ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact June 1971

ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, June 1971

The sixth issue in my ANALOG PLUS 50 series. For anyone finding these reviews, my purpose is two-fold: enjoying some "classic" sci-fi, and looking for stories that I think could be adapted for TV broadcast since so much of what shows up on anthology shows is rough to awful.

At some point, I'll stop numbering, but probably not until I do this for at least a year. If I do this for a year.

The endo fo the month caught up with me before I finished (what with school ending and all). I shall finish it presently. But I'm posting a partial list.

In this issue:

This will be updated shortly.

The Editorial: "Bargain Spacement", by John. W. Campbell. John watched the Apollo 14 splashdown on color TV and it was astonishing. The pictures were phenomenal because the capsule re-entered the atmosphere almost exactly where it was expected to be. And it comes down to the human factor.

Apollo 13 might have been an argument for an unmanned program, and yet it is a better argument for a manned one. It was the men onboard who took care of the situation, with help from the people on the ground. Because of this, the mission wasn't a total loss. Likewise, some things went wrong on Apollo 14 that would have caused the entire mission to be scrubbed if the crew hadn't handled it. Software on the ground can overcome hardware problems in space if there's a man in space to fix it.

Novelette: "Glory Day" by James H. Schmitz, with an illustration by Kelly Freas, showing the large face of a man screaming, but there are circles coming out of his head, like it's psionic. In the forground on the facing page is a small image of a woman(?) covering her ears to block out noised. The caption on the next page reads, Telzey was in a spot, but she wasn't the type to howl about that. She got someone else to do it for her.

Telzey Amberdon is back! Again! And she's captured again and facing possible or proable death! Just a month later! This is my third Telzey story, and now I'm wondering if there were any in the period before I started reading. I'm also wondering how I didn't pick up on two MAJOR spoilers mentioned above in the image and the caption.

Telzey and her friend Trigger, another psi, were on a space yacht when they were attacked. They woke up in a room with all there belongings. They were on Askanam, in the Balak of Tamandum (planet, "city", name of city). It's the city that Casmard, the owner of the yacht, is the Regent for. There is intrigue to be had as the temporary Regent plans to make Casmard abdicate, and Casmard fears that Telzey and Trigger will be killed in order to get to him. Likewise, the navigator Kewen is imprisoned, and will be thrown into the arena games. There is an attempt on the women's lives which would have killed non-psis, particularly ones not carrying hidden pistols.

It turns out that there are other psis on the planet with differing abilities who are free to use their abilities as long as it plays into the local culture and superstitions. One of them knows Telzey. He lets her know that he's planning on taking over, and she shouldn't interfere. Don't do anything. But like Bugs Bunny says, "I do-ed it!"

Joking aside, I enjoyed this one more than last month's, with the exception that the ending comes a little out of left field and isn't forshadowed at all -- except by the artwork. As far as filming this goes, if the other stories get developed for television, then there isn't a problem getting an hour out of this story. A lot of speaking parts with diverse roles.

Short Story: "The Swan Song of Dame Horse" by Te Thomas, with an illustration by Leo Summers, showing am explosion (most likely figurative) coming from the back on a man's head. The man has his hand at his own throat. There is a man in the background smiling, holding up a bottle. Over that man's head are the letters P.V. The caption reads, Heorin, more than any other thing, is the cause of the collapse of our great cities. But there might be a permanent cure!

Angie Grecca has a herion habit that he manages like clockwork before things get bad enough to make him careless. However, when he shoots up, nothing happens. He believes he was sold a bag of sugar. So he goes to another dealer and buys more. Same thing happens. He can't get a fix and starts to crash. He decides that he's going to turn those two in as crooks because he spent a lot of money for sugar. He winds up at the hospital to detox, and he's not alone. And the morphine isn't doing much to help him.

Angie gets picked up by a "George Raft" type mafiosa who is going to drop Angie in the river. Angie explain what happened. George doesn't buy it but he listens long enough that he lets Angie investigate. He discovers that there's a chemist named Dr. Linden Grey who has come up with a virus, or more correctly a pseudovirion, or P.V., that cab be spread to illegal herion fields which will add a chromosome into the user with will eliminate anything in the morphine family in the body.

This could be filmed except for the slides of Grey's vacation, since no one does that any more. Likewise, they'd need a better reference than George Raft.

Science Fact: "Alpha-wave conditioning" by K. C. Keefe. There is no image. The caption reads, "Or how to "turn on" without drugs, or twenty years practice at Zen meditation!"

There was a bunch of stuff about Yogi and Zen and medication and alpha waves. It didn't hold my interest and I skipped to the end about halfway through. There was one interesting passage that I took a screenshot of that had this summary: the Yogi attempts to withdraw himself from the world of illusion (Maya) for he believes the sensory world to be illusory. The Zen meditator places himself totally within the world and maintains sensitivity toward all of the data presented to him for he blieves that there is no illusion, and that all is real, and that enlightnmnet means to have the entire personlity fully awake to reality. The average subject in a "normal" state of consciousness is one of presonal relevance: if the stimulus isn't going to "do" anything (to me or for me) why pay attention to it?

Novelette: "The Habitat Manager" by S. Kye Boult, with an illustration by Michael Gilbert, showing two very alien-looking creatures, one is down on all six legs and it's head is shadowed, the other is upright (though possibly "rearing up") with four limbs (with 3 starfish-like fingers) and a huge mouth of many small teeth. The caption reads, "They were very helpfully seeing to it that The Scientitst found exactly what he expected. Wasn't that what he'd sought to find?"

A very odd, alien story. Enjoyable, but overly long and unnecessary complications. At the center of it is the story of a alien lander (from an Earth-like planet, presumably) touching down on the planet, but it fails to work. Now, a second lander is on the way. The planet is inhabited with sentient Trees and Bushes and Mosses and Bacteria and Grazers and Runners, along with really alien creatures like a Communicator and the Habitat Manager, who is a flat rectangular piece of living matter. All the creatures on the planets are moving out of the path of the lander's orbit and from the crater where it is supposed to land. Not because they are hiding, but because they think that this is the way the Scientist who sent the experiment expects it to be. So they are providing him with the answers that he is looking for.

This in itself is an amusing idea, but it gets bogged down in the details. Added to the being and the end of the story, the H.M. is getting ready to undergo mitosis, which adds nothing to the story, except for some comments early on that one might mistake for discussion on the abortion debate that would hit the Supreme Court two years later. However, I think I could be reading too much into that.

Were this picked to be filmed, I would strip it down to the story of a lander coming to the planet and all the flora and fauna hiding are hiding from it. Add it the twist that they think they are actually helping. The costume would be ridiculous (or ridiculously expensive), so play it for laughs and leave out the mitosis subplot and possibly the herd of Grazers getting too close to the landing crater only to be chased off by the Runners.

Analytic Library: I recognized the names of the stories from February and March, but for many of them, I've have to go back to my reviews to get the specifics. Well, I guess that's the main reason I keep this blog. The serial got the top slot, followed by Polywater Doodle in February and The Missing Man in March.

Short Story: "With Friends Like These..." by Alan Dean Foster, with an illustration by Leo Summers, showing a farmer behind a plow being pulled by a horse being approached by insect-like humanoids that came from a nearby spaceship. The caption reads, "It is not necessarily ture that the ideal friend is some strong entity who will fight effectively against your common enemy. That needs qualifications!"

There's a Federation in space and it's at war with a culture called the Yop. The aliens are coming to Earth for help. Earth has been locked under a protective shield for tens of thousands of years, since the time of the Old Empire-Terran Wars, when the Earth wouldn't get in line with the rest of the Empire. Since that time, the Empire has fallen, and the Federation has arisen. It turns out that the Terrans have not been idle, and have just been waiting for someone to turn off the shieldl

Serial: "The Outposter" by Gordon R. Dickson, part 2 of 3. "Bluff is well-known as a major factor in winning at poker. It's at least equally important in business and diplomatic deals. But it gets a little tough when your oppositie number is an alien whose psychology and physiology you don't know!"
I'll get back to this later. As it is by Gordon R. Dickson, I will definitely get back to it.

The Reference Library , by P. Schuyler Miller.
There is an intro about Stanislaw Lem, whom I haven't read (to my knowledge), followed by a discussion of the Science Fiction Book Club, which I used to be a member of (in particular, they would release hardcover editions of books only available in paperback). Books reviewed include: Gadget Man by Ron Goulart, The Year of the Cloud by Ted Thomas and Kate Wilhelm, Ringworld by Larry Niven (which I've listened to on cassette), The Year of the Last Eagle by Leona Train Rienow with Robert Rienow, and a couple of checklists.

Brass Tacks: was absent this month.

On to June, and whatever else is in the TBR stacks in Kindle, iBooks, and the physical nightstand.