{"id":3056,"date":"2017-06-30T12:51:58","date_gmt":"2017-06-30T12:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/?p=3056"},"modified":"2020-02-09T18:32:48","modified_gmt":"2020-02-09T18:32:48","slug":"startling-stories-v24n01-september-1951","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/?p=3056","title":{"rendered":"Startling Stories v24n01, September 1951"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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

Other reviews:
\nLeon L. Gammell, The Annotated Guide to Startling Stories<\/em>, pp. 31, 72 (Amazon UK<\/a>)<\/p>\n

_____________________<\/p>\n

Editor, Samuel Mines (possibly Sam Merwin Jr.1<\/sup>)<\/p>\n

Fiction:
\nHouse of Many Worlds<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novel by Sam Merwin, Jr. \u2217\u2217<\/strong>
\nThe Masquerade on Dicantropus<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Jack Vance \u2217<\/strong>
\nYes, Sir!<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by H. B. Fyfe
\nThis Way to Mars<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by William Campbell Gault \u2217<\/strong>
\nThe White Fruit of Banaldar<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by John D. MacDonald \u2217<\/strong>
\nThe Last Story<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Alexander Samalman \u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong><\/p>\n

Non-fiction:
\nCover<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 Earle Bergey
\nInterior artwork<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 by Virgil Finlay, Peter Poulton, Paul Orban
\nThe Ether Vibrates<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 editorial by The Editor
\nStartling Oddities<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 science facts filler
\nEthergrams<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 letters
\nReview of the Current Science Fiction Fan Publications<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 by The Editor
\nLooking Forward<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

_____________________<\/p>\n

The reason I picked up this issue was because of Sam Merwin\u2019s novel, which was mentioned in a copy of F&SF<\/em> I recently read.2<\/sup>\u00a0A story introduction described it as a parallel world work and, being keen on those, I was interested to see what it was like. I\u2019d also been recommended the late-40s and early-50s issues of Startling<\/em> by a couple of people, although I think they were probably referring to the ones with the likes of Fredric Brown\u2019s What Mad Universe<\/em> (September 1948), Arthur C. Clarke\u2019s Against the Fall of Night<\/em> (November 1948), Charles Harness\u2019s Flight to Yesterday <\/em>(May 1949)\u2014expanded as The Paradox Men<\/em>, and Jack Vance\u2019s Big Planet<\/em> (September 1952). It\u2019s a magazine I would have had to get around to reading anyway: SFE states that, under Merwin\u2019s editorship, Startling Stories<\/em> would become the best magazine after Astounding<\/em>.3<\/sup><\/p>\n

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

As for the novel4<\/sup> itself, House of Many Worlds<\/em><\/strong> by Sam Merwin, Jr., it is as the title says, a \u2018many worlds\u2019 rather than \u2018parallel world\u2019 novel, with travel between the timelines enabled by a number of \u2018tangential points\u2019 on the planet. But I\u2019m getting ahead of myself.
\nFor a pulp novel it gets off to a rather unusual, almost Steinbeckian, start (although perhaps it just feels that way because of its run-down bar setting):<\/p>\n

Elspeth Marrinier fingered the sticky roundness of the thick tumbler on the gimpy-legged table in front of her and wondered what in heaven, earth or hell she was doing in the dingy little restaurant. As a poet she knew it was her duty to have her feet in the mire as well as her head in the clouds, but this was going a little too far.
\nSeeking to shut out Mack\u2019s insistent and unsubtle prodding of the leatherskinned native he was plying with the hot and heavy liquid molasses that passed for rum in this incredibly backward little Carolina community, she concentrated on the strip of flypaper that dangled from the ceiling less than six feet from her head.
\nAlternate sections of its spiral glistened evilly in the dim reflection of the green-shaded lamp that hung beyond it. At intervals a trapped insect buzzed its hysterical protest at such unmannerly death as faced it. She counted the flies she could see trapped on its sticky surface. There were exactly fourteen, five more than had been there the night before.
\nFourteen, she thought, the magic number that spells sonnet. She began to frame a sonnet to fourteen flies caught in a spiral of flypaper. Surely even such unpleasant living creatures merited some memorial to their passing. p. 9-10<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are a few more pages of this meandering material (atypical for a pulp) before one of the locals tells the pair about the strange lights and darknesses at Spindrift Key. He takes them there the next day in his boat but, when the pair set off towards a house, darkness envelopes them. Once it clears a beautiful woman called Juana greets them.
\nUp until this point I had wondered if Elspeth\u2019s narrative voice was going to continue to be that of a strong independent woman, but she reverts to standard pulp as the claws come out: although Elspeth doesn\u2019t really like her work partner, Mack the photographer, she is jealous of Juana. This push-pull about Mack continues for much of the book.<\/p>\n

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Once they get to the house they are met by a Mr Horelle, who doesn\u2019t waste much time before explaining the strange location:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I told you how many years I have lived here you would not believe me,\u201d he said quietly. \u201cSuffice it to say that it has been a very long time. There were others before me\u2014ever since Spindrift Key became a tangential point.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s that? Mack asked aggressively, suspiciously.
\n\u201cI\u2019m the one who is to write the story,\u201d Elspeth reminded him. \u201cYou\u2019re here to take pictures. Let me ask the questions.\u201d
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a very good question,\u201d said Mr. Horelle. \u201cLet me state first that Spindrift Key is a tangential point. I don\u2019t suppose either of you knows much about the tangency of time\u2014or parallel timetracks, if you wish.\u201d
\nElspeth glanced covertly at Mack and was pleased to notice that he looked baffled. She turned eagerly to Mr. Horelle and said, \u201cBut I know a little. It\u2019s a theory that whenever an important decision in world history is made the world goes both ways with different subsequent histories. Oh damn! That doesn\u2019t sound very clear but it\u2019s the best I can do.\u201d
\n\u201cTommyrot!\u201d said Mack rudely.
\n\u201cOn the contrary,\u201d said Mr. Horelle, \u201cit is absolutely true. Hold on.\u201d He held up a hand as protests bubbled up behind Mack Fraser\u2019s lips. \u201cI know what you are going to say. But it takes a great deal more than a petty personal decision to split the space-time continuum in which our universe exists.
\n\u201cA nova, the destruction of a planet, even the momentous man-made events that affect the history of this minor speck of space-dust we call Earth\u2014these things leave their marks in varying degrees. For a while after they occur\u2014the time span varies according to the severity of the shock to the continuum\u2014a tangential zone remains through which, to those who know the key, it is possible to affect a transfer between worlds. p. 20-21<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Elspeth and Mack are subsequently recruited for a mission across the time-streams (and travel by a car that looks normal but can fly).<\/p>\n

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

The next couple of chapters are quite interesting, and detail their journey through a world where the USA is split between a seemingly more backward Columbian Republic (they do not have powered flight) and a Mexican Empire. They eat and stay at a variety of restaurants and hotels, and there is some good local colour:<\/p>\n

Baton Rouge was a surprise. Instead of the sleepy little river city of their own world they found themselves driving into a metropolis far larger than the down-at-heel Atlanta in which they had slept the night before. The buildings were not tall but they were many, large and frequently magnificent.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s like an immense garden party with Japanese lanterns!\u201d exclaimed Elspeth, her fatigue fading as they moved slowly amid bizarre traffic along a broad two-lane avenue. In the parklike center of the road trees tossed up fantastic silhouettes against the looping strings of lights that provided much of the illumination.
\nForty-foot-wide sidewalks flanked it after the fashion of the Champs Elysees in Paris; and great houses, palaces and gardens lay beyond them on either side, many of them brightly lit. Baton Rouge was evidently one of the great cities of the Columbian Republic. Elspeth felt a quick inner response to its drama and beauty. p. 27<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The racial situation is apparently different in this world too, as shown by the fact they meet Marshall John Henry, a black man who is the President\u2019s Chief of Staff. Much later in the novel, Elspeth and the Marshall start to fall in love, but this is nipped in the bud by Juana before any physical action occurs between the two:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve been out with my boss again,\u201d she said. It was a statement, not a question.
\n\u201cRight,\u201d Elspeth said dreamily. She kicked off her shoes and lay on the bed, linking fingers at the back of her neck. \u201cI think he\u2019s simply perfect\u2014he\u2019s so big and so humble, so strong and so gentle, so slow of speech, yet so fast of thought.\u201d
\n\u201cHe\u2019s all those things,\u201d the girl said. \u201cBut, Elly, be careful. You can\u2019t stay in this world much longer and if you let yourself get emotionally involved you may impair your usefulness.\u201d
\nElspeth regarded her uninvited guest and sensed trouble behind the limpid dark eyes. With a spark of intuition she said, \u201cIt isn\u2019t just that, Juana. There\u2019s something else, isn\u2019t there?\u201d
\n\u201cOf course there is,\u201d the dark girl replied. \u201cI feel like a crumb to say this, Elly\u2014but dammit he\u2019s a Negro.\u201d
\n\u201cSomehow I never suspected you of that,\u201d said Elspeth, surprised and more than a little shocked. The idea of such cheap prejudice in anyone connected with the incredibly wise Mr. Horelle had never occurred to her. She felt angry, almost ill.
\n\u201cYou\u2019re wrong\u2014what you\u2019re thinking about me, Elly,\u201d Juana said hotly. \u201cThere are some worlds where color doesn\u2019t matter\u2014but this isn\u2019t one of them. Nor is yours\u2014nor mine, heaven knows.\u201d
\n\u201cThen it\u2019s time something was done,\u201d said Elspeth sharply. p. 58<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Juana later tells her to \u2018have her fun\u2019 and, later, Elspeth reflects on matters:<\/p>\n

Elspeth nodded and frowned at the closing door. She felt all at once a little begrimed. Falling in love had always come as easily to her as breathing. At various times she had oozed emotion over a math teacher (she hated figures), a pimply delivery boy, a small bird that had nested in a tree outside her window, a lady athletic coach at school, a Canadian lacrosse professional, a writer with a long pink goatee, a famous actress. p. 59<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some of what I\u2019ve described so far is probably the best of it, and you can\u2019t help but wonder what Merwin would have produced if he\u2019d developed a parallel world story that had explored an America with an alternative racial set-up\u2014probably something unpublishable for the times, unfortunately.5<\/sup>
\nInstead, the story goes off in a more traditional direction: after their initial arrival in Baton Rouge, Elspeth sees a soldier use a disintegrator on a civilian, who promptly disappears (bear in mind this is a world where they don\u2019t have powered flight). When the soldier sees her, she and Mack flee, taking the Marshall hostage for a short period before zooming off in the flying car.
\nThe rest of the tale involves a man called Reed who is trying to extend the voter franchise\u2014so he can take power and avoid a war with the Mexican Empire\u2014and a camp baddy called Everard who is working for the other side. There are also various bits of technology unconvincingly lobbed in here and there, rolling roads in New Orleans, spaceships, a disintegrator shield in another world, etc.
\nMatter progress to a suitable conclusion.
\nAt the end of it all there is a little twist when Elspeth and Mack get back to their own world:<\/p>\n

Even the ugly little town had a homelike look. It was good to see the highway sign at the head of the pier with its crown and lion and unicorn, it was good to see the local constable in his roundtopped helmet, gnawing his mustache ends as he stood in front of the drygrocer\u2019s shop. It was good to know that she was part of a world in which what had briefly been the United States was again a vital part of the benevolent British Commonwealth of Nations.
\n\u201cA president is all very well,\u201d said Mack, walking toward the garage, bags in hand, \u201cbut I\u2019d rather have a queen. It\u2019s more\u2014permanent somehow.\u201d
\n\u201cI know,\u201d she told him. \u201cI liked President Roosevelt but still\u2014he lacked something our Queen Bess has. It\u2019s hard to define.\u201d
\n\u201cYeah\u2014and that little man they had between Roosevelts Two and Three,\u201d said Mack. \u201cWhat was his name\u2014Shuman\u2014Newman? Imagine having a Dapper Dan like that in charge of a great country!\u201d p. 87<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This novel has one or two interesting aspects but is otherwise routine.<\/p>\n

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

The rest of the fiction isn\u2019t up to much. The Masquerade on Dicantropus<\/em><\/strong> by Jack Vance has an archaeologist called Root working on an alien planet. Also there are his bored and increasingly hostile wife Barbara, and the planet\u2019s strange, uncommunicative aliens. When an attractive miner called Landry makes an emergency landing, he ends up having an affair with Barbara. Landry then decides to break into a strange pyramid even though Root has attempted this once before, only to be warned off by the aliens.
\nThe ending is an unconvincing one where (spoiler) the aliens discover Landry and Barbara after they have broken into what turns out to be an empty pyramid. Root, who has been watching the pair, hears the aliens state they are going to kill them. The reason for this is that they have discovered that the pyramid is an empty decoy\u2014built to distract any visitors from their real secret, a hugely advanced spacecraft hidden in a mountain.
\nLandry is killed, the aliens depart, and the couple reconcile. Well enough told, but it has a ridiculous plot.<\/p>\n

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

Yes, Sir!<\/em><\/strong> by H. B. Fyfe is a story about two men whose job involves testing robots. After some scene-setting they get sent a new type of personal assistant model. It falls over, and generally does not perform well. In the last section its voice box is refitted, whereupon it repeatedly starts saying \u201cYes, Mr Whitehead\u201d\u2014the name of their boss. The story then abruptly ends. I\u2019m not sure if this is making a point about personal assistants being incompetent yes-men, but the ending didn\u2019t make sense to me.<\/p>\n

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

This Way to Mars<\/em><\/strong> by William Campbell Gault portrays a world where woman are in charge:<\/p>\n

John snapped off the visi-news irritably. The Russians, the Russians, always the Russians. If it hadn\u2019t been for them and their threats in the dim and distant eighties there would be no female dominance today and a guy could chase a girl.
\nIt was the Swedes who had started No, No, Week<\/em> back in the eighties, the Swedish women. I didn\u2019t raise my boyfriend to be a soldier<\/em> was their slogan, and it had spread. To Russia and America, to China and Japan, around the world. No soldier tastes my lips, no uniformed man shares my bed, no militarist holds me close. . . . <\/em>And so on. p. 106<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Although this does have one or two interesting aspects (John\u2019s boss is a female version of the type of hideous male boss who letches after their underlings) it rapidly becomes an adolescent wish-fulfilment fantasy as John and two of his co-workers fiddle the crew list for a spaceship launch to found a Mars colony\u2014so they are picked and then allocated wives. John chooses a Hollywood star for his partner, which then causes problems as the star\u2019s football playing boyfriend gets involved. He tells John he is aware they have manipulated the list even though he couldn\u2019t possibly be privy to that information. It all ends up (spoiler) in a spy-ring conspiracy with John getting the girl.
\nI get the impression this story might have been aimed at Galaxy<\/em>. If so, it missed, and it is pretty poor.<\/p>\n

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

In The White Fruit of Banaldar<\/em><\/strong> by John D. MacDonald, Timothy has organised a group of people to buy a virgin alien planet that he worked on during its initial development phase. However, he is outbid at the auction by a back-to-basics cult who want to live there as primitives. As there is a clause that says that the planet must be\u00a0developed within a three-year period or returned to the auctioneers, he bides his time, and a year or so later goes to visit. When he gets there (spoiler) he finds the huge trees he previously thought dead have come to life and have attracted all the colonists, which are now attached to them like strange, bloated fruit. Timothy narrowly escapes a similar fate and calls for rescue. This one, like the Fyfe, has an abrupt ending.
\nIt also, like the other stories, has a superfluous introduction and one that blatantly telegraphs the ending!<\/p>\n

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

The Last Story<\/em><\/strong> by Alexander Samalman is a tale of a future where writing is banned. Nevertheless, an old pulp writer produces a western and takes it to an ex-editor. I guessed the ending but it still made me smile (spoiler: he gets a rejection slip just before they are both rayed to death. Memo to budding writers: there are worse fates than receiving a rejection slip.)<\/p>\n

The Cover<\/em><\/strong> by Earle Bergey is one of his more restrained efforts: he was better known for covers\u00a0with scantily dressed women being menaced by aliens. He had painted a sober (and atypical) astronomical scene for the January issue; it is a pity he had to copy Astounding<\/em>\u2019s floaty heads for this one. Startling<\/em>\u2019s covers were generally more restrained from this point onwards.6<\/sup>
\nThe Interior artwork<\/em><\/strong> by Virgil Finlay, Peter Poulton, and Paul Orban isn\u2019t bad (although there isn\u2019t much of it). The best is by Finlay and Poulton.<\/p>\n

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

The Ether Vibrates<\/em><\/strong> is an editorial which has a long preamble about market research, polling companies and other ways of predicting the future, and it continues with discussion of Hitler invading Russia, the Japanese attacking Pearl Harbour, Genghis Khan turning back from Europe, etc. This segues into the Ethergrams<\/em><\/strong> column, which is seven pages of letters in small type, some of which are quite blunt. Take this one from W. F. La Bar from Birchwood, Wisonsin:<\/p>\n

Dear Sam: As an old reader of science fiction I wish to congratulate you on your May issue. Sam, my boy, I\u2019ve read science fiction since the days of Dr. Hackensaw\u2019s Secrets<\/em> in the old Science and Invention<\/em> way back when and I must say this, your May issue, is by far the lousiest, most worthless collection of junk by hack writers I have seen in nearly thirty years. I do not exclude your lead story for it also falls in this class. Another issue like this and I\u2019ll give up science fiction as my favorite reading. p. 134<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Or this from Les & Es Cole from Berkley, California:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the end of an era, Sam. We\u2019re leaving you. The reasons for this are various and sundry, but they can be summed up rather briefly. Firstly we have unalterably opposed views on science fiction. We like ours heavy on the science and even heavier on literature. We realize that we are living in the days of the past, before the war, when men were men, and the contents of the average Astounding<\/em> contained Heinlein, McDonald, van Vogt, del Rey, Sturgeon, Boucher and a few of the lesser lights like Kuttner.
\nYou, on the other hand, like pseudo (or no) science and no literature. (Those wild replies of yours can be very incriminating!) You are of the school that holds up \u201cWhat Mad Universe\u201d as the epitome of \u201cscience fiction\u201d. We thought the story terrible. p. 140<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A few of the letters aren\u2019t worth printing (there is one written in a poor attempt at\u00a0cowboy vernacular which,\u00a0pardner, is tortured and almost unreadable) but there are some interesting points among the others. There are comments about Fletcher Pratt\u2019s short novel The Seed from Space<\/em> and its unexpected downbeat ending, the change of format (which I think is just a change of printer and paper stock as ISFDB describes all the recent and current issues as pulp format\u2014although I\u2019m aware that this is a variable size), and\u00a0Bergey\u2019s astronomical cover in January. This comment about covers comes from one of three and a half female correspondents, Marian Cox of Hilton Village, Virginia:<\/p>\n

Dear Ed: Of the sixteen readers who commented on your January cover, fifteen liked it. Wonder if this signifies something? What puzzles me is, why, after finally printing a decent cover, you gave us the one on the March issue. The May issue wasn\u2019t quite as bad, but it could have been better. Please give us covers that won\u2019t shock my friends and relatives. Most of them think that s-f is just \u2018junk\u2019 simply because of the covers used on so many of the mags. Let\u2019s try to improve them and (maybe) get a few new readers.
\nCan\u2019t Bergey draw men? We females would like to have a nice handsome man on the cover for a change. How about it?
\n[. . .]
\nI know I\u2019m repeating myself, but please let\u2019s at least cover up the gals on the covers, if we can\u2019t remove them entirely. p. 136<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I note that a lot of the correspondents also mention that the editor of the magazine is now listed (although not in this issue) and many address him as \u201cSam\u201d. Although Merwin was followed by Sam Mines as editor, there is no update in the replies.
\nStartling Oddities<\/em><\/strong> is a half page of filler containing a number of one or two sentence science squibs: \u201cAs if the atom were not already complex enough\u2014 Dr. Robert B. Leighton of Caltech has just discovered a fifteenth particle\u2014 the anti-proton\u2014 in the hydrogen atom.\u201d
\nReview of the Current Science Fiction Fan Publications<\/em><\/strong> by The Editor covers twenty titles and there are many names I recognise (Bob Silverberg, Ken Slater, Bob Tucker, W. Paul Ganley, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Donald B. Day, and others). One of the fanzines is called Orgasm<\/em>, which draws the comment, \u201cIf only they\u2019d change that title\u201d.
\nLooking Forward<\/em><\/strong> trails next month\u2019s novel, The Star Watchers<\/em>, by Eric Frank Russell, which sounds like a psi-story reject from Astounding:<\/em><\/p>\n

For their agent was one of two individuals on Earth capable of matching wild talents with the twelve known types of extrasensory abilities developed by the mutations of space-travel, including the Type-11 insectvocals\u2014\u201cbug-talkers\u201d\u2014who could command armies of deadly little creatures to do their bidding. p. 145<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In conclusion I would have to say that, if Startling Stories<\/em>\u00a0really was #2 to Astounding<\/em> in the late-40s\/early-50s, it wasn\u2019t a reputation built on issues like this one.\u00a0\u25cf<\/p>\n

_____________________<\/p>\n

1. ISFDB<\/a> lists conflicting editorial attributions by reference works, but plumps for Mines. Wikipedia<\/a> goes for Merwin.<\/p>\n

2. The original reference to the novel was in the book column section,\u00a0Worlds of If<\/em>, F&SF<\/a><\/em> #12, February 1952<\/a>.<\/p>\n

3. The SFE<\/a> entry on Startling Stories<\/em> gives the usual information on the magazine\u2019s birth and life. It seems to have been a game of two halves, with the best half beginning with Sam Merwin\u2019s editorship in 1945.
\nWikipedia<\/a> goes further about the relative merits of Startling Stories<\/em> versus Astounding:<\/em><\/p>\n

When Merwin became editor in 1945 he brought changes, but artist Earle K. Bergey retained the creative freedom he had come to expect given his relationship with Standard. Some argue that Bergey\u2019s covers became more realistic,\u00a0and Merwin managed to improve the interiors of\u00a0Startling<\/em>\u00a0to the point of being a serious rival to\u00a0Astounding<\/em>, acknowledged leader of the field. Critics\u2019 opinions vary on the relative quality of the magazines of this era; Malcolm Edwards regards\u00a0Startling<\/em>\u00a0as second only to\u00a0Astounding<\/em>, but Ashley considers\u00a0Thrilling Wonder<\/em>\u00a0to be\u00a0Astounding<\/em>\u2019s closest challenger in the late 1940s.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Looking at the contents lists of these two magazines over the period concerned, Startling<\/em>, as you would expect, seems to have published a number of stronger long works; Thrilling Wonder Stories<\/em> published shorter fiction, including a few by the likes of Ray Bradbury, James Blish, Henry Kuttner, etc. There is also\u00a0more internal artwork in the latter, making it a superficially more attractive proposition.<\/p>\n

4. The magazine version of House of Many Worlds<\/em> runs to 48,000 words and the book (available free on Amazon<\/a>) is 59,000 words. A quick word count of the first three chapters in the book version shows they are each six or seven hundred words longer. There are fifteen chapters in the book, so I presume the expansion is uniform.
\nAccording to ISFDB<\/a>, House of Many Worlds<\/em> was also the title of an 1983 omnibus edition of this novel and its sequel,\u00a0Three Faces of Time<\/em>, a 1955 Ace Double (and an expanded version of\u00a0Journey to Misenum<\/em> from\u00a0Startling Stories<\/em>, August 1953).<\/p>\n

5. In Leon Gammell\u2019s The Annotated Guide to Startling Stories<\/em>\u00a0he comments that House of Many Worlds<\/em> was:<\/p>\n

. . . one of the first science fiction stories that I know of to feature a black hero among its other major characters, using a contemporary setting rather than a historical one, like Haggard\u2019s novels of the Zulus in nineteenth century Africa. In this case we have a modernized version of the redoubtable John Henry, the pile-driving champion of American popular folklore. p. 31<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gammell also liked the Macdonald and Samalman stories. Google Books<\/a> has up to p. 21 of his book if you want to get an idea of what it is like.<\/p>\n

6. Earle Bergey at SFE<\/a>. You can see his more typical covers for the magazine here<\/a>.\u00a0\u25cf<\/p>\n

_____________________<\/p>\n

Revised 15th<\/sup> July 2017 to add the references to Leon Gammell\u2019s <\/em>The Annotated Guide to Startling Stories.<\/em>
\nRevised 30th<\/sup> May 2018 to add artwork, and to make formatting and minor text changes.<\/em><\/p>\n\"rss\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISFDB link Other reviews: Leon L. Gammell, The Annotated Guide to Startling Stories, pp. 31, 72 (Amazon UK) _____________________ Editor, Samuel Mines (possibly Sam Merwin Jr.1) Fiction: House of Many Worlds \u2022 novel by Sam Merwin, Jr. \u2217\u2217 The Masquerade on Dicantropus \u2022 short story by Jack Vance \u2217 Yes, Sir! \u2022 short story by […]<\/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":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-startling-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pcj7-Ni","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3056","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=3056"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12216,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3056\/revisions\/12216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}