{"id":483,"date":"2016-01-02T12:29:12","date_gmt":"2016-01-02T12:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/?p=483"},"modified":"2016-01-02T12:29:47","modified_gmt":"2016-01-02T12:29:47","slug":"the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-147-august-1963","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/?p=483","title":{"rendered":"The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction #147, August 1963"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FSF196308cx600\"<\/p>\n

Other reviews:
\nRich Horton, Black Gate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fiction:
\nTurn Off the Sky<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Ray Nelson \u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665
\nFred<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Calvin Demmon
\nThrough Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot: LXIV<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Reginald Bretnor [as by Grendel Briarton ] \u2665
\nGlory Road<\/em><\/strong> (Part 2 of 3) \u2022 serial by Robert A. Heinlein \u2665\u2665
\nThe Censors: A Sad Allegory<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by T. P. Caravan \u2665\u2665
\nSweets to the Sweet<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Paul Jay Robbins \u2665\u2665\u2665<\/p>\n

Non-fiction:
\nIn this issue\u2026 Coming Soon\u2026<\/em><\/strong>
\nT-Formation<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 essay by Isaac Asimov
\nUbi Sunt?<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 poem by Kathleen P. Reis and R. H. Reis
\nBooks<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 by Avram Davidson
\nLetters<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This issue has another Emsh cover this month, this time for Ray Nelson\u2019s long novelette Turn Off The Sky<\/em><\/strong>. This stand out story tells of the hippyish future anarchist Abelard Rosenburg meeting the prostitute Reva on a high speed tube-train under the Atlantic. After some time together in London he loses her. Rosenberg immediately starts searching and eventually they are reunited and she falls pregnant. Although this seems a pretty straightforward story this is all done with some verve against a vivid future backdrop that reflects the beatnik scene of the late fifties and early sixties. There is a jaundiced, witty\u00a0look at the counterculture movement, especially at how it is sliding towards violence:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe State will never voluntarily give up its powers!\u201d roared Little Brother. \u201cDon\u2019t you know any history? Social progress can only come through violent revolution! The old order must be washed away in a bath of blood.\u201d
\n\u201cSometimes,\u201d said George, \u201cI think you are more interested in the bath of blood than in the social progress that is supposed to come out of it.\u201d <\/em>p.28<\/p>\n

Along the way he also manages to make the story about as transgressive (or realistic, depending on your viewpoint) as a 1963 SF story could be, with mentions of homosexuality, frequent drug-use (including a heroin-using President), sex and menstruation. There is also is also some graphic, upsetting violence. I am surprised he managed to publish it at all, but it provides what must have been one of the best stories of the year.1<\/sup> Way ahead of its time.<\/p>\n

Immediately after this we go to the opposite end of the fictional spectrum on pp.44-45. This contains an one page story Fred<\/em><\/strong> by Calvin Demmon and a Feghoot, neither of which I cared for. The story is about a genie trying to get two cents for a bottle he lives in and the pun is about time travel and Robert Burns.<\/p>\n

Glory Road<\/em><\/strong> meanders on in this issue. There is the same amount of chatter as last issue and a number of mostly perfunctory fantasy adventures: the rat-infested wood, the Forest of Dragons, etc. In amongst all this Oscar proposes to Star, and after a short ceremony which involves jumping over their swords while pledging their vows they are married. Finally, they go through a \u2018gate\u2019 towards the Black Tower, to steal the Egg of the Phoenix which is defended by the Never-Born, the Eater of Souls. The episode finishes with Oscar in a tight tunnel with giant rats moving towards him, and a wounded Star and Rufo to his rear. As you can probably gather from the previous, one definitely gets the feeling\u00a0that Heinlein is rather going through the motions with the fantasy adventure material and that his real interest is in the relationship between Star and Oscar.<\/p>\n

Asimov\u2019s article T-Formation<\/em><\/strong> is about large numbers, googols, Fibonacci sequence, prime numbers, etc. At the beginning of the article he says, \u201c<\/em>Freeze, every-one! No-one\u2019s leaving till I\u2019m through.\u201d<\/em> Quite.
\nI enjoyed the poem Ubi Sunt?<\/em><\/strong> by Kathleen P. Reis and R. H. Reis. It is about the discovery of very high temperatures on Venus and the loss of all those pulp cliches previously associated with the planet, the swamps and blue skinned women, etc. The non-fiction is rounded off by the Books<\/em><\/strong> column by Avram Davidson, who also helms an \u2018experimental\u2019 Letters<\/em><\/strong> column.\u00a0This latter is a bit of a hit and miss affair. Some of the letters, like the one from R. D. Coleman, are worthwhile. This reads, in part:<\/p>\n

It was all very well for Science Fiction to cry doom when doom wasn\u2019t so conveniently at hand, but now it seems all too much like writing stories about the first man in orbit. The reality is too close. How about a little Science Fiction indicating a way out? <\/em>p.128<\/p>\n

This reader comment came less than a year after the Cuban missile crisis. Mr Davidson replies that he has already decided to stop using \u2018doom\u2019\u00a0stories. However, the publication of some letters is\u00a0pointless. From E. Gary Gygax:<\/p>\n

Lately I and my friends have been somewhat disappointed with <\/em>F&SF. Mr. Davidson leaves something to be desired as an editor. Therefore, I am declining your kind offer to renew my subscription to your magazine. <\/em>pp.127-128<\/p>\n

To which the editor makes a facetious reply. Why bother\u00a0printing a letter like this? We learn nothing.<\/p>\n

The Censors: A Sad Allegory<\/em><\/strong> is a half-page short story by T. P. Caravan about an immortality serum. Short and sweet, and a better attempt at humour than the previous two short-shorts. The final piece of fiction is Sweets to the Sweet<\/em><\/strong> by Paul Jay Robbins. This is quite a good story about a man who is disillusioned with both work and wife and takes solace in being a part-time warlock. He eventually has a realisation that he has the potential to change into a were-creature. After being sexually rebuffed by his wife\u2014a passage more adult than I expected from a sixties SF magazine\u2014he decides to attempt the change. The payoff could have been quite a weak one but the author uses a repeated \u2018you know the kind\u2019 refrain throughout he story that buttresses the end in an effective and wry way.<\/p>\n

A significant issue for the Ray Nelson story, if nothing else.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. There is an unconfirmed rumour that the author went off his story and refused permission to reprint it which is why this probably never appeared in any \u2018Year\u2019s Bests\u2019. It was eventually reprinted in the 1990s, in Asimov and Greenberg\u2019s The Great SF Stories #25<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\"rss\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Other reviews: Rich Horton, Black Gate. Fiction: Turn Off the Sky \u2022 novelette by Ray Nelson \u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665 Fred \u2022 short story by Calvin Demmon Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot: LXIV \u2022 short story by Reginald Bretnor [as by Grendel Briarton ] \u2665 Glory Road (Part 2 of 3) \u2022 serial by Robert A. […]<\/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-483","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\/p6Pcj7-7N","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483","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=483"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":521,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions\/521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}