette, by Robert Bloch
In a decadent future, a man uses the only time machine in existence to kidnap people from the past, in order to satisfy the whims of his sadistic granddaughter. He picks the wrong potential victim. This is a spine-chilling little science fiction horror story with a twist in its tail.
Three stars. YELLOW for sex, torture, and murder.
The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World, by Harlan Ellison
This is a direct sequel to the previous story, with an introduction by Bloch and an afterword by Ellison. An infamous murderer finds himself in the far future, where the inhabitants enter his mind in order to enjoy his sensations as he kills.
Written in an experimental, almost cinematic style, this is an unrelenting look at the evil that lurks inside all of us. Not for weak stomachs.
Four stars. RED for explicit violence.
The Night That All Time Broke Out, by Brian W. Aldiss
People get so-called time gas supplied to their homes through pipes. It allows them to enjoy better times in the past. As with any form of technology, things can go wrong. This is a light comedy with a unique premise.
Three stars. GREEN for whimsy.
The Man Who Went to the Moon – Twice, by Howard Rodman
A young boy takes a trip to the Moon by holding on to a balloon, becoming a local celebrity. Many years later, as a very old man, his only claim to fame is not as valued as it once was. Reminiscent of Ray Bradbury, this is a gentle, quietly melancholy tale.
Three stars. GREEN for wistful nostalgia.
Faith of Our Fathers, by Philip K. Dick
The Communist East has won a hot war with the Capitalist West. The protagonist is a bureaucrat given the task to determine which of two term papers truly represents the Party line. Meanwhile, a seemingly harmless substance allows him to perceive what appear to be multiple and contradictory truths about the Mao-like Party leader.
That's a vague synopsis, because this is one of the author's stories in which you've never quite sure what is real and what is illusory. Ellison strongly hints that it was written under the influence of hallucinatory drugs. Be that as it may, it's a provocative and disturbing look at the possible nature of reality.
Four stars. YELLOW for politics, drug use, and existential terror.
The Jigsaw Man, by Larry Niven
A man is sentenced to death for his crime. His organs will be harvested for transplant. Through a series of unusual circumstances, he manages to escape from prison, but his troubles aren't over yet.
The full impact of this story doesn't hit the reader until the very end, when we find out the nature of the man's offense. Other than that, it's an ordinary enough science fiction action/suspense story.
Three stars. GREEN for futuristic adventure.
One Down, Two To Go
So far, this is a fine collection of stories, without a bad one in the bunch. Sensitive readers might want to stay away from the more dangerous ones, but most mature SF fans will enjoy it.
</small
by Gideon Marcus
Recycling is good practice
We are now three weeks into the second season, and Star Trek continues to impress. If the season premiere was an episode that could only have existed in the Star Trek universe, last week's and this week's are back to the first season formula of adapted, universal science fiction tales. Nevertheless, "The Changeling" is a uniquely Trek episode, adding to the depth of the setting and capitalizing on what we know of the characters.
Checking in on the Melurian system, the Enterprise finds that something has wiped out its four billion inhabitants. Said something then begins shooting at the Enterprise with bolts possessing the power of a whopping 90 photon torpedoes (the fact that the shields can withstand four such hits suggest either the torps are weak sauce or the assailant was at the edge of its range). After firing on the enemy, Kirk attempts communication; that Kirk didn't try talking first is not inconsistent with his character; he's "a soldier, not a diplomat."
The hail works. The assailant, barely more than a meter in length, consents to being beamed aboard the Enterprise. There, it is quickly determined that it is what is left of the 21st Century deep space probe "Nomad", and it thinks Kirk is its creator, Jackson Roy Kirk (perhaps a distant ancestor?)
Nomad is now more than just the next iteration of Mariner spacecraft. After a collision and merging with the alien probe, Tan Ru, it is now an intelligent, self-aware being with just two motivations: "To seek out and sterilize all that which is not perfect" and to impress his creator, "The Kirk." Nomad “fixes” the Enterprise so it can go Warp 11, popping all of the Enterprise's rivets. It kills Scotty, then brings him back to life.
More chillingly, it zaps four security guards out of existence (to be fair, they fired first). It gives Uhura a kind of stroke, temporarily cutting her off from her advanced knowledge. And when Kirk concedes that he is an imperfect biological unit, Nomad resolves to go back home to Earth–and wipe out all imperfection. He is only stopped when Kirk, in "a dazzling display of logic", makes Nomad aware of its own imperfections, ordering it to self-destruct, which it does.
There's nothing in this episode we haven't seen or heard before. The naive, all-powerful presence taken aboard the Enterprise, kept in check solely by a tenuous parent-worship of Captain Kirk, is the same plot as "Charlie X". Kirk already defeated a computer with logic in "Return of the Archons." All of the action takes place on the Enterprise, and much of the music is recycled from the prior two episodes.
And yet, this may be my favorite episode of the season thus far. Not only do we learn some interesting things about Terran history (we now have a tentative timeline – from the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s to the first warp-powered probes of the early 21st Century), but the episode depends in large part on things that have already been established about the characters we've come to love.
I love this show of Sulu jerking back as Nomad flies right past him to ask what the heck Uhura's doing
Nomad is intrigued by Uhura because of her singing, and we get to see her speaking Swahili again, too. Scotty gets himself killed defending her (we learned last episode that Scotty's brain short circuits where women are concerned). Spock uses his mind-touch on Nomad (and aren't there all kinds of interesting ramifications from that). Kirk is better than ever at beating computers–his defeat of Nomad was far more logical and satisfying than his victory over Landru.
I found Kirk's performance more understated this episode, which I appreciated, and Nimoy was excellent as usual. I also appreciated the return to a more ensemble approach, with heavy focus on Uhura, Chapel, Scotty, and McCoy. If there was only one bobble in tone, it was Kirk's (admittedly funny) line about lamenting the loss of Nomad, his son, the doctor. Given the loss of four billion Melurians and four of his crew, one would think Kirk would be a touch more somber.
Those are quibbles, though. Four stars.
The Truth will set you free
by Joe Reid
I find large numbers to be amazing things. We as human beings have developed ways to express and manipulate numbers that are vaster than we have the ability to conceive of. I myself can mentally picture 10 bowling pins, 100 sheets of typing paper, and a jar of 1000 pennies. Ten thousand, one hundred thousand, and even one million are numbers that inspire awe. How about four billion? Imagine you line up everyone on earth, you would be 500 million short of four billion! This week’s episode of Star Trek left me with a question that needs to be answered. How do you kill four billion people?
I don't mean the physical means by which he brought this about. Each of Nomad's bolts packs a 90-photon torpedo wallop. I mean how does Nomad, an intelligent thinking machine, kill four billion people? I look at Star Trek as a mirror being held up to the audience. With the writers holding up that mirror and saying, “This is what we look like.” Therefore, the question also is, how do we as intelligent thinking beings kill hundreds, thousands, and even millions of people? The answer to both questions is the same. You believe a lie.
Nomad believed that it was perfect. That its creator was perfect. That the mission in its memory tapes were perfect. Nomad took that belief as a given. So, anything that didn’t fit within its own understanding should be wiped clean. We saw this when Nomad encountered a singing Uhura and erased her mind. Since Nomad was perfect any action it took was ultimately justifiable, so any resistance to it should be eliminated, which was the case of the four guards and Scotty. All of which died. Along the same lines, any being that does not meet his level of perfection is an infestation which must be eliminated. We were told about four billion examples of that, with the promise of more to come.
The price of imperfection.
By Nomad’s actions we see our own human condition. When we believe the lie that we are better than those around us, that those who are not like us are below us, we find justification to ignore them. Those who we can’t ignore we remove. Those we don’t understand or agree with we erase. Those not like you are not human, so killing them is justified, because those “things” are a useless infestation. My friends, we believe such lies and commit these acts upon other humans.
In the end, Nomad was undone by the truth. When it learned the truth that it was not perfect, Nomad stayed consistent with its other beliefs and ended its own existence. How do humans respond when they are exposed to the truth? Perhaps a future episode of Star Trek will provide that answer. I cannot. Since like you, I am afflicted with my own deck of lies that guide my own beliefs.
Nomad learns the truth.
Overall, this was another exciting and thought-provoking episode which makes my Thursday nights most enjoyable. Not perfect by any means, but a worthy addition to this wonderful program.
4 stars
"The Nomad who Wandered Got Lost"
by Amber Dubin
As a self-confessed robot-a-phile, I felt the need to take a second pass at this episode to fully understand its protagonist. After listening to the audio tapes I made of the episode, I found that the understanding I gained left me unsettled.
The concept I found most disconcerting is that, despite the fact that it wiped out an entire solar system's worth of people, to hate Nomad would be as unreasonable as hating a child. Though it is powerful, ancient, sophisticated, and sentient to boot, Nomad is frequently compared to a child. The fact that this episode is called "The Changeling" implies that it is a lost child robbed of its intended destiny. Much like a child whose birth kills its mother, it gains sentience by being cruelly ripped from the void, forced to survive the trauma of its birth while destroying the only witness to its initiation of life. To assuage its survivor's guilt after the entanglement with the alien probe, it seeks to validate its existence with the hastily slapped together objectives from the partial data stores of two damaged probes, with predictably disastrous results. It may kill people, but only in the way a Changeling child might if given immense power and no moral guidance.
Inside the mind of a child
The other concept that left me with "insufficient data to resolve problem" was how easily Nomad was compelled to merge two peaceful objectives into one murderous one. In Spock’s words, "Nomad was a thinking machine, the best that could be engineered" and yet that same intellect made it unable to live up to its own standards. In trying to explain its sentience in a literal vacuum, it uses its 'perfection' to explain why a lowly soil sterilization probe was sacrificed to preserve its function. In honoring that sacrifice by incorporating "the other's" programming, it is then faced with the impossible task of applying a local objective onto a global scale. To make its task more manageable, it translates 'sterilize your environment' to "sterilize imperfections." This way, it avoids failing its objective and admitting that its pursuit of perfection is internally flawed. When Kirk exposes this flaw, Nomad's inability to reconcile it was probably the most human reaction I've ever seen. I tip my hat to the kind of writing that could make me wonder if self-destruction is in the nature of an inquisitive mind.
This episode lost points, however, when it came to Uhura's subplot. I initially had a visceral reaction to her re-training scene. The way they talk to her while teaching her to read is not the way you talk to a stroke victim re-learning language, it's how you speak to a child learning language for the first time. I bristled at the nurse's condescending praise and saw it as an insult to Uhura’s intelligence. Listening through the second time, however, softened my perspective. By including Uhura’s outburst in Swahili, and the nurse's comment that Uhura "seems to have an aptitude for mathematics," it was apparent that there was most likely no malicious agenda to make Nichols look stupid. More than likely the purpose of the scene was to say 'Gee English sure is a silly language.' While not being as offensive as I originally thought, it's still disappointing and doesn't hold up to the standard set by the writing of the rest of the episode (strong enough to still get four stars).
"Who wrote this scene, anyway?!"
The next episode of Trek is TONIGHT! It doesn't look like we're in Kansas anymore…
Here's an invitation. Come join us!
by Gideon Marcus
End of Summer
The long, hot summer is over, and with it a general cooling across the country, both in temperature and in tension. While San Francisco enjoyed a summer of love, with folks as disparate as Eric Burdom and Scott McKenzie coming to just be-in, the rest of the nation was rocked by civil strife, strikes, and protest.
Ashes in Cambridge, MD
Teachers on strike
And why not? The cities have been bubbling kettles for a long time, and too many mayors and councilmen are ignoring the problem. Too many workers have been stiffed and neglected. Too many young men, too young even to vote, have lost their lives in Vietnam.
Now, the strikes are largely settled in the workers' favor. The racial problems, well they're still there, but harder to ignore, and with the departure of sultry weather, tempers are a little less frayed. Vietnam…well, they had a free election didn't they? Surely things must be getting a little better.
Surely.
In any event, enjoy the respite. We're going to need our strength.
So goes the nation…
The nation of science fiction, that is. SF had a rocky summer, with a slew of lackluster magazines, inconsistent books, and of course, endless reruns on TV. I'm happy to report that the dog days are over, at least for now: not only has it been a good month for SF mags in general, but the latest issue of Analog is the best in more than a year and a half.
by John Schoenherr
Weyr Search, by Anne McCaffrey
by John Schoenherr
Jack Vance and Frank Herbert have made sweeping, quasi-fantastic tableaus the in thing. Universes that feel thousands of years old, with venerable, somewhat tattered institutions vying for power in a decadent setting. Now Ann McCaffrey, best known for her The Ship Who series, has tossed her hat in the ring.
Pern is a planet somewhere in the galaxy, once settled by Earth, but long since forgotten. It is a verdant, pleasant world save for one feature. Every few hundred years, a rogue planet comes close enough in its eccentric orbit to launch deadly spores of "thread". These burrow into Pern's soil, destroying native life, scourging farms and people.
To combat them, humans formed a sort of treaty with the native intelligent life: sapient dragons, with whom their riders bond telepathically. These dragons not only breathe fire, but they can teleport. This makes them formidable defenders, indeed! Clearly, they once dominated Pernian politics. Long ago, there were six "Weyrs"–barren fortresses wherein lived the dragons and their human brethren. From these strongholds, Pern was kept safe from the baleful "red star".
But humans have short memories, and when Weyr Search begins, it has been several centuries since the last orbital conjunction. Human politics have supplanted other concerns, and the "Holds", fortresses against human incursion, reign supreme. Only one Weyr, called Benden, remains in operation–a shabby shadow of itself.
Nevertheless, with the rogue planet approaching, and the queen of dragons recently dead, it is imperative that the Benden riders find a new rider for the next queen, one who has the requisite psychic talents and the necessary strength of character. Can any such person exist in these fallen times, when even proud Ruatha hold, whose royal family's blood once ran with a strong vein of dragon talent, has become a wreck under the cruel ministrations of Lord Fax of the High Reaches?
Well, of course the answer is yes. It's obvious from the first page, told from the point of view of Lessa, Ruathan scullery girl, who is secretly scion of the dead lineage. Weyr Search is not a story to surprise, a tale of twists and turns. It is not even really a complete story; it is clear there will be sequels. What it is, however, is an intriguing setup for a story.
As such, it really succeeds or fails on its writing. McCaffrey is better at her job than Herbert, whose reach regularly exceeds his grasp. She is less talented than Vance (who wrote a somewhat reminiscent tale several years ago called The Dragon Masters). The first portion of the story is a bit stiltedly told, and Lessa comes across as something of a caricature, a wish-fullfilment vehicle akin to Cinderella ("I may seem a nothing, but I'm really a secret princess-queen!") Not that this kind of character can't work–after all, look at Roan in Earthblood, but Laumer and Brown did a better job with it. And, of course, there are the tics that sold the work to Campbell: psionics and the idea of people being genetically special.
Nevertheless, the writing gets better as it goes along, and the concepts are interesting. I've read some great stuff by McCaffrey, and I've read some tepid stuff by McCaffrey. This installment gets four stars. We'll see how the serial (in all but name) does as a whole when its done.
(Note: There's a bit in the prologue where Pern's "Yankee" colonists are mentioned. I'll bet my bottom dollar this was a Campbell edit, as nowhere in the rest of the story is the race of the colonists suggested. Heaven forbid anyone but WASPs settle the galaxy…)
Toys, by Tom Purdom
by Leo Summers
I'm always happy to see a piece from my good friend, Tom. This one involves a cop duo (male and female) taking on a gang of pre-teenage kids, who have taken their families hostage using a host of homegrown weapons: genetically engineered apes and tigers, chemistry-set psychedelic drugs, erector-set shock guns. The work of the police is complicated by their standing directive to minimize casualties.
A little insight from the author:
I have a lot of thoughts on Toys. I gave a talk on it at a Philadelphia Science Fiction Society meeting this month.
Basically, it's built around three ideas.
The first came from a John Campbell editorial I read around 1950 or 51. What are you going to do, Campbell asked, when an angry teenager can blow up a city merely by twisting a pair of wires in a certain way? It's a thought experiment that gets at the heart of some of the issues raised by technology. I reduced the problem to a world where children have access to all kinds of potentially lethal technologies.
The second big idea is economic growth. I got interested in that years before, and it figures in many of my stories. The standard of living in the industrialized nation has been doubling two or three times per century since about 1700. The children in my story are lower middle class or might even be considered poor, but they have access to things like home genetic kits. They are poor in land, however, living in a five story house on a narrow plot. And lots of other kids have a lot more.
The third element is a Utopian police force. In a world with so much potential for violence, you need a first class police force and a society willing to pay for highly trained, well educated cops. Edelman [the viewpoint character] understands that he is supposed to resolve this situation without harming the kids. He takes bigger risks than he has to because he is responsible for the kids' welfare.
Thus, both utopian and anti-utopian predictions. Purdom excels at these concepts, painting a future world with realistic touches. For instance, complete equality of the sexes (exemplified by the cop partners), and one of the few stories that takes monetary inflation into account ($50,000 a year is a poor salary; $200,000 is pretty good.)
Where Tom always has trouble is combat scenes. It's no coincidence that his best works, like I Want the Stars and Courting Time, focus on people rather than fighting.
Toys is essentially a non-stop fight sequence. Thus, three stars.
Political Science—Chinese Style, by Research Group of the Theory of Elementary Particles, Peking
Editor Campbell offers up the preamble to a Chinese paper on subatomic particles, the realm of the "quark". The actual paper is not included; instead, we get many pages of explanation as to the philosophy that let to the composer's discoveries–all guided by the pure thought of their leader Mao Tse Tung.
It's pretty obvious that such folderol is necessary to get anything published in China. I'm sure the Nazi and Stalinist publishers had to do the same. What's special about this paper is that the science is reportedly "first-class". Which makes me sad that the whole paper wasn't included. Subatomic physics is fascinating stuff.
Anyway, it's short and interesting for what it is. And given the quality of fiction in this mag, I didn't miss the (hit and miss) science column too much.
Three stars.
The Judas Bug, by Caroll C. MacApp
by Kelly Freas
C.C. MacApp, using his first name rather than an initial for some reason, offers up this tale of a colony in peril. Two settlers of a new planet have been found dead in the field, their faces, throats and hands gnawed away. The fauna of the planet just don't seem harmful enough to be the culprit; Mechanic James Gruder worries that a human conspiracy is involved.
This is a perfectly competent story, although I found the resolution a little rushed. Three stars.
Free Vacation, by W. Macfarlane
by Leo Summers
I really liked the concept behind this story: Terran convicts are offered a choice–imprisonment, or teleportation to a roughhewn world as conscripted explorers. Day Layard, a brand new draftee, is paired with an old hand, who proves invaluable in keeping him alive. It turns out Layard's partner is particularly happy with his lot in life; it gives him the opportunity to seek out signs of the "Prodromals", the race of beings that preceded humanity in the galaxy.
This is another tale that runs along just fine until the somewhat rushed ending. An extra page or two would have perhaps garnered a fourth star. As is, a pleasant three.
Pontius Pirates, by J. T. McIntosh
by Leo Summers
The planet of Molle is a rich, advanced world, with nothing to hide. So why is it the moment Jack Sheridan makes planetfall from Earth, he is under 24 hour surveillance? Nothing formal, mind you–just subject to the attentions of four jovial fellows eager to get him drunk, and a pretty young girl employed to spend the night with him…or at least tell him she did when he wakes up with no memory of what went on the previous day.
Could it be that Molle is actually the home base for the piratical Buccaneers, and the surveillance is to make sure no one gets too close to the secret? That's certainly why Sheridan, actually an Interstellar Patrolman, was dispatched to the planet.
On the surface, this is just a secret agent thriller. The plot is interesting, but nothing noteworthy. The average reader will probably enjoy it and move on.
As a writer, I found much to admire. The thing is, Jack Sheridan is never wrong. He has his working theories, he tests them, and they always turn out to be more or less as expected. There are plenty of stories with characters like these, from Retief to James Bond, and they quickly run into one or both of two issues:
1) When you know the hero is always right, where's the tension?
2) When the hero knows he's always right, he tends to become insufferable.
McIntosh, who has been writing for two decades now, neatly avoids both pratfalls. The mystery is unfolded piece by piece, and at each juncture, Sheridan is plagued with doubt. He doesn't know if he's right, he lists all the reasons he could be wrong, and he explains what he'll do in that event. The thing is, he isn't some schnook like Bond who stumbles upon the truth. He lands on Molle with enough information to be pretty sure it's the Buccaneer base. After that, it's logical and plausible deduction.
We also learn a lot about Sheridan, his character and his values, without ever explicitly being told about them. It's a lovely piece of oblique writing, all showing and no telling.
So, well done, Mr. McIntosh. Perhaps others in Campbell's stable can learn from your example (*ahem* Chris Anvil). Four stars.
Doing the math
With a star-o-meter rating of 3.4 stars, Analog tops its competition. But competition it did have! New Worlds and Fantasy and Science Fiction both scored 3.3, and even Amazing got 3.0. Only IF and
Galaxy lagged, with 2.8 and 2.7, respectively.
If you took all the four and five star stories, you could fill two slim digests. The only really sad statistic is that, out of 33 new pieces of fiction, just one was written by a woman. Looks like women have struck out for books and screenplays, where the money's better. A smart move, but not a happy sign for magazines in general.
Nevertheless, let's dwell on the positive. Good job, Analog, and thanks for a happy punctuation to the month of September!
Speaking of books by women…
You've probably heard of Marie Vibbert, one of the biggest names in SFF magazines (of the far-future year 2022). Her book, The Gods Awoke, is what I've been calling "a new New Wave masterpiece":
Do check it out. You'll not only be getting a great book, but you'll be supporting the Journey!
</small
God is in the Details
by Janice L. Newman
After Star Trek’s incredible second season debut episode last week, we were on pins and needles. Would the episode hold up to the new standard set by “Amok Time”?
By Jessica Holmes
Doctor Who is back for another season, and let me tell you: we’re off to a promising start. The Cybermen are back, we’ve got a new companion, and Patrick Troughton continues to impress in his role. Let’s take a look at Doctor Who in The Tomb Of The Cybermen.
Continue reading [September 24th, 1967] A Really Cool Story (Doctor Who: Tomb Of The Cybermen)
by Gideon Marcus
Vicious Varangians
Reliving the Middle Ages "as they ought to have been" is all the rage now, from Renaissance Pleasure Faires to The Society for Creative Anachronism to The Byrd's song, "Renaissance Faire". Not to be left out, our corner of San Diego has decided to put on its own Viking Fest, featuring axe-throwing, mead-drinking, and general revelry.
Of course, the seasoned time-traveling Journey crowd attended!
Something to cheer about
It's been a while since I've been able to report on a issue that's good from bow to stern (recognizing that such things are rare, of course–Sturgeon's Law ensures much of what anyone reads must not be the best). I'm happy to report that this month's issue of Fantasy of Science Fiction was quite enjoyable.
by Chesley Bonestell; as usual, it doesn't illustrate any of the stories inside
Home the Hard Way, by Richard McKenna
Chief Biotech Skinner Webb of the Galactic Patrol Ship Carlyle is determined to jump ship. The why: planet Conover is the loveliest world Webb has ever espied, and its richest denizens have offered him the moon…and a chance at love with a plump and gorgeous scion.
Sadly for Skinner, he's got a seven year hitch. And so, he does his damndest to get out of it, going AWOL, starting fights, even consorting with a criminal element. All it does it lose him stripes and put him under Vry Chalmers, his former adjutant and long-suffering friend. Will Webb ever get to paradise?
Author Richard McKenna seems to write more now that he's dead than he did when he was alive. I quite enjoyed this space-based yarn, and I particularly appreciated the frequent appearance of women in the navy–as high rated enlisted men, no less. I don't think I've ever seen that particular touch in a story. We've had women officers (q.v. Star Trek and Starship Troopers), but no women grunts. Certainly, it's a rare thing.
Of course, as my wife notes, why anyone would fall for Skinner Webb, when he's something of a lummox, is a bit of a mystery. But perhaps we just have an unsympathetic narrator. In any event, this story gets an unreserved four stars.
The Inner Circles, by Fritz Leiber
The artful Leiber offers up this tale of a family that seems to create its own reality. The father molds ebony companions out of shadow, with whom he converses over watered-down martinis. The mother sketches fanciful worlds and imagines that the machines of the house talk to her. And the son is an interstellar rocket jockey, aided by just a few toys as visual aids.
Notable for including the second use of the word "shit" in as many months in F&SF (will the mails stop carrying this trashy publication?) and for a surprising but welcome happy ending, this is another good piece. Leiber, a veteran stage actor, has mastered the art of rendering the theatrical in his prose. Four stars.
Speaking of Leiber…
Camels and Dromedaries, Clem, by R. A. Lafferty
Cleminger is a big man, one of the hottest traveling salesmen in the country. In fact, he's a little too big: one day, he falls asleep in a hotel and splits into two beings–externally identical, but somehow each half a man. The two go on to live separate lives, until their desirable and desiring wife, Veronica, demands an end to the intolerable situation.
Lafferty is always whimsical, but this piece feels a bit more grounded than most–more Ellison than Lafferty. Once again, it's enjoyable from beginning to end. That's three four-star stories in a row!
The Power of Every Root, by Avram Davidson
Now off to sunny Mexico, where Carlos Rodriguez Nunez, police officer of the municipality of Santo Tomas, finds himself increasingly afflicted with physical maladies, as well as furtively derided by his townsfolk. Is it a disease? A hex? The doctor cannot help, and the witch doctor's advice seems spurious. Surely his luscious wife, Lupe, is above suspicion…
Davidson, once editor of F&SF, fled to Mexico for a while after abandoning the helm of this magazine. He clearly absorbed enough of the local color to vividly paint this tale. While ably told and a beautiful travelogue, the plot itself is rather slight, so I'm afraid three stars is my limit for this one.
Corona, by Samuel R. Delany
I've often complained that everybody else gets to review Chip Delany's work but me. Well, I got what's coming to me. This story involves a troublemaking hulk of a blue collar man named Buddy, who forms a rapport with "the prettiest little colored girl" named Lee, afflicted with uncontrollable telepathy. Said nine-year old has seen too much to want to live any longer. But her love for the popular music of Bryan Faust, particularly sharing it with Buddy, may give her a new lease on life.
If it weren't for the sentimentality, I'd say this is more Analog than F&SF. That said, despite the obvious attempts to be moving, I found myself curiously unmoved by this tale.
Three stars.
Music to My Ears, by Isaac Asimov
Speaking of music, Dr. A manages to take a potentially interesting topic–namely, the mathematical relationships between wave frequencies that underlie the fundamental scales of music–and make it not only dull as dishwater, but also virtually impenetrable.
And I have both a math and a music degree!
Two stars.
Alas, Poor Yorick! I Knew Him Well Enuff, by Joan Patricia Basch
Equity's a great gig. It's virtually impossible to get canned from a show when you're equity, even if you're dead! But what if you really need that not-dead skull who's a member of the guild to shut up so you can finish the damned play?
Basch has written a cute story, and it's likely to wring a grin or two from you, if nothing else.
Three stars.
Time, by L. Sprague de Camp
Poetry by a regular contributor of same, this time lamenting over the greats he'll never meet, and the fans he'll never know.
Three stars, I guess.
Cry Hope, Cry Fury!, by J. G. Ballard
We return to the crystalline seas of Vermillion Sands. A yachter by the name of Melville is stranded when his sand boat blows a tire. A wraith-like vision of a woman named Hope offers succor, but her obsession with an old flame (whom she may or may not have killed) belies the pleasant qualities of her namesake.
I tend to prefer Vermillion Sands stories to the more kaleidoscopic stuff Ballard has been turning in of late. There's more of a through-line. I also like the idea of photographic paints that depict ever-changing portraits of their subjects.
I don't think I'd give it four stars, but it's definitely interesting.
Praise be to Odin!
With no bad fiction and some solid hits in the first half of the mag, this issue of F&SF is definitely something to foray from home for (it's not as if the Vikings got home delivery of their sf mags.) That's something to toast to!
Here's looking forward to more of the same in the issues to come.
by Gahan Wilson
If you're here, you're obviously a big fan of classic fantasy and science fiction. As you know, I founded Journey Press to revive lost classics and to bring into bring new works that evoke that same timeless quality.
I think you'll very much enjoy our newest release. You've probably heard of Marie Vibbert, one of the biggest names in SFF magazines these days. Her book, The Gods Awoke, is what I've been calling "a new New Wave masterpiece":
Do check it out. You'll not only be getting a great book, but you'll be supporting the Journey!
</small
by Alison Scott
You will have to make, I fear, some allowances for your fanzine correspondent, recently returned – as reported only a couple of days ago by the Traveler – from the World Science Fiction Convention.
The Fan Hugos – not, thank goodness, the Pongs – were awarded for Best Fan Writer and Best Fan Artist as well as Best Fanzine. They instantly caused controversy because Jack Gaughan won for both Best Professional Artist and Best Fan Artist. However, Gaughan is a prolific and generous fan artist, contributing covers and interior illustrations to many fanzines, as well as doing fine professional illustrations. It seems to me that it is possible for someone to produce both fan and professional work in the same year. But we are reliant on the voting fans to not confuse the two, or to vote purely based on 'name' quality.
Alexei Panshin's win for Best Fan Writer surely reflects the publication of his critical book Heinlein in Dimension over the previous year, primarily in one of the nominated fanzines, Riverside Quarterly. This book has had a strange history; Panshin wrote it under contract but on reflection (and perhaps worry of a suit from the subject of the book) the publishers decided not to go ahead with it, so he published it in sections in fanzines, predominantly RQ. This only counts as fan writing by the narrowest of margins, but it is fine work and it's not surprising the Hugo voters saw fit to reward it.
Meanwhile, I have brought back to London a veritable heap of fanzines, and by a happy coincidence every fanzine that was nominated for a Hugo last year has continued to publish. They have all, in the wake of their nominations, mentioned the possibility of the fanzine Hugo being renamed the Pong, and unsurprisingly none of them were in favour of it.
NIEKAS 18, Spring 1967, edited by Ed Meskys and Felice Rolfe
Cover of Niekas 18, by Warren Preston
NIEKAS won Best Fanzine for 1966. This issue is notable chiefly for the variety of material on offer. You might call it uneven. The lead article here, from Ben Solon, aims to directly counter Panshin's reading of Heinlein. It is not, I think, as compelling an argument. The fanzine continues with a pun-filled faanfiction story. Faanfiction, as distinct from fan fiction, is fiction about science fiction fandom. Most of it does not repay careful reading, and some of it does not repay reading at all. There is a reprint of John Brunner's address to Tricon, a strange mixture of industry anecdotes, Brunner's customary self-aggrandisement, and a passionate call to action for science fiction to be, well, better. More challenging, more speculative, and more daring.
John Brunner addresses Tricon, by Jay Jay Klein
Otherwise here we have a partial glossary of Middle Earth, a relatively dull overview of SF in Denmark that could have done with an edit, and then, tucked in at the end, the transcript of a half-hour telephone call with JRR Tolkien by Harry Resnik. Resnik explained that he had agreed to have transatlantic tea, and set the call, and the recorder, for 11am Eastern, 4pm UK. The interview, one of the most detailed yet given by the Lord of the Rings author, is followed up by an equally illuminating Tolkien Society discussion. Startling, but well hidden.
Australian Science Fiction Review 11, August 1967, edited by John Bangsund
"Cordwainer Smith illustration" by Steve Rasmussen from ASFR 11
Such a contrast from NIEKAS! ASFR is a serious critical fanzine with only the slightest fannish side. The editors had an article in preparation about the works of Cordwainer Smith. When the man behind the pseudonym, Paul Linebarger, died last year they decided to go further. Linebarger/Smith's death has not been covered by the Journey as far as I can see, but he was a great loss to our field. He leaves a fine if limited oeuvre, and this fanzine features a detailed obituary by a man who knew him well, a critical consideration of the work, a conversation by the authors of those two pieces, and a bibliography. ASFR 11 also features an index to the first ten issues of ASFR; Harry Warner Jr. is on record as quipping it's about time someone produced an Index to the Indices, a sentiment I understand entirely. But the value of indices of this kind in helping us locate articles and information is invaluable.
Cover of Lighthouse 15 by Jack Gaughan
Ben Solon writes in the letter column "a fanzine of this size and quality seems to inhibit as much comment as it inspires". This fanzine is very good. The pieces hang together far better as a whole, and their general quality is higher than those in, say NIEKAS. It is also far more fannish, with multiple articles that provide insight into the life, and not merely the reading habits, of the authors. Most of those authors are professionals; Carr is well-connected and persuasive. Lighthouse is at its best when it is at its most personal. A well-researched article by Fritz Leiber about the Anima Archetype in science fantasy is less beguiling somehow than an amusing travelogue by Samuel R Delany. And how enticing is the home life of Terry and Carol Carr, as seen through the lens of their fan writing? This would have my vote.
Yandro 172, June 1967, edited by Buck and Juanita Coulson
Yandro 173, August 1967, edited by Buck and Juanita Coulson
Cover of Yandro 173 by Cynthia Goldstone
Yandro 172 (June 1967) and 173 (August 1967) are bundled wtih a flyer advertising the Pan-Pacificon bid to hold the 1968 World Science Fiction convention in both Los Angeles and Tokyo! This would be very exciting but I am not at all sure how it would work, the flyer does not explain, and in any event this bid did not win and next year's World SF Convention will be Baycon. Linked to this is a flyer for the Trans-Oceanic Fan Fund, aiming to bring Japanese fan Takumi Shibano to the World SF Convention. Yandro – a much shorter and more frequent fanzine than some of these – normally features news, reviews and letters, together with one or two longer articles. In 172, the long article in this issue consists of a round-up of the current state of Swedish science fiction fandom from Bo Stenfors. This is fascinating stuff and I hope that the Journey can attract a Swedish correspondent soon. More unusually, 173 gives a great deal of space to Star Trek, with a bibliography by Ruth Berman covering almost every serious and trivial article about the show and its leads. She remarks that far more attention is given to Shatner and Nimoy than to the creators or to the actors in more minor roles. "There are no articles about Gene Roddenberry, who chiefly deserves credit for Star Trek… yet the various articles on the actors and the show… show him as a man of integrity and humor". Yandro's essential for news and updates but there are better fanzines here.
Habakkuk, Chapter II, verse 3, February 1967, edit by Bill Donaho
Cover of Habakkuk Chapter II, verse 3 by Steve Stiles
In most of these fanzines you would scarcely know that the United States is at war with Viet Nam. But Habbukuk has columns from the recently drafted Steve Stiles, now in basic training, and Colin Cameron, exploring the upsides and downsides of life in the army on active service. Otherwise this issue has a long editorial from Donaho. It is tedious on the matter of the parties he has attended recently, which are clearly more exciting to attend than to read about. It perks up, however, when he tells of officiating at what the papers called an 'LSD wedding'.
It has been a while since this issue came out; there were two in 1966 so hopefully we'll see another one soon.
Trumpet 5, April 1967, edited by Tom Reamy
Interior illo from Trumpet 5 by Rob Purim
This is a fantastically well-produced offset litho fanzine full of good clear photos of fans taken at Tricon. It's a delight to see pictures of so many of the folks whose fanzines I've been enjoying.
It's only slightly marred by an entirely nude photo of a woman, devoid of SF content, fantasy content or clothes, on the contents page. Fan artists and photographers; think before doing this, and don't confuse erotica with science fiction, even if we often buy them both in the same bookshops.
The rest of the content, while beautifully produced, largely leaves me cold. There is SF and faanfiction here, and a lengthy deconstruction of Doctor Strangelove by Richard Hodgens that takes rather too long to say rather too little. I very much enjoyed the cartooning of Rob Pudim in this issue but overall I would have to say that Trumpet is a triumph of production values over content.
Riverside Quarterly Volume 3, No. 1, August 1967, edited by Leland Shapiro
Cover of a previous issue of Riverside Quarterly by ATom (Arthur Thomson)
The 1966 issues of RQ had concluded Alexei Panshin's deconstruction of Robert Heinlein, Heinlein in Dimension. Jack Williamson's thesis on HG Wells is thin gruel by comparison, though careful, thoughtful stuff. Writing in Australian SF Review, John Bangsund describes Riverside Quarterly as "a bit too serious for my liking", and I am pretty sure that his enthusiasm for serious consideration of science fiction is way greater than mine. However there is a lot of interest here; in particular, for fans of SF poetry, there are a dozen poems here, some very good.
All of these fanzines have deep, interesting letter columns, where some of the great SF writers and fans of the day engage with the serious and less serious topics raised. Many of the correspondents write to several, or all, of these fanzines, and you can see the most important topics of our age being worked through in real time.
Overall, what does this crop of finalist fanzines and their contributors tell us about the state of science fiction fandom here in 1967? I would argue that it shows that it is in great health. The willingness of professional writers and artists in the field to contribute to, and engage with, fanzines can only be good for the development of the art and craft of science fiction. And, as they have done for half a century, fanzines remain a great way for fans to understand not just the genre, but the profession. And the three Hugos for fan activity will give us a chance to celebrate and reward the best of them.
(Thanks to FANAC, without whom this article would not have been possible)
![[October 16, 1967] A Frosty Reception (<i>Doctor Who</i>: The Abominable Snowmen)](https://galacticjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/671016moreyeti-672x372.jpg)
![[October 14, 1967] Threat level: High (October Galactoscope)](https://galacticjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/671014covers-672x372.jpg)
![[October 12, 1967] See you on the flip side (<i>Star Trek</i>: "Mirror, Mirror")](https://galacticjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/671012title-672x372.jpg)
![[October 10, 1967] Jack the Ripper and Company (<i>Dangerous Visions</i>,Part One)](https://galacticjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1967_Dangerous-Visions-hc-2-672x372.jpg)
![[October 6, 1967] Deus ex Machina (<i>Star Trek</i>: "Changeling")](https://galacticjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/671006title-672x372.jpg)
![[September 30, 1967] Ain't that good news! (October 1967 <i>Analog</i>)](https://galacticjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/670930cover-672x372.jpg)
![[September 28, 1967] We have met Divinity, and He is Ours (<i>Star Trek</i>: "Who Mourns for Adonais")](https://galacticjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/670928title-672x372.jpg)
![[September 24th, 1967] A Really Cool Story (<i>Doctor Who</i>: Tomb Of The Cybermen)](https://galacticjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/660924dontsayit-672x372.jpg)
![[September 18, 1967] Skål! (October 1967 <i>Fantasy and Science Fiction</i>)](https://galacticjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/670918cover-672x372.jpg)
![[September 16, 1967] A quick tour round the Fan Hugos](https://galacticjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/670916-lighthouse-15-cover-by-jack-gaughan-672x372.jpg)