{"id":10981,"date":"2019-08-21T12:37:04","date_gmt":"2019-08-21T12:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/?p=10981"},"modified":"2019-08-21T12:37:04","modified_gmt":"2019-08-21T12:37:04","slug":"the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-42-november-1954","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/?p=10981","title":{"rendered":"The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction #42, November 1954"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ISFDB<\/a>
\nLuminist<\/a><\/p>\n

_____________________<\/p>\n

Editor, Anthony Boucher<\/p>\n

Fiction:
\nDead Center<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Judith Merril \u2217\u2217\u2217<\/strong>
\nDead-Eye Daniel<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Larry Siegel \u2217<\/strong>
\nThe Grom<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Arthur Porges \u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>
\nLease on Life<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Lee Grimes \u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>
\nThe Test<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Richard Matheson \u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>
\nTransformer<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Chad Oliver \u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>
\nA Matter of Ethics<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Clifton Dance [as by J. R. Shango] \u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>
\nSacrifice Hit<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Edmond Hamilton \u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>+
\nThe Weissenbroch Spectacles<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt \u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong><\/p>\n

Non-Fiction:
\nCover <\/em><\/strong>\u2022 Chesley Bonestell
\nComing Next
\nRecommended Reading <\/em><\/strong>\u2022 by Anthony Boucher<\/p>\n

_____________________<\/p>\n

This issue of F&SF<\/em> comes from the period where Anthony Boucher was in sole charge of the magazine,1<\/sup> and the reason I\u2019m reading it is because it contains Dead Center<\/em><\/strong> by Judith Merril.2<\/sup> This story is one of two in this month\u2019s magazine that focus on the domestic circumstances of the characters.<\/p>\n

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The story concerns the impending departure of husband\/father\/astronaut Jock Kruger into space, and is largely seen through the eyes his wife, Ruth Kruger, and their four year old son, Toby:<\/p>\n

They took him up in an elevator, and showed him all around the inside of the rocket, where Daddy would sit, and where all the food was stored, for emergency, they said, and the radio and everything. Then it was time to say goodbye.
\nDaddy was laughing at first, and Toby tried to laugh, too, but he didn\u2019t really want Daddy to go away. Daddy kissed him, and he felt like crying because it was scratchy against Daddy\u2019s cheek, and the strong fingers were hurting him now. Then Daddy stopped laughing and looked at him very seriously. \u201cYou take care of your mother, now,\u201d Daddy told him. \u201cYou\u2019re a big boy this time.\u201d
\n\u201cOkay,\u201d Toby said. Last time Daddy went away in a rocket, he was not-quite-four, and they teased him with the poem in the book that said, James James Morrison Morrison Weatherby George Dupree, Took great care of his mother, though he was only three . . . .<\/em> So Toby didn\u2019t much like Daddy saying that now, because he knew they didn\u2019t really mean it.
\n\u201cOkay,\u201d he said, and then because he was angry, he said, \u201cOnly she\u2019s supposed to take care of me, isn\u2019t she?\u201d
\nDaddy and Mommy both laughed, and so did the two men who were standing there waiting for Daddy to get done saying goodbye to him. He wriggled, and Daddy put him down.
\n\u201cI\u2019ll bring you a piece of the moon, son,\u201d Daddy said, and Toby said, \u201cAll right, fine.\u201d He reached for his mother\u2019s hand, but he found himself hanging onto Grandma instead, because Mommy and Daddy were kissing each other, and both of them had forgotten all about him.
\nHe thought they were never going to get done kissing.\u00a0 p. 6<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After the launch takes place, matters take an adverse turn when Jock comes around to find he has been blacked out for an abnormally long period, over twenty minutes. Ruth discusses the episode with one of the team:<\/p>\n

\u201cWasn\u2019t it . . . an awfully long time?\u201d [Ruth] asked. She hadn\u2019t been watching the clock, on purpose, but she was sure it was longer than it should have been.
\nAllie stopped smiling. \u201cTwenty-three,\u201d she said.
\nRuth gasped. \u201cWhat . . . ?\u201d
\n\u201cYou figure it. I can\u2019t.\u201d
\n\u201cThere\u2019s nothing in the ship. I mean nothing was changed that would account for it.\u201d She shook her head slowly. This time she didn\u2019t know the ship well enough to talk like that. There could be something. Oh, Jock! \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d she said. \u201cToo many people worked on that thing. I . . .\u201d
\n\u201cMrs. Kruger\u2019\u201d It was the redheaded reporter, the obnoxious one. \u201cWe just got the report on the blackout. I\u2019d like a statement from you, if you don\u2019t mind, as designer of the ship\u2014\u201d
\n\u201cI am not the designer of this ship,\u201d she said coldly.
\n\u201cYou worked on the design, didn\u2019t you?\u201d
\n\u201cYes.\u201d
\n\u201cWell, then, to the best of your knowledge . . . ?\u201d
\n\u201cTo the best of my knowledge, there is no change in design to account for Mr. Kruger\u2019s prolonged unconsciousness. Had there been any such prognosis, the press would have been informed.\u201d
\n\u201cMrs. Kruger, I\u2019d like to ask you whether you feel that the innovations made by Mr. Argent could\u2014\u201d\u00a0 p. 9-10<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The situation worsens when Jock is stranded on the Moon after using more fuel than necessary to land. After this the military takes over the rescue mission, and Ruth becomes involved when they decide to use the older KIM-III model she designed.
\nThis convincingly described section is followed by more material about Ruth and Toby, which also covers further politicking at the spaceflight bureau. Eventually Ruth and Toby attend the launch of the rescue vehicle and (spoiler), when Toby is shown around the craft before launch, he stows away. The ship crashes after take-off.
\nIn the coda of the story we find that Ruth later commits suicide, and that Jock\u2019s starved body is eventually brought back from the moon. The family are buried together.
\nThis bare bones description doesn\u2019t convey the kind of story this is\u2014it feels like a mainstream novel about the NASA program that, although it has an underlying plot structure, develops naturally (well, at least until the last couple of pages). I particularly liked the group interactions, the organisational politics, and the press intrusion material, as well as the sections from Toby\u2019s point of view. That said, the ending overdoes the bleakness and tragedy, and I couldn\u2019t help but think that it would be a more effective (and realistic) story if Ruth lived\u2014in its current form it\u2019s like one of those Greek tragedies where the Gods turn up at the end and kill all the mortals. If Merril had kept Ruth alive but grief-struck the story would have continued developing organically, and avoided the omnisciently told and distancing coda (which reads like something from a different story).
\nIf this is not an entirely successful piece, it is an ambitious and noteworthy one.3<\/sup>
\nThe other story in this issue that focuses on the characters\u2019 domestic circumstances is less successful. The Test<\/em><\/strong> by Richard Matheson starts with Les helping his eighty year old father Tom revise for a test he has to attend the next day. As Tom becomes exasperated at his inability to complete the cognitive and co-ordination tests Les gives him, we learn that, in this world, old people have to pass assessments to keep living. If they fail, they get a month to sort out their affairs before receiving a lethal injection.
\nIt soon becomes clear that Tom will not pass the test, and this is the subject of an ensuing conversation between Tom and his wife Terry. This is an ambivalent exchange as there are domestic tensions in the household including, among other matters, the fact that Terry doesn\u2019t want Tom with them for another five years (there is reference here to a letter couples can submit to have their elderly relatives removed).
\nLes gets up the next morning and sees his father away. When the father returns that night he goes straight to his room and, when Les later quizzes his father, Les learns (spoiler) that he did not attend but instead went to the pharmacist to purchase suicide pills. The story ends with the implication that Tom has taken his own life.
\nThis is competently executed, but it is hard to take the central premise seriously.
\nIf the amount of time that people spend on their mobile devices concerns you, Dead-Eye Daniel<\/em><\/strong> by Larry Siegel may be of interest, as it shows similar 1950\u2019s anxieties about television:<\/p>\n

TV, in case you didn\u2019t know it, first came out in the mid \u201940\u2019s. You probably won\u2019t believe it, but before television was around, people used to visit places called libraries (they were nothing but big halls that held books), parks (large sections set aside so that people could\u2014of all things\u2014sit on the grass, lie under trees, and row on lakes), and other nonsense like that.
\nOther folks (and so help me, this is true!) used to spend hours visiting friends and relatives\u2014and get this\u2014doing absolutely nothing but talk!
\nOf course, after TV really set in, things became normal. By 1957, husbands were paying little attention to wives, mothers were ignoring kids, and kids rarely left their living rooms\u2014except in emergencies, like fires and stuff. You know, the way it is now. We take care of our basic needs, and spend all the rest of the time watching TV or talking about it.\u00a0 p. 26-27<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This story proceeds to give an account of a competitive (non-stop) TV viewing contest, which starts when two men encounter \u201cDead-Eye Daniel,\u201d who watches TV in an apparently catatonic state. Seeing their chance to make some money they set up a match against the Russians (this takes place in the Cold War 1950s after all), who field a UN envoy who has a habit of walking out during votes on the accession of \u201cGrubonia\u201d to the UN. This latter fact (spoiler) is used to trick the Russian into walking out of the contest and losing. A weak ending to an unlikely and overlong story.
\nThe Grom<\/em><\/strong> by Arthur Porges is told from the point of view of a cat called Tamberlane, who follows a grom (an invisible, malevolent spirit) around town while it causes trouble for humans. The Grom\u2019s trouble-making peaks when it almost manages to incite a mob to hang a man (the police intervene).
\nThe ending (where the grom meets a black hobo coming off a train) concludes with the line (spoiler): \u201cHe knew that the grom would not be frustrated again.\u201d
\nThe first time I read this story the point entirely escaped me. Part of this was undoubtedly me, but I think that the ending, and its implication that the grom will incite a lynch-mob, could have a sharper focus.
\nIt is interesting to see this grim subject appear in the magazine (I can\u2019t remember reading another fantasy or science fiction story from this period about these dreadful events).4<\/sup>
\nLease on Life<\/em><\/strong> by Lee Grimes is a time travel story where two doctoral students and their professor develop a time machine. Baxter, one of the students and also the narrator, prepares to go forward in time, while the other, Casselton, controls the equipment. Professor Durward acts as Baxter\u2019s temporal \u201canchor\u201d:<\/p>\n

[Casselton] checked the helmet [Doc] Durward would wear. One mind had to be both lever and anchor, and that was Doc\u2019s function. Next Casselton checked the cables from the helmet to the power pack and to the cage. The latter was a skeleton of vertical tubes, spaced two feet apart around a circular base, and supporting the activating mechanism. The whole device was just tall enough for a man to stand inside. Finally he checked the cutoff timer. Since the mental effort to send me into the future would throw Doc into a trance, the timer was set to cut off power at the proper moment. Doc and I would be linked by an elastic, immaterial bond that would snap me back to \u201cbase time\u201d when the field collapsed.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s set for one hundred years ahead,\u201d Casselton said. \u201cFive minutes to get there, ten minutes to make observations, and five minutes to get back.\u201d He gave me a speculative look, much as if I were some lower organism about to be plunged into a test tube.
\n\u201cI\u2019m ready,\u201d I answered.\u00a0 p. 43-44<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The narrator, Baxter, finds himself in the near future, not a hundred years ahead as they planned, and on his return they deduce that the period a traveller can visit is limited to the lifetime of the anchor (the professor says, \u201cMy heart, I suppose.\u201d) Casselton switches places with the professor and acts as the anchor for the next trip: Baxter goes forward a hundred years\u2014only to find himself arrested by a totalitarian theocracy. This turns out to be ruled by Casselton, who, once he discovered he was going to live for a further hundred years, took many risks to become world dictator.
\nThis clever piece is written in the form of a long letter to the future resistance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Transformer<\/em><\/strong> by Chad Oliver is a fantasy about a toy town in a model railroad setup, and the residents\u2019 trials at the hand of the thirteen year old owner:<\/p>\n

The only rest room in town is in the gas station, and that\u2019s all the place is used for. It\u2019s ridiculous. They only know how to serve one dish at the diner, because that\u2019s all that was on the counter. Bacon and fried eggs and coffee. You think about it, Clyde. Two meals a day every day for seven years. That\u2019s a lot of bacon and eggs. You lose your taste for them after awhile.
\nThe train runs right by the side of the hotel, only two inches away. It rattles the whole thing until it\u2019s ready to fall apart, and every time it goes by it pours black smoke in through the upstairs window. There\u2019s a tenant up there, name of Martin. He looks like he\u2019s made out of soot.
\nThe whole town is knee-deep in dust. Did you ever see a kid clean anything that belongs to him? And there\u2019s no water, either. That cellophane in the Ohio River may look good from where you stand, but it\u2019s about as wet as the gold in Fort Knox. Not only that, but it crinkles all the time where it flows under the bridges. It\u2019s enough to drive you bats.\u00a0 p. 75<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Eventually the occupants of the toy town tamper with the transformer to try and electrocute the kid, but (spoiler) they fail, and then the kid sells off all the parts of the train set to various buyers. The narrator finds herself out of the frying pan and in the fire.
\nThis is an entertaining piece for the most part, but the first page is confusing and unnecessary, and the story peters out a bit at the end.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A Matter of Ethics<\/em><\/strong> by Clifton Dance gets off to a cracking start when Colby, a junior doctor, has to treat a cardiac surgeon called Mendez for a heart attack after their spaceship comes out of \u201ctransition\u201d. The initial paragraphs crackle with energy and information:<\/p>\n

It was certainly a coronary. Mendez wasn\u2019t too old, but he was in a position of wealth and authority. He no longer needed to worry about pleasing other people so he\u2019d let his body go. A common enough situation with specialists; no inherent sense of artistry except in connection with one thing. They could be perfectionists in fire sculpture, hypothalamic surgery, or Venusian phonetics, but they didn\u2019t carryover their perfectionism to the care of their bodies and this was what happened. The coronary vessels of the heart wall had lost their resiliency\u2014perhaps foolish or capricious eating habits had thickened the vessel walls\u2014and now, a sudden stress, the cushioned acceleration of the space drive, and a slight alarm reaction, the coronary vessels constrict stopping the flow of blood to the heart wall, pain in the heart, more alarm, more constriction, more pain. A vicious circle, and if it lasts over a minute, clots start forming ill the vessels, and cells in the heart wall begin to die from lack of blood. If the lack is long enough a large area of the heart wall will die. If it is large enough, nothing can save the victim except immediate intervention by a skilled mural cardiosurgeon, like Mendez.
\nColby sighed. Yes, like Mendez. Not like Colby. He\u2019d only had five years residency in surgery, then five years in cardiology, then three years in mural cardiosurgery. Thirteen years in labs, autopsy rooms, surgical amphitheaters.
\nThirteen years of emergency call, interrupted sleep, hasty meals, and class four subsistence level pay. Thirteen years and then he\u2019d taken his examination for the Intergalactic Board of Mural Cardiosurgery.
\nAnd what had Mendez said? Mendez, the president of that august body!
\n\u201cIt would be criminal for you to operate on humans at this stage in your development.\u201d Criminal! And what had the Board recommended? Five more years of special supervised training under a Board man!
\nFive more years of crap from Harkaway!\u00a0 p. 83<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After Mendez is stabilised, and Colby has spoken with the ship\u2019s doctor about the possibility of operating (illegal for Colby as, per above, he is not qualified\/Board approved), Colby brings Mendez round. There is an extended conversation between the two men as Mendez tries to convince Colby to operate; Colby says that if Mendez wants him to operate he needs to put Colby on the board, otherwise Colby will suffer severe legal and professional penalties. Mendez says he can\u2019t do that without fellow board members. Eventually (spoiler), when Mendez realises that without an operation he will die during the next transition, he tells Colby that the Board is a closed shop, set up to ensure that the only successful operations are ones conducted by Board members using a special healing scalpel that makes the operation a routine one.
\nColby agrees to operate on Mendez but then, during the anaesthesia stage, gives him a massive overdose of ephedrine and kills him. Once Colby arrives at his destination he demands an examination from the Board, during which he not only gets his own back on Hathaway, his supervisor, but blackmails the Board over the secret of the scalpel.
\nColby later becomes famous for \u201cdiscovering\u201d the scalpel, and breaks the Board\u2019s stranglehold on cardiac surgery.
\nThis is an interesting look at the restrictive practices of the (pseudonymous) writer\u2019s profession, and its jaundiced view is one of its strengths, as is its generally engrossing and energetic narrative. The story\u2019s weaknesses are its baggy and not entirely convincing middle section, and the omniscient viewpoint ending (another one). Overall though, it\u2019s a pretty good piece, and it is a shame that this obviously talented writer didn\u2019t contribute any further tales to the field.5<\/sup><\/p>\n

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I hadn\u2019t read Sacrifice Hit<\/em><\/strong> by Edmond Hamilton before I started writing this review otherwise I may have opened this post with comments about \u201cthree stories that focus on interpersonal relationships\u201d rather than \u201ctwo [which] focus on the domestic circumstances of the characters\u201d.
\nIn Hamilton\u2019s story events focus on three characters: General Weiler, the commander in charge of a UN Interplanetary Service Base in Colorado which controls a number of exploration colonies scattered throughout the solar system; Secretary Ebbutt, the politician in charge, and the one responsible for funding; and Colonel Alsop, the commander of the Europan expedition, and a man who Weiler regards as a potentially reckless, \u201cfame-happy\u201d character (Alsop never appears onstage although he is frequently referred to, and is heard from in a number of time-lagged radio communications).
\nThe story itself starts with a message coming into the base that an expedition on Europa has suffered quake damage to their domes and rocket, with one fatality so far. General Weiler thinks that he will need to send rescue rockets from Ganymede, but in a phonecall Ebbutt asks him to wait for further information so as not to jeopardise upcoming appropriations. While General Weiler waits for Ebbutt to fly in, he reflects on what the expedition might be going through:<\/p>\n

Weiler sat in his office and thought about 32 men in prison.
\nThey had been in prison for a long time, those men. First, in the iron guts of a rocket, lying in their bunks, telling dirty stories, eating, getting sick, smearing salve on their radiation-itch, sleeping, and waking, and sleeping again. Then strapping in, and praying, and getting bumped, and yelling to each other that they\u2019d made it.
\nMade it to where? To another prison, a whole little chain of them. Four interconnected metal domes that you helped put up, and that were going to be your world from then on. The same blank metal walls, the same air that always smelled of hot metal and machine oil, the same food and faces, and always the grabbing drag of your weight-shoes that were supposed to make you feel your normal weight but never did.
\nYou went out, to help run the parties testing for uranium, and that was when you were in the worst prison of all. Your suit was your prison then, pressing you close on every side, hanging wrong on you and trying to topple you over, smothering your every movement, never feeding oxygen quite right, making you want hysterically to move the way you used to move.
\nYou saw everything wrong and distorted through your face-plate, and through the cold and bitter fumes that swathed it all. It always looked like a bad copy of a Bonestell painting, the rocks and ridges uncertain because your perspective and horizons were all wrong, the sky all wrong too with nothing in it but that enormous white mass that was supposed to be a planet but only looked like a vague, big brightness. You hated it, you hated all your prisons, but when they began to open up, when the ground heaved and the domes began to split and the cold poisonous murk of atmosphere began to seep in, you were scared, you wanted them back . . . .\u00a0 p. 105<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The situation deteriorates when Ebbutt arrives at the UN base, and he and Weiler hear Alsop\u2019s optimistic but unrealistic report about the damage. Weiler and Ebbutt argue about what to do, and Weiler\u2019s job is threatened.
\nEbbutt sleeps for a couple of hours (he had a boozy night with two Senators the night before), and when he wakes he visits the control room to find that (spoiler) there is a new message from the deputy commander of the Europa colony stating that the quakes have got worse and there is more dome damage. Ebbutt also learns that Weiler has ordered the launch of the rockets from Ganymede.
\nThe two men argue some more, and Ebbutt says he will sack Weiler and replace him with his compliant deputy. Weiler, who suspected that this may be the Secretary\u2019s play, tells him he has already summoned the press. Then they are interrupted by a message about another quake:<\/p>\n

\u201cGeneral, an Urgent-and-Immediate from Fifteen! General\u2014\u201d
\nWeiler moved fast. By the time he reached the door, Vaughn had switched over and it was Gresznik\u2019s voice coming out of a roar of static. The Pole sounded excited, and scared.
\n\u201c\u2014sixty six-oh-one plus, causing ridge-slips northwest of us. Dome One split wide open, personnel evacuated into Three but two men caught under collapsing rocket-cranes. Afraid this is it. I am afraid this\u2014\u201d
\nWeiler heard the voice break off as they ran down the corridor and there was only the roar of static as they entered the Communications Room. Vaughn, pale and scared, turned from the panel briefly. He said, \u201cI\u2019m still getting their wave but Colonel Gresznik just stopped talking,\u201d
\n\u201cIf their wave is coming in, they must still be all right,\u201d Ebbutt said.
\nBut Weiler, his first startled excitement all washed out of him, went over to the wall and sat down heavily in the chair there.
\n\u201cHell, they\u2019ve had it,\u201d he said harshly. \u201cThree was their last dome.\u201d
\n\u201cBut if we\u2019re still getting their wave, they must\u2014\u201d
\nWeiler wouldn\u2019t listen. He was through arguing. He felt that he was through with a lot of things.
\nHe thought, \u201cI was too late, [. . .] I was too late [. . .]. I should have sent that order twelve hours ago and told Ebbutt to go to hell\u201d
\nSuddenly Vaughn exclaimed, \u201cFifteen! Listen\u2014\u201d
\nHe switched over as he spoke. Out of the loudspeaker came not only the dull surge and roar of space static but other, irregular sounds\u2014sounds like cannonadings and crackings and distant voices.
\nThen from the loudspeaker a hoarse voice that rose almost to a shout.
\n\u201cAlsop speaking! I tried to stick it out but we\u2019re done for, dome collapsing under ridge-slip, no use\u2014\u201d The roar drowned him for a moment as they listened, no one moving at all, then Alsop\u2019s hoarse shout again. \u201c\u2014tell them I did my best! I\u2014\u201d
\nThere was nothing more. There was nothing at all, except the static, nothing until Vaughn said tightly, \u201cTheir wave\u2019s gone.\u201d
\n\u201cThey\u2019re all gone,\u201d said Ebbutt.\u00a0 p. 115-116<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The story ends with Ebbutt giving a press conference where he plays Alsop\u2019s message to make sure he gets his appropriation through.
\nThis is a pretty good story (quite different, I suspect, from the sort of pulp that Hamilton produced for most of his career), and I enjoyed the wrangling between Weiler, whose prime concern was the welfare and safety of his men, and Ebbutt, who is more interested in the survival of the program.
\nThis story could have easily have appeared in Astounding<\/em> (if Hamilton hadn\u2019t got fed up with Campbell\u2019s rewrite requests6<\/sup> earlier in his career).<\/p>\n

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There used to be an advertisement that you would see in the comic books of my youth which advertised \u201cX-ray Specs\u201d.7<\/sup> I always wondered who would buy these glasses (unlikely to work, and illegal if they had) but this device has provided de Camp and Pratt with the gimmick for The Weissenbroch Spectacles<\/em><\/strong>, another episode in their \u2018Gavagan\u2019s Bar\u2019 series. This opens, after some obligatory bar and character scene setting with the sale of a painting to a visitor called Bache, who buys it after viewing it through his glasses:<\/p>\n

The painting was one of a wood nymph of extreme, not to say flagrant, nudity. She sat on her curled-up right leg, which in turn rested upon a tree stump. Her left leg was thrust out to the side and rear. Her body was upright, with her head tipped back and her hands clasped behind her neck beneath a coiffure of approximately 1880. She was gazing at a painted sunbeam with a smile of ineffable idiocy, and a pair of gauzy wings, though absurdly small by aerodynamic standards, testified to her supernatural origin. They failed to balance a pair of mammae of transcendental size and salience.\u00a0 p. 127<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bache then buys a round and tells the tale of how his glasses were made from rock quartz owned by the kobolds, and how he can see through things when he uses them. The story wanders on (spoiler) to an ending as vaguely puerile as the quote above: a pair of women Bache is due to meet enter the bar (one of them film star gorgeous) but he goes off with someone else who is less attractive. This sets up the punch line \u201cI wonder what he sees in her.\u201d Okay, I suppose, but Boucher should have ended the issue with the stronger Hamilton story.<\/p>\n

The Cover <\/em><\/strong>for this issue is by Chesley Bonestell, and is described on the contents page as, \u201cPlanet lit by Antares and companion star.\u201d
\nThere isn\u2019t really any Interior artwork<\/em><\/strong> in the F&SF<\/em> of this period (or most of them) but there is a solitary spot illustration by Emsh on p. 118, opposite the de Camp and Pratt story, which itself has a hand lettered title (see above). I’ve decided to start including the odd title page because some of the introductions provide useful information or context.
\nComing Next<\/em><\/strong> trails a number of interesting sounding writers for the next issue: Robert Abernathy (whose name I recognise but who I know little about), Saki (ditto), Philip Jose Farmer, William Morrison (just after Country Doctor<\/em>), and Philip K. Dick.
\nRecommended Reading <\/em><\/strong>by Anthony Boucher starts with mention of the 1954 International Fantasy Awards:<\/p>\n

It seemed rash to single one novel out of so rich a year as 1953\u2014a much brighter period than 1954 has been so far; but apparently the experts are in full agreement with us, for More Than Human<\/em> has just received the International Fantasy Award, bestowed by a panel of thirteen distinguished judges from the United States, England and France. And now, having been quite unable to get this beautifully written and sensitively conceived story of human symbiosis out of my mind for almost a year, I\u2019ll be even more rash and say that this is the finest novel yet to receive the IFA.
\nThe runners-up are very nearly as impressive in quality of writing and thinking. Second place went to Alfred Bester\u2019s pyrotechnic ESP-detective story, The Demolished Man<\/em> (Shasta, $3; Signet, 25\u00a2), and third to the
\nbitter satire on an advertising-agency future, The Space Merchants<\/em>, by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth (Ballantine, hardcover $1,50, paper 35\u00a2). Both of these novels were serialized in Galaxy<\/em>, and a large portion of the Sturgeon novel first appeared as the Galaxy <\/em>novella, Baby is Three<\/em>. My warm congratulations, not unmixed with envy, to Galaxy<\/em> editor Horace Gold for publishing such notable stories.
\nNote of consolation: F&SF\u2019<\/em>s Bring the Jubilee<\/em>, by Ward Moore (Farrar, Straus & Young, $2; Ballantine, 35\u00a2) very nearly ran in the money, and wound up in an unofficial fourth place, which is reasonably gratifying for the only F&SF<\/em>-originated book eligible in the contest.\u00a0 p. 96<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After this, Boucher looks at a few spaceflight books, a few that he likes, and a few that he doesn\u2019t:<\/p>\n

Martin Caidin\u2019s Worlds in Space<\/em> (Holt, $4.95) is the most expensive and least necessary of this current crop; its material is readily available elsewhere more clearly organized and written in sentences more nearly resembling English prose. Spaceflight is one of the countless subjects treated in Alfred Gordon Bennett\u2019s Focus on the Unknown<\/em> (Library Publishers, $3.95), an inordinately ambitious book which tries to embrace almost every scientific or parascientific theme which might come under the fantasy-fact heading. The writing is characterized by prosaic stuffiness, a powerful will to believe, and a careless disregard for the nature of evidence.\u00a0 p. 98<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He then reviews some reprints before coming to a new novel:<\/p>\n

Most rewarding of 1954\u2019s new novels this month is Richard Matheson\u2019s I Am Legend<\/em> (Gold Medal, 25\u00a2), an extraordinary book which manages to do for vampirism what Jack Williamson\u2019s Darker Than You Think<\/em> did for lycanthropy: investigate an ancient legend in terms of modern knowledge of psychology and physiology, and turn to be stuff of supernatural terror into strict (and still terrifying!) science fiction. Matheson has added a new variant on the Last Man theme, too, in this tale of the last normal human survivor in a world of bloodsucking nightmares, and has given striking vigor to his invention by a forceful style of storytelling which derives from the best hard-boiled crime novels. As a hard-hitting thriller or as fresh imaginative speculation, this-is a book you can\u2019t miss.\u00a0 p. 99<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I read the Matheson a year or so ago and thought it pretty good, and wondered why it hadn\u2019t been a serial in F&SF<\/em> (probably because the magazine hadn\u2019t started using them at that time).<\/p>\n

In conclusion, a worthwhile issue.\u00a0 \u25cf<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

_____________________<\/p>\n

1. Founding co-editor J. Francis McComas took a back seat in 1952, and finally resigned in September 1954.<\/p>\n

2. There was a discussion in the Great SF Stories<\/a> group about Merril\u2019s Dead Center<\/em> and So Proudly We Hail<\/em>, and whether they were stories that should have made the \u2018Year\u2019s Best\u2019 collections. (Actually, Dead Center<\/em> did make a year\u2019s best\u2014it is in The Best American Short Stories 1955<\/em>. There is a letter from Andy Duncan in Locus<\/a><\/em> about the handful of SF magazine stories that have made it into that anthology series and the O. Henry one.)<\/p>\n

3. Dead Center<\/em> can perhaps be described as an anti-Astounding<\/em> story. In that magazine, they would have more likely Solved the Problem and rescued the astronaut (if it was possible to do so within the physical constraints of the Universe that is\u2014see The Cold Equations<\/em>). In any event, I don\u2019t think that Campbell would have gone for an ending where (like the recently reviewed So Proudly We Hail<\/em> in Star Science Fiction Stories<\/em>) a major plot point depends upon inadequate spaceport security (one suspects that the security company in both these stories will not be invited to retender).<\/p>\n

4. Wikipedia has a page on Lynching<\/a>. Note that the year after this story appeared, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy, was kidnapped, beaten, mutilated, and murdered for allegedly having wolf-whistled at, or flirted with, a white woman in Mississippi.<\/p>\n

5. Dance\u2019s first published story was The Brothers<\/em> (reviewed here<\/a>), a promising piece which appeared in the June 1952 issue. This also indicated a bright future.<\/p>\n

6. Hamilton has this specific comment in an interview on Tangent<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I never sent [Campbell] a story after 1938 because I had to revise that one. First, to suit John\u2019s idea, and then to suit John\u2019s wife\u2019s idea. That\u00a0<\/i>was a little hard to do, so I never sent John any more stories.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

7. The Wikipedia<\/a> page for X-ray Specs, believe it or not.\u00a0 \u25cf<\/p>\n

F&SF is still published: F&SF subs<\/a>\/Amazon UK<\/a>,\u00a0USA<\/a>\/Weightless Books<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\"rss\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISFDB Luminist _____________________ Editor, Anthony Boucher Fiction: Dead Center \u2022 novelette by Judith Merril \u2217\u2217\u2217 Dead-Eye Daniel \u2022 short story by Larry Siegel \u2217 The Grom \u2022 short story by Arthur Porges \u2217\u2217 Lease on Life \u2022 short story by Lee Grimes \u2217\u2217\u2217 The Test \u2022 short story by Richard Matheson \u2217\u2217 Transformer \u2022 short […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy-and-science-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pcj7-2R7","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10981"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11020,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10981\/revisions\/11020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}