{"id":2707,"date":"2017-04-05T13:35:10","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T13:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/?p=2707"},"modified":"2017-04-05T13:39:25","modified_gmt":"2017-04-05T13:39:25","slug":"astounding-science-fiction-v51n02-april-1953","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/?p=2707","title":{"rendered":"Astounding Science Fiction v51n02, April 1953"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Galactic Central link<\/a>
\nISFDB link<\/a><\/p>\n

Editor<\/em><\/strong>, John Campbell<\/p>\n

Fiction:
\nMission of Gravity<\/em><\/strong> (Part 1 of 4) \u2022 serial by Hal Clement \u2665\u2665\u2665+
\nSettle to One<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Charles Dye and April Smith
\nAllegory<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by William T. Powers \u2665
\nThe Ant and the Eye<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Chad Oliver \u2665\u2665
\nFamily Resemblance<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Alan E. Nourse \u2665<\/p>\n

Non-fiction:
\nCover<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 by H. R. Van Dongen
\nInterior artwork<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 by H. R. Van Dongen, Pawelka
\nThe Fallacy of Null-A<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 editorial by John W. Campbell, Jr.
\nNature Didn\u2019t Make It<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 science essay
\nIn Times to Come<\/em><\/strong>
\nThe Analytical Laboratory: January 1953<\/em><\/strong>
\nThe Reference Library: Science Fiction and Fictitious Science<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 book reviews by P. Schuyler Miller
\nBrass Tacks<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 letters<\/p>\n

Although I picked up a copy of Mission of Gravity<\/em><\/strong> by Hal Clement decades ago it was a novel that I never got around to reading\u2014probably because of an aversion I developed at the time for really hard SF.1<\/sup> I decided that it was time I got around to reading it, and figured an added benefit would be a snapshot four-issue look at what Astounding<\/em> was like in the early 1950s, a period when both Galaxy<\/em> and F&SF<\/em> were really hitting their stride.2<\/sup>
\nClement\u2019s novel takes place on the alien planet Mesklin. This planet is unique in that, due to its mass, shape, and rapid rotation rate, it has a gravity of around three G at the equator, where the story starts, and several hundred<\/em> G at the poles. The South Pole is where an Earth expedition has lost a data-gathering rocket. Enter Barlennan, a centipede\/caterpillar-like Mesklinite a few inches high, who is an adventurer, explorer and trader that captains a raft and crew that sail the liquid methane that forms the seas of this world. Barlennan has learned to communicate with a human called Lackland, who is stationed at the equator, and who is working with the Mesklinites to undertake a rescue mission to recover the probe: the natives can survive at the poles of Mesklin, unlike humans, and are the only chance of recovering the data.
\nThis first installment is generally scene setting for the journey to come and covers quite a lot of background information as well as some incident: when Lackland\u2019s tank breaks down the Meskinlites rescue him by dragging him back to his camp by using a raft made of sheet metal. This gives them the idea for Lackland to use a back-up tank to tow the Bree<\/em>, their ship\/raft, over land to a point where they can refloat on a river that will take them to the South Pole and the probe.
\nAnother scene\u2014the best in this installment\u2014 involves Barlennan being placed on top of the tank by Lackland and establishes the visceral fear that these aliens have for heights: this is because a fall from a few inches at the poles is terminal because of the massive gravity there:<\/p>\n

The man\u2019s armored hand swept out and <\/em>picked up the tiny body of the Mesklinite. For one soul-shaking instant Barlennan felt and saw himself suspended long feet away from the ground; then he was deposited on the flat top of the tank. His pincers scraped desperately and vainly at the smooth metal to supplement the instinctive grips which his dozens of suckerlike feet had taken on the plates; his eyes glared in undiluted horror at the emptiness around the edge of the roof, only a few body lengths away in every direction. For long seconds\u2014perhaps a full minute\u2014he could not find his voice; and when he did speak, he could no longer be heard. He was too far away from the pickup on the platform for intelligible words to carry\u2014he knew that from earlier experience; and even at this extremity of terror he remembered that the sirenlike howl of agonized fear that he wanted to emit would have been heard with equal clarity by everyone on the Bree, since there was another radio there.<\/em>
\n[. . .]<\/em>
\nAnd yet he did not go mad. At least, he did not go mad in the accepted sense; he continued to reason as well as ever, and none of his friends could have detected a change in his personality. For just a little while, perhaps, an Earthman more familiar with Mesklinites than Lackland had yet become might have suspected that the commander was a little drunk; but even that passed.
\nAnd the fear passed with it. Nearly six body lengths above the ground, he found himself crouched almost calmly. He was holding tightly, of course; he even remembered, later, reflecting how lucky it was that the wind had continued to drop, even though the smooth metal offered an unusually good grip for his sucker-feet. It was amazing, the viewpoint that could be enjoyed\u2014yes, he enjoyed it\u2014from such a position until sunset shut it off. Looking down on things really helped; you could get a remarkably complete picture of so much ground at once. It was like a map; and Barlennan had never before regarded a map as a picture of country seen from above. It was simply a graphic means of setting down surveying results so that they made sense when compared with each other.
\nAn almost intoxicating sense of triumph filled him as the crawler approached the rocket and stopped. The Mesklinite waved his pincers almost gayly at the emerging McLellan visible in the reflected glare of the tank\u2019s lights, and was disproportionately pleased when the man waved back.
\nThe tank immediately turned to the left and headed for the beach where the Bree lay; Mack, remembering that Barlennan was unprotected, thoughtfully waited until it was nearly a mile away before lifting his own machine into the air. The sight of it, drifting slowly upward apparently without support, threatened for just an instant to revive the old fear; but Barlennan fought the sensation grimly down and deliberately watched the rocket until it faded from view in the light of the lowering sun.<\/em> p. 29-31<\/p>\n

Generally, this is all pretty well done, and is much better than I had been expecting. There is some authorial info-dumping and telegraphing of future events that could have been better handled and\/or omitted, and I didn\u2019t find the description of the terrain\/maps that clear. However, I can already see why this is regarded as a classic: you have intelligent and resourceful aliens, scientific problem-solving, and a journey\u00a0set against the backdrop of this unique high-G planet.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the other fiction isn\u2019t even remotely close to the Clement serial in terms of quality: Settle to One<\/em><\/strong> by Charles Dye and April Smith is a particularly painful read. An alien ship arrives on Earth and when the occupant disembarks it turns out to be a woman called Melandra, who all the Earthmen are immediately attracted to.<\/p>\n

The small alien paused a long moment after the colonel\u2019s greeting, then shook her head. A series of meaningless, jumbled sounds issued from her lips in a low musical timbre. Kathryn watched desire struggling to show itself in the colonel\u2019s stern eyes, and this time she knew she was not mistaken. Shifting her glance, she let it flicker over the faces of the men around her and those further back in the surrounding area. On not one face could she find the attitude of curious, dispassionate scientific interest in the alien that she herself was feeling. Instead of reacting to her as an alien, they were reacting to her as a woman!
\nStaring back at the tiny creature who seemed to be turning an assembly of sober scientific men into a group of adolescents, she saw with amazement the same enraptured look on the woman\u2019s own face. She was staring back at the men thronged around her with eagerness, fascination, desire. Her lips were parted and she had a smile of delight on her face.<\/em> p.65-66<\/p>\n

She is assigned Kathryn as a liaison, and the colonel in charge of the reception party suggests that the visitor stays with her\u00a0and her husband, as you would. We later find that Melandra has been sent instead of a man as there is a shortage of them on her planet due to a radiation from a new lighting system damaging their genes.
\nThe rest of the story will satisfy any Mills & Boon readers who have stumbled upon this issue by mistake, as illustrated when Kathryn\u2019s husband relates a near-encounter with Melandra:<\/p>\n

His eyes stared into Kathryn\u2019s, searching for some understanding.
\n\u201cLook, you know I love you. I\u2019ve always loved you and been proud of you. But there\u2019s something about her\u2014\u201d
\nHe shook his head, confused. \u201cKathryn, I . . . it was all right this time, but\u2014I can\u2019t promise for the future. I can\u2019t. I don\u2019t want anything to happen, but . . . I felt as though I had been waiting for those moments with her all my life . . . and for the moments that didn\u2019t come. It was as though she were something I had dreamed in a dream long ago and forgotten, and longed for years without knowing it, as though she were a goddess, an unattainable goddess suddenly within reach of my arms. She seemed to fulfill all the wild, restless longing I\u2019ve felt on still nights when the sky and the moon and the whispers of sound reached out and enveloped me in some nameless yearning. She\u2019s what music is, she\u2019s\u2014\u201d
\nHe broke off for a moment, and stared unseeingly through the window. \u201cIt\u2019s not that she\u2019s so beautiful . . . it\u2019s the way she moves, I think. And that soft voice blending in with her gestures. Something about the way she moved\u2014it seemed to catch the rhythm of my blood and do strange things to it. I suddenly couldn\u2019t think at all. I felt like a tree stripped of its leaves by a high wind. I\u2019m turning into a poet, but no words are like what I felt. Compared to it, everything I\u2019ve felt before\u2014it\u2019s like listening to amateur fiddling all your life and suddenly hearing Heifetz\u2014\u201d
\nHe stopped short, as Kathryn made a low, strangled sob. \u201cWhat an awful thing for me to say!\u201d He looked at her in dismay and put his head in his hands.<\/em> p.70-71<\/p>\n

Methinks that Kathryn\u2019s husband will be sleeping in the spare room for some considerable time . . .
\nOn quizzing Melandra about this episode, Kathryn finds that marriage is not exclusive on Melandra\u2019s planet and that she wanted to take back some healthy germ plasm. Later, Kathryn finally has a meltdown at an official ball when she finds that her husband has volunteered to go the planet as part of the first expedition. She confronts Melandra about how he females of her race\u00a0are going to steal away all the Earthmen, and ends with this plea:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo a woman there\u2019s very little of importance compared to love\u2014I say this even though I am a scientist and fascinated by my profession. I know that if I lost Ron my work that I care about so much now and am so proud of would become empty and meaningless.\u201d<\/em> p. 79-80<\/p>\n

Melandra (spoiler) does the right thing and leaves without telling the colonel the location of her planet. This is so bad it is almost worth reading.<\/p>\n

Allegory<\/em><\/strong> by William T. Powers is about a future computer data processor dealing with correspondence from a man who claims that he has invented an anti-gravity device. Initially, this account of the inventor bouncing off inflexible rules and regulations is quite entertaining, but the computer-controlled bureaucracy ends up being too simplistic a target.
\nThe Ant and the Eye<\/em><\/strong> by Chad Oliver concerns an operative in UNBAC (a United Nations quango) who is tasked to fix an election as there is a man who, if elected, will cause the end of free society.
\nThe story unnecessarily starts off-world and has Quinton travelling back to Earth for his assignment but, for all that, this and the rest of the first half is told in a leisurely and quite engaging manner. However, the second half is non-specific about the science used to both identify this man as a potential problem, and to stymie his chances. It starts to drag because of this. Definitely a game of two halves.
\nFamily Resemblance<\/em><\/strong> by Alan E. Nourse is a light-hearted piece about a lowly academic discovering that man is more closely related to pigs than apes. Unfortunately it just isn\u2019t very good.<\/p>\n

I initially thought the Cover<\/em><\/strong> for this issue (illustrating Clement\u2019s serial) was by John Schoenherr, but I\u2019m three years too early: it is by H. R. Van Dongen, who also contributes some nice internal artwork as well.3<\/sup> The other artist contributing Interior artwork<\/em><\/strong> is Pawelka, and there is also some nice heading art by Ed Cartier for the book review and letters columns.4<\/sup>
\nThe non-fiction content is the usual selection. The Fallacy of Null-A<\/em><\/strong> by John W. Campbell, Jr. is a short editorial about Aristotelean and Null-A logic and how, although we may think in the latter multi-valued way, our actions are always Aristotelean.
\nNature Didn\u2019t Make It<\/em><\/strong> is a short science piece\u2014probably cobbled together by Campbell, I would have thought\u2014about various man-made materials: nylon, Teflon, silcone coating, etc.
\nThe Analytical Laboratory: January 1953<\/em><\/strong> states that:<\/p>\n

Beginning with the stories in this April issue, the stories which are voted tops by reader opinion will get <\/em>Astounding\u2019s one cent a word bonus; if an author does a top notch job, your applause will have the effect of doing him a real favor in return for the favor he\u2019s done you by giving you some genuine pleasure.<\/em> p. 147<\/p>\n

I assume that this is the start of this long-running practice?
\nThe Reference Library: Science Fiction and Fictitious Science<\/em><\/strong> by P. Schuyler Miller has a number of long reviews, starting with a similarly lengthy introduction about the intersection between SF and pseudoscience.
\nBrass Tacks<\/em><\/strong> is rather dull this issue, given over almost entirely to science discussions.
\nFinally, and not on the contents list, there is an advertisement for Peter Hamilton\u2019s Glasgow-based UK SF magazine Nebula<\/em>, available from the \u2018sole US agent\u2019 Frank A. Schimd (50\u00a2 versus Astounding<\/em>\u2019s 35\u00a2 for a single copy, 30\/38\u00a2 versus 25\/28\u00a2 per copy\u2014various options\u2014if you take a subscription).<\/p>\n

A rather poor issue apart from Hal Clement\u2019s serial.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I am pretty sure something put me off Clement\u2019s work back in the late seventies, hence my first read of this classic. I can\u2019t remember if it\u00a0was a novella of his that I read and didn\u2019t like or some other hard SF stories\u2014I didn\u2019t care much for Niven\u2019s Hugo-winner Neutron Star<\/em>, nor\u00a0some of the harder (and more tedious) SF stories found in the late 70s Analog<\/em>.<\/li>\n
  2. This four issue run doesn\u2019t look that promising: apart from the Clement the only other likely prospects are stories from Algis Budrys (already read and OK), Sheckley (poor), Philip K. Dick (Imposter<\/em>) and Poul Anderson. Galaxy<\/em> looks more promising with three titles from Sheckley I recognise, and stories from Leiber, Dick, Simak, Shaara and others. F&SF<\/em> has Ward Moore\u2019s Lot<\/em>, a couple from Dick (The Preserving Machine<\/em> and Expendable<\/em>), and stories by Sheckley, Porges and Bester.<\/li>\n
  3. Some of the internal artwork by H. R. Van Dongen:\"\" \"\"\u00a0\"\" \"\"<\/li>\n
  4. Ed Cartier\u2019s artwork for the columns:\"\"\"\"<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\"rss\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Galactic Central link ISFDB link Editor, John Campbell Fiction: Mission of Gravity (Part 1 of 4) \u2022 serial by Hal Clement \u2665\u2665\u2665+ Settle to One \u2022 novelette by Charles Dye and April Smith Allegory \u2022 short story by William T. Powers \u2665 The Ant and the Eye \u2022 novelette by Chad Oliver \u2665\u2665 Family Resemblance […]<\/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":true,"_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":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astounding"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pcj7-HF","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2707","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=2707"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2731,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2707\/revisions\/2731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}