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Reading Around in Old SF Magazines
- Thread starter Bick
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November 1969
The serial The Yngling by John Dalmas finishes. Up north, the neo-Vikings must cross the Baltic as the climate continues to deteriorate. Meanwhile Nils Jarnhand seeks service with the king of Hungary to surreptitiously find out more about an evil empire arising even further east. This empire is ruled by Kazi the Undying, renowned for his sadistic cruelty and for his mystical powers. What Jarnhand learns causes him to gather his brethren under the banner of the Yngling and lead them into battle.
Two novelettes:
Gottlos by Colin Kapp. In a future war, both sides up the ante with more and more sophisticated warmecs, until one side unleashes what they feel to be the ultimate weapon.
The Ambassadors by J.B. Clarke. The Galactic Web has received a diplomatic mission from an even-more powerful star federation. Their ambassadors demand that the Web share some of their technology as a token of their good intentions ... Or Else. But something doesn't add up and those tricky humans are called in to check these aliens out....apparently on the principle that it takes one to know one....
The short stories are:
Weapon of the Ages by W Macfarlane. Aliens are invading a far-off human system, and Pointman Zoll must get the local inhabitants ready to resist, all of whom are oddly senior citizens. He soon learns the reason why.
Shapes to Come by Edward Wellen. Scientest Orim Ingram oversees a program to spread spores over the quadrant, spores to link into any chain of life they encounter and prepare it to meet humans. But something else beats him to it...
Science Fact looks at an experiment attempting to prove telepathy.
The Analytical Library shows the results for the August issue: The Teacher is in first place (2.61) with Pressure following up in second (3.00) just barely ahead of The Timesweepers (3.05) and All Fall Down (3.06). Closest bunching I have seen this year.
The serial The Yngling by John Dalmas finishes. Up north, the neo-Vikings must cross the Baltic as the climate continues to deteriorate. Meanwhile Nils Jarnhand seeks service with the king of Hungary to surreptitiously find out more about an evil empire arising even further east. This empire is ruled by Kazi the Undying, renowned for his sadistic cruelty and for his mystical powers. What Jarnhand learns causes him to gather his brethren under the banner of the Yngling and lead them into battle.
Two novelettes:
Gottlos by Colin Kapp. In a future war, both sides up the ante with more and more sophisticated warmecs, until one side unleashes what they feel to be the ultimate weapon.
The Ambassadors by J.B. Clarke. The Galactic Web has received a diplomatic mission from an even-more powerful star federation. Their ambassadors demand that the Web share some of their technology as a token of their good intentions ... Or Else. But something doesn't add up and those tricky humans are called in to check these aliens out....apparently on the principle that it takes one to know one....
The short stories are:
Weapon of the Ages by W Macfarlane. Aliens are invading a far-off human system, and Pointman Zoll must get the local inhabitants ready to resist, all of whom are oddly senior citizens. He soon learns the reason why.
Shapes to Come by Edward Wellen. Scientest Orim Ingram oversees a program to spread spores over the quadrant, spores to link into any chain of life they encounter and prepare it to meet humans. But something else beats him to it...
Science Fact looks at an experiment attempting to prove telepathy.
The Analytical Library shows the results for the August issue: The Teacher is in first place (2.61) with Pressure following up in second (3.00) just barely ahead of The Timesweepers (3.05) and All Fall Down (3.06). Closest bunching I have seen this year.
December 1969
A new serial starts this month: In Our Hands, the Stars by Harry Harrison. After a terrorist attack on his laboratories, an Israeli scientist takes advantage of the confusion to seek refuge in Denmark ... and takes with him a theory of anti-gravity. A team of Danish scientists and engineers then construct a device that can raise a ship out of water ... quickly drawing the attention of both American and Soviet secret agents. Suddenly, an emergency! The Soviet Lunar mission on the moon is marooned when an accident cripples their escape module. Can they be rescued in time?
One novelette:
Mindwipe by Tak Hallus. The governor of a remote mining colony is mindwiped, and the perpetrator arrested. It appears to be an open and shut case, but the defense lawyer visits the scene of the crime and begins to find clues pointing to a deeper conspiracy.
And three short stories:
Testing ... One, Two, Three, Four by Steve Chapman. Applicants wanting to serve on Mars are put through a series of tests, all monitored and controlled by a computer.
Superiority Complex by Tomas Scortia. A researcher believes he has developed a method to identify the geniuses that walk amongst us.
Any Number Can Play by Richard Lippa. Severe storms are occurring along the eastern seaboard, unexplainable by modern meteorology ... and then a strange boat washes up on the coast.
Science Fact discusses biological aging and asks if it is inevitable.
Issue Notes
The Analytical Library lists the stories for September. Your Haploid Heart finishes first (2.70) with Stimulus-Response in at second (2.95)...And the circulation numbers are released: Total Paid Circulation is 108 383. For comparison, in 1996 the total subscriptions was 61,000... Miller in The Reference Library takes a look at Perry Rhodan. Even bigger now than in 1969 ... and I have never even read a single story. Any opinions on the Rhodan series?
A new serial starts this month: In Our Hands, the Stars by Harry Harrison. After a terrorist attack on his laboratories, an Israeli scientist takes advantage of the confusion to seek refuge in Denmark ... and takes with him a theory of anti-gravity. A team of Danish scientists and engineers then construct a device that can raise a ship out of water ... quickly drawing the attention of both American and Soviet secret agents. Suddenly, an emergency! The Soviet Lunar mission on the moon is marooned when an accident cripples their escape module. Can they be rescued in time?
One novelette:
Mindwipe by Tak Hallus. The governor of a remote mining colony is mindwiped, and the perpetrator arrested. It appears to be an open and shut case, but the defense lawyer visits the scene of the crime and begins to find clues pointing to a deeper conspiracy.
And three short stories:
Testing ... One, Two, Three, Four by Steve Chapman. Applicants wanting to serve on Mars are put through a series of tests, all monitored and controlled by a computer.
Superiority Complex by Tomas Scortia. A researcher believes he has developed a method to identify the geniuses that walk amongst us.
Any Number Can Play by Richard Lippa. Severe storms are occurring along the eastern seaboard, unexplainable by modern meteorology ... and then a strange boat washes up on the coast.
Science Fact discusses biological aging and asks if it is inevitable.
Issue Notes
The Analytical Library lists the stories for September. Your Haploid Heart finishes first (2.70) with Stimulus-Response in at second (2.95)...And the circulation numbers are released: Total Paid Circulation is 108 383. For comparison, in 1996 the total subscriptions was 61,000... Miller in The Reference Library takes a look at Perry Rhodan. Even bigger now than in 1969 ... and I have never even read a single story. Any opinions on the Rhodan series?
dask
dark and stormy knight
Was the Harrison serial ever published in book form? The title doesn’t sound familiar.
Yes, under the same name and as The Daleth Effect.
dask
dark and stormy knight
Thank you. Good to know. I do have The Daleth Effect on the shelf. DV’s description has snagged my sense of wonder and Daleth could be my next book.
Extollager
Well-Known Member
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If Tak Hallus doesn't sound like a Barsoomian name, I'll turn in my radium pistol.
Analog 1969 - Reflections
My observations are very similar to those jotted down after reading the first six issues. Yes, in the last six issues there are a few stories that involve para-psychological phenomena; I counted five, including the serial The Yngling, out of a total of thirty-three different stories. Far from overwhelming.
Were they popular? Based on The Analytical Library for July - Sept, they were: the two PSI stories (The Mind Changer & Stimulus-Response) both finished second in their respective issues.
(Oct - Dec results would be in 1970 issues; if anyone has them, I'd be interested in seeing them).
Accordingly I'll simply repeat what I wrote down at the end of June:
So there does appear to be some appetite in the Analog readership for these types of stories; certainly there was no whole scale rejection by readers of this sub-genre. Nor did I see a single letter in Brass Tacks complaining about them appearing in Analog "the bastion of hard SF".
As far as the general quality of stories, I personally enjoyed quite a few. Compared with the three other years that I have recently read, 1969 would finish in second place behind 1978. But both years are better than 1988 and ... well, the less I write about 1996 the better.
< Of the four years my favorite story is still The Outcasts of Heaven Belt by Joan Vinge - Feb 1978 >
I thought by and large Miller wrote a good column in The Reference Library. Wrote some fairly lengthy observations on the SF field which I found quite interesting looking back from 50 years in the future. Miller was not a fan of the New Wave of SF then breaking onto American shores....and I must confess that I am not completely at odds with some of his observations.
The letters to Brass Tacks were nearly all about the editorials. No change there. And very few ads in the magazine at that time, which I found surprising. Basically only the SF Club and a few public-service announcements. Artist Kelly Freas was very busy in 1969, doing a lot of the covers and internal illustrations. Vincent Di Fate and Leo Summers were also well represented.
Yes, 1969 was a good read.
My observations are very similar to those jotted down after reading the first six issues. Yes, in the last six issues there are a few stories that involve para-psychological phenomena; I counted five, including the serial The Yngling, out of a total of thirty-three different stories. Far from overwhelming.
Were they popular? Based on The Analytical Library for July - Sept, they were: the two PSI stories (The Mind Changer & Stimulus-Response) both finished second in their respective issues.
(Oct - Dec results would be in 1970 issues; if anyone has them, I'd be interested in seeing them).
Accordingly I'll simply repeat what I wrote down at the end of June:
So there does appear to be some appetite in the Analog readership for these types of stories; certainly there was no whole scale rejection by readers of this sub-genre. Nor did I see a single letter in Brass Tacks complaining about them appearing in Analog "the bastion of hard SF".
As far as the general quality of stories, I personally enjoyed quite a few. Compared with the three other years that I have recently read, 1969 would finish in second place behind 1978. But both years are better than 1988 and ... well, the less I write about 1996 the better.
< Of the four years my favorite story is still The Outcasts of Heaven Belt by Joan Vinge - Feb 1978 >
I thought by and large Miller wrote a good column in The Reference Library. Wrote some fairly lengthy observations on the SF field which I found quite interesting looking back from 50 years in the future. Miller was not a fan of the New Wave of SF then breaking onto American shores....and I must confess that I am not completely at odds with some of his observations.
The letters to Brass Tacks were nearly all about the editorials. No change there. And very few ads in the magazine at that time, which I found surprising. Basically only the SF Club and a few public-service announcements. Artist Kelly Freas was very busy in 1969, doing a lot of the covers and internal illustrations. Vincent Di Fate and Leo Summers were also well represented.
Yes, 1969 was a good read.
Fascinating summary DV - and accords with my general feelings about these decades, if not the specific years which I’ve not read through. The ‘70’s were a high point for me. And I really liked Joan Vinge’s Heaven Belt stories from that time too.
Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
Takhallus - Wikipedia
Appropriately, it was a pen name for Stephen Robinett.
Summary Bibliography: Stephen Robinett
Continuing the slow read through Astounding from 1958...
Astounding, July 1958
Jack Vance - The Miracle-Workers
Vance's novella The Miracle-Workers reads as fantasy at the start, but by mid-way reveals its SF credentials, and by the end has become an intriguing study of Arthur Clarke's law that sufficiently advanced scientific development is indistinguishable from fantasy. On a colony world, the settlers have been resident for 1600 years, but have forgotten all the technology that got them there. Their technology (which they feel is superior to the 'old miracles') is based on telepathic control through 'jinxmen', that looks like voodoo. Once the overall scheme is understood by the reader, the story picks up well, and the pacing and ideas are solid. In other words, its a good deal better by the end than one expects from the start. This story is illustrated on the cover, with funky artwork by Kelly Freas.
Christopher Anvil - Top Rung
This is a bit of fluff, really. Anvil can write good work, but he was also the provider of 'filler' for the magazine, I think. The idea here is that a leader, however eccentric, must be driven to anxiety by the fact that he has reached the top rung on the ladder and has nowhere to go. An ambassador to an alien leader provides a solution. This would be one to skip, if you were reading through this year's Astounding issues.
Ralph Williams - Business as Usual, During Alterations
This tale by Ralph Williams is not his most highly regarded (in the sense of awards), as his story Cat and Mouse was a finalist for the 1960 Hugo, but it is perhaps his story most often referenced and anthologised. The tale explores what happens to the economy when an alien race introduce a disruptive technology - in this case a duplication device. The ideas were perhaps novel at the time, but the ramifications to the economy of such a device seem pretty obvious now. Moreover, one can't help thinking that the protagonist (the manager of a department store) acted like a complete fool when he first got hold of the technology. It was quite clear what would happen, yet he needed a psychologist to point out the obvious. In short, it may be a bit of a classic, but it hasn't really stood the test of time.
Hal Clement - Close to Critical (Part 3 of 3)
Clement's serial concluded this month. As mentioned above, the third and final part was a little better than the somewhat stodgy middle. Overall, this was rather a middling quality serial for the time.
Overall Thoughts
Not perhaps the best issue in 1958, though not quite the worst either. The Vance novella was ultimately enjoyable, and the serial conclusion was reasonably entertaining. The short stories sandwiched between were a bit ho-hum, however, so it's far from being a classic issue. There's an interesting special review from Campbell of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, funnily enough. The Analytical Laboratory results in October '58 tell me that contemporary readers agreed with my assessment of the stories this month - placing the Vance top, and the Anvil bottom by some margin.
Astounding, July 1958
Jack Vance - The Miracle-Workers
Vance's novella The Miracle-Workers reads as fantasy at the start, but by mid-way reveals its SF credentials, and by the end has become an intriguing study of Arthur Clarke's law that sufficiently advanced scientific development is indistinguishable from fantasy. On a colony world, the settlers have been resident for 1600 years, but have forgotten all the technology that got them there. Their technology (which they feel is superior to the 'old miracles') is based on telepathic control through 'jinxmen', that looks like voodoo. Once the overall scheme is understood by the reader, the story picks up well, and the pacing and ideas are solid. In other words, its a good deal better by the end than one expects from the start. This story is illustrated on the cover, with funky artwork by Kelly Freas.
Christopher Anvil - Top Rung
This is a bit of fluff, really. Anvil can write good work, but he was also the provider of 'filler' for the magazine, I think. The idea here is that a leader, however eccentric, must be driven to anxiety by the fact that he has reached the top rung on the ladder and has nowhere to go. An ambassador to an alien leader provides a solution. This would be one to skip, if you were reading through this year's Astounding issues.
Ralph Williams - Business as Usual, During Alterations
This tale by Ralph Williams is not his most highly regarded (in the sense of awards), as his story Cat and Mouse was a finalist for the 1960 Hugo, but it is perhaps his story most often referenced and anthologised. The tale explores what happens to the economy when an alien race introduce a disruptive technology - in this case a duplication device. The ideas were perhaps novel at the time, but the ramifications to the economy of such a device seem pretty obvious now. Moreover, one can't help thinking that the protagonist (the manager of a department store) acted like a complete fool when he first got hold of the technology. It was quite clear what would happen, yet he needed a psychologist to point out the obvious. In short, it may be a bit of a classic, but it hasn't really stood the test of time.
Hal Clement - Close to Critical (Part 3 of 3)
Clement's serial concluded this month. As mentioned above, the third and final part was a little better than the somewhat stodgy middle. Overall, this was rather a middling quality serial for the time.
Overall Thoughts
Not perhaps the best issue in 1958, though not quite the worst either. The Vance novella was ultimately enjoyable, and the serial conclusion was reasonably entertaining. The short stories sandwiched between were a bit ho-hum, however, so it's far from being a classic issue. There's an interesting special review from Campbell of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, funnily enough. The Analytical Laboratory results in October '58 tell me that contemporary readers agreed with my assessment of the stories this month - placing the Vance top, and the Anvil bottom by some margin.
dask
dark and stormy knight
Really a great cover.
AE35Unit
]==[]===O °
I read an early Ed McBain story last night as an ebook download from a 1950s issue of If magazine. It was called Welcome Martians! Published as by Salvatore Albert Lombino, McBain's real name! (Though the cover has it as A. S. Lombino)
With the end of Covid restrictions, my SF reading has dropped off. However I did pick up an odd lot of Analog issues last year, and have started to make my slow way through them (mostly sticking one in a backpack and reading it while camping). In the collection there are four from 1990, which was the sixtieth anniversary of Astounding-Analog.
JANUARY 1990 DOUBLE ISSUE
Kelly Freas did the cover.
Novelettes:
Angel by Stephen Burns. A disillusioned doctor with a special talent is kidnapped by the agent of the evil Brother Fist and taken to the planet Ananke.
Inertia by Nancy Kress. The victims of a disfiguring plague are locked up in camps and left to fend for themselves. Then a doctor arrives promising a cure, in spite of a ban on helping the sick.
Checksum by Stephen Kraus. An unusual lobbyist attracts the attention of a corporate security chief. Uncovering her secrets puts his loyalty to his powerful corporate boss to the test.
The Baseline Project by Lee Goodloe & Jerry Oltion. A researcher uncovers the source of an increasing number of comets in the sky. But can she convince the powers-that-be of the potential danger?
Nightfall by Isaac Asimov. Originally published in 1941. When all of the suns set on the planet Lagash, what will the night sky reveal?
Birthright by Poul Anderson. Originally published in 1970. The manager of the planet Suleiman visits his boss, Nicholas Van Rijn of the Solar Spice and Liquors Company, with his report and his resignation. But Van Rijn has other ideas.
Short Stories:
The Double-Spiral Staircase by Charles Sheffield. The key to the stars lies within us.
The Feeders by Michael Flynn. Angels and demons on the battlefields of WW1.
A Little Bit of an Eclipse by Maya Kathryn Bonoff. An alien con man arrives on Earth to sell some of the local real estate.
The Carbon Papers by John Gribbon. Holmes and Watson investigate a murder case.
Lifer by D.M. Vidrine. After 30 thirty years of subjective time, spacers must retire. But where and ... when?
Letter to a Phoenix by Fredric Brown. Originally published in 1949. Humanity continually arises from the ashes of its self-inflicted catastrophes. Unlike other alien civilizations.
Science Fact is Sixty Astounding Years by Michael Flynn (see above illustration). Discusses the themes and trends that have appeared in Astounding/Analog over the years, many of which are now reality.
(How many of the issues in the illustration do you own? I have only a couple.
Frank Kelly Freas has an article "The Art of Science Fiction". Freas has been illustrating for nearly 40 years (as of 1990). Lots of good points here. And there are a few publishers (and illustrators) that would do well to read this article; we might then not have covers and illustrations that have little or nothing in common with the story. Maybe....
Issue Notes
Futures looks at two video releases, Forbidden Planet with lots of extras, and the uncut version of The Thing from Another World. Both look good...Biolog looks at the authors in Astounding at the time Campbell took over. Jay Jay Klein writes that many of the first stores of modern SF are "highly readable unlike nearly all pre-Campbell writings that, sadly but truthfully, can only be read by historians of the field or masochists" (this shows that, no matter what one may now think of some of Campbell's ideas, there is no doubt that he presided over a sea change in SF writing)...The Alternate View discusses Einstein's "spookiness" or nonlocality...There are two Editor's Pages in this issue: John Campbell discusses the medical profession (1964) and Ben Bova writes about censorship (1977)...Finally there are quite a few ads for novels in this issue but the gaming column is no longer appearing...
Comments
As I noted in my reviews of 1996, I feel that some of these stories in this time period are straying more towards 'speculative' fiction rather than 'science' fiction. For example, compare The Feeders with Nightfall.
One of my favorite artists did the illustration for the short story Lifer (the only one of the 'modern' short stories that I found interesting). Janet Aulisio has a way of using shadowing that is really unique. And I spotted one of her covers in the montage of Sixty Astounding Years.
JANUARY 1990 DOUBLE ISSUE
Kelly Freas did the cover.
Novelettes:
Angel by Stephen Burns. A disillusioned doctor with a special talent is kidnapped by the agent of the evil Brother Fist and taken to the planet Ananke.
Inertia by Nancy Kress. The victims of a disfiguring plague are locked up in camps and left to fend for themselves. Then a doctor arrives promising a cure, in spite of a ban on helping the sick.
Checksum by Stephen Kraus. An unusual lobbyist attracts the attention of a corporate security chief. Uncovering her secrets puts his loyalty to his powerful corporate boss to the test.
The Baseline Project by Lee Goodloe & Jerry Oltion. A researcher uncovers the source of an increasing number of comets in the sky. But can she convince the powers-that-be of the potential danger?
Nightfall by Isaac Asimov. Originally published in 1941. When all of the suns set on the planet Lagash, what will the night sky reveal?
Birthright by Poul Anderson. Originally published in 1970. The manager of the planet Suleiman visits his boss, Nicholas Van Rijn of the Solar Spice and Liquors Company, with his report and his resignation. But Van Rijn has other ideas.
Short Stories:
The Double-Spiral Staircase by Charles Sheffield. The key to the stars lies within us.
The Feeders by Michael Flynn. Angels and demons on the battlefields of WW1.
A Little Bit of an Eclipse by Maya Kathryn Bonoff. An alien con man arrives on Earth to sell some of the local real estate.
The Carbon Papers by John Gribbon. Holmes and Watson investigate a murder case.
Lifer by D.M. Vidrine. After 30 thirty years of subjective time, spacers must retire. But where and ... when?
Letter to a Phoenix by Fredric Brown. Originally published in 1949. Humanity continually arises from the ashes of its self-inflicted catastrophes. Unlike other alien civilizations.
Science Fact is Sixty Astounding Years by Michael Flynn (see above illustration). Discusses the themes and trends that have appeared in Astounding/Analog over the years, many of which are now reality.
(How many of the issues in the illustration do you own? I have only a couple.
Frank Kelly Freas has an article "The Art of Science Fiction". Freas has been illustrating for nearly 40 years (as of 1990). Lots of good points here. And there are a few publishers (and illustrators) that would do well to read this article; we might then not have covers and illustrations that have little or nothing in common with the story. Maybe....
Issue Notes
Futures looks at two video releases, Forbidden Planet with lots of extras, and the uncut version of The Thing from Another World. Both look good...Biolog looks at the authors in Astounding at the time Campbell took over. Jay Jay Klein writes that many of the first stores of modern SF are "highly readable unlike nearly all pre-Campbell writings that, sadly but truthfully, can only be read by historians of the field or masochists" (this shows that, no matter what one may now think of some of Campbell's ideas, there is no doubt that he presided over a sea change in SF writing)...The Alternate View discusses Einstein's "spookiness" or nonlocality...There are two Editor's Pages in this issue: John Campbell discusses the medical profession (1964) and Ben Bova writes about censorship (1977)...Finally there are quite a few ads for novels in this issue but the gaming column is no longer appearing...
Comments
As I noted in my reviews of 1996, I feel that some of these stories in this time period are straying more towards 'speculative' fiction rather than 'science' fiction. For example, compare The Feeders with Nightfall.
One of my favorite artists did the illustration for the short story Lifer (the only one of the 'modern' short stories that I found interesting). Janet Aulisio has a way of using shadowing that is really unique. And I spotted one of her covers in the montage of Sixty Astounding Years.
Thanks for that DeltaV - how were the Anderson and Brown reprints? They are not stories I'm familiar with. A good line up for the new stuff too, with Sheffield, Kress and Burns.
Birthright is a typical story from Poul Anderson's Polesotechnic League universe. On the planet Suleiman Van Rijn has a trading post, buying a plant called "bluejack" from the locals which is then sold to other planets. One of those planets, Osman, decides to cut out the middle man and lands a robotic harvesting center on Suleiman, taking over the area where bluejack is grown. The locals are at a very simple level of technology (they harvest bluejack manually) and are helpless. The local Solar Spice and Liquors Company factor has to figure out how to get Osman off of the planet. A light entertaining read.
Letter to a Phoenix is a big-picture story. Told from the viewpoint of a human 180,000 years old, the writer only ages one day every forty-five years due to a genetic accident caused by a nuclear war in his distant past. During that time frame, humanity has risen from the ashes six times to go out into the stars. I'll move into spoiler mode to explain more.
Letter to a Phoenix is a big-picture story. Told from the viewpoint of a human 180,000 years old, the writer only ages one day every forty-five years due to a genetic accident caused by a nuclear war in his distant past. During that time frame, humanity has risen from the ashes six times to go out into the stars. I'll move into spoiler mode to explain more.
That is, six times before our present time. The writer is now addressing humanity in the year 1954. On the ascendency once again, there will however be another nuclear war ... an apparently necessary step to the stars: "Then, with the memory of what you will call World War III as a warning, man will think - as he has always thought after a mild atomic war - that he has conquered his own insanity". And then make it back out into space again. Apparently, this "insanity" of self-destruction and the consequences are what distinguishes humans from other alien species who only show up on the galactic stage once, then disappear. Hence the phoenix in the title.
Of course this story was written in 1949.
Of course this story was written in 1949.
Letter to aPhoenix sounds great, thanks.
MARCH 1990
(unfortunately I only have four issues from 1990 in the lot I picked up).
Novella
Backlash by W.R. Thompson. An alien ambassador is mugged in New York and the local precinct lieutenant is put on the case by the Feds. Mix in genetically-enhanced humans, their opponents, some shady industrialists, and things get complicated fast.
Novelettes:
Passages by Joe Haldeman. A big game hunting guide is hired by a rich merchant to bag a dangerous alien creature on the planet Obelobel.
Expression of the Past by Deborah Ross. The Planetary Integration Authority is trying to uplift the lost human colony on Arcadia...some of whom do not want to be uplifted.
Short Stories:
The Solomon Solution by Paula May. The fight against a deadly plague is handcuffed by governmental legislation.
Side Effect by Roger McBride Allen. Trimalicine-3 cures everything but has a very odd side effect on any cancerous cells rendering it virtually useless. Except for rats.
The Alternate View looks at the Twin Paradox. Sam travels at near light-speed while Ernest stays behind, causing both to age differently. This was the context of January's story Lifer (as well as in many other SF stories).
Science Fact by Robert Zubrin is on nuclear rocketry, using the NERVA engine developed in the 1960s. Apparently this could cut the flight time to Mars by half, and use locally available gases to form a high thrust rocket exhaust (the illustration on the cover is of a nuclear rocket).
Issue Notes
Futures looks at a couple of computer SF games...State of the Art discusses the economic side of world building...There is an ad in this issue for Redwall by Brian Jacques...Interesting letter in Brass Tacks from Ben Bova encouraging people to get involved in the space movement: "To all those idealists who want to see us move into space in a major way, I beg you to get up off the bench and into the game. You'll get bruised, certainly. But you'll be helping!"
Comments
The name of Robert Zubrin seemed familiar to me from somewhere. Wikipedia reveals that he is a vocal proponent of colonizing Mars and has written a number of books about how to do it. I wonder why no one is looking into the Nerva rocket today. I'll have to do some more reading on it.
Several good stories in this issue. Passages has a neat twist of viewpoint at the end. And I thought Thompson did a good job with Backlash. There are always winners and losers when new technology comes along and that sometimes the 'losers' end up as 'winners' by suppressing it.
The police lieutenant retires at the end of the story: "I looked around the office. There was no way to tell I'd spent twelve years behind that desk. I might never have been here at all. But I knew what I'd done while I was here, and why. That was what counted." Maybe some of use hope to have that same feeling when the day comes for us to retire.
(unfortunately I only have four issues from 1990 in the lot I picked up).
Novella
Backlash by W.R. Thompson. An alien ambassador is mugged in New York and the local precinct lieutenant is put on the case by the Feds. Mix in genetically-enhanced humans, their opponents, some shady industrialists, and things get complicated fast.
Novelettes:
Passages by Joe Haldeman. A big game hunting guide is hired by a rich merchant to bag a dangerous alien creature on the planet Obelobel.
Expression of the Past by Deborah Ross. The Planetary Integration Authority is trying to uplift the lost human colony on Arcadia...some of whom do not want to be uplifted.
Short Stories:
The Solomon Solution by Paula May. The fight against a deadly plague is handcuffed by governmental legislation.
Side Effect by Roger McBride Allen. Trimalicine-3 cures everything but has a very odd side effect on any cancerous cells rendering it virtually useless. Except for rats.
The Alternate View looks at the Twin Paradox. Sam travels at near light-speed while Ernest stays behind, causing both to age differently. This was the context of January's story Lifer (as well as in many other SF stories).
Science Fact by Robert Zubrin is on nuclear rocketry, using the NERVA engine developed in the 1960s. Apparently this could cut the flight time to Mars by half, and use locally available gases to form a high thrust rocket exhaust (the illustration on the cover is of a nuclear rocket).
Issue Notes
Futures looks at a couple of computer SF games...State of the Art discusses the economic side of world building...There is an ad in this issue for Redwall by Brian Jacques...Interesting letter in Brass Tacks from Ben Bova encouraging people to get involved in the space movement: "To all those idealists who want to see us move into space in a major way, I beg you to get up off the bench and into the game. You'll get bruised, certainly. But you'll be helping!"
Comments
The name of Robert Zubrin seemed familiar to me from somewhere. Wikipedia reveals that he is a vocal proponent of colonizing Mars and has written a number of books about how to do it. I wonder why no one is looking into the Nerva rocket today. I'll have to do some more reading on it.
Several good stories in this issue. Passages has a neat twist of viewpoint at the end. And I thought Thompson did a good job with Backlash. There are always winners and losers when new technology comes along and that sometimes the 'losers' end up as 'winners' by suppressing it.
The police lieutenant retires at the end of the story: "I looked around the office. There was no way to tell I'd spent twelve years behind that desk. I might never have been here at all. But I knew what I'd done while I was here, and why. That was what counted." Maybe some of use hope to have that same feeling when the day comes for us to retire.
This little story absolutely blew me away when I read it, aged 13. I had just been given Martin Gardner's Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions and my interest in maths had been fired up. I spent hours drawing and thinking about hypercubes, and trying to imagine what it would be like to walk around that house. Would still love to visit.
Since this thread is about old pulp fiction magazines, hopefully no-one will mind if I post this quest again here. No hits so far...
When I was 10 or 11 my brothers and I found in the cellar under our new house a trove of Astounding, Amazing, Fantasic etc pulp fiction magazines. They dated from ~ 1930 to 1940 and were in good condition as the cellar was very dry. I read them all from cover to cover. A few stories stick with me, some of which I've been able to re-find via sites like the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. But one in particular has eluded all searches.
AFAICR the title was something like the The Crystal of Beryl, or The Beryllium Crystal. The story's title page pictured a crystal lattice. Somehow the protagonist has got inside it and is trapped there. The crystal has strange properties that lets him travel in time and space. This picture reminded me of it. Do I jog anyone's memory? Mine hasn't proved very useful! Suggestions also welcome.
View attachment 90908
When I was 10 or 11 my brothers and I found in the cellar under our new house a trove of Astounding, Amazing, Fantasic etc pulp fiction magazines. They dated from ~ 1930 to 1940 and were in good condition as the cellar was very dry. I read them all from cover to cover. A few stories stick with me, some of which I've been able to re-find via sites like the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. But one in particular has eluded all searches.
AFAICR the title was something like the The Crystal of Beryl, or The Beryllium Crystal. The story's title page pictured a crystal lattice. Somehow the protagonist has got inside it and is trapped there. The crystal has strange properties that lets him travel in time and space. This picture reminded me of it. Do I jog anyone's memory? Mine hasn't proved very useful! Suggestions also welcome.
View attachment 90908
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