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

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

The eighth issue in my Analog Deep Dive. 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.

Overall, an excellent issue, with many good stories.

In this issue:

The Editorial: "Final Blackout", by John. W. Campbell. John talks about what's known about black holes ... in 1971. Lots of great science here.

Novelette: "The Lion Game" (Part One of Two) by James H. Schmitz, with an illustration by Kelly Freas, showing a woman sitting, chin in her hand, elbow on her knee, on the left side in the foreground. The background has what appears to be a long wall painting of an Asian lion. The caption reads, Telzey intended to be bait to mousetrap some mysterious troublemakers -- but the game turned out not to be mice! (Note: this is also the cover story, with that illustration showing two alien beings, one carrying a seemingly unconscious Telzey.

Normally, I don't read serials right away, but it's another Telzey Amberdon story, so I've practically been getting monthly installments anyway. In this one, Telzey in a teenager attending college, and now a little more about her psi abilities than she did last month.

Telzey is working with the Psychology Service after some hostile psis had taken interest in her. (If this references a prior story, it was printed before 1971.) She escaped from a weird psi beast by tricking it -- I won't say how because I might find that story. Anyway, another such beast occurs in this story, which sets up a mission, the one she will be the bait for.

Telzey is taken to Tinokti, which is nearly a day's space liner ride from Orado. Tinokti has a world-wide portal system for traveling (many of which are psi-blocked), and a very involved social caste system. The government is a syndicate, a scientific body known as the Tongi Phon, who are corrupt but have popular support. She's there to find out how four high-ranking Phons were found dead together in a locked vault, most likely because of one of those beasts, even if it looks like their heads were caved in. Oh, and this isn't a classified mision because it doesn't even exist as a mission.

The best guess from computer analysis is that they're dealing with historical mind masters, the Elaigar, who were part of the Hub's early colonial period. Physical giants with psi minds, biostructures possibly of human origin, developed by a science cult, the Grisland. Elaigar meant "the Lion People". They turned on their creators and the Grisands died out.

Telzey wonders about the circuit for a while and then gets kidnapped with the flip of a switch redirecting her portal. She winds up in closed circuit somewhere in the world. She is captured and searched. She's than taken to Stiltik, a giantess who has plans for Telzey when she heals.

Telzey starts to escape using another alien, Essu, who is Stiltik's assistant, and somewhat controllable. She then becomes aware of another psi, Thrakell Dees, who has been trapped in the circuit for years and wants to help so that he can escape as well.

Unlike other Telzey stories, were this one to be filmed, it would require a bit more CGI, just for the giantess, and likely for the beast (which might appear in flashbacks and will likely appear in part 2). Also the cover creatures are humanoid, but with bug faces. These could possibly be done with prosthetics.

Short Story: "Letter from an Unknown Genius" by Colin Kapp, with an illustration by Michael Gilbert, showing two hooded individuals, a female and a male (the latter looks like a monk), with a medieval looking background. The buildings look religious in nature. The caption reads, There can be situations in which a genius might definitely prefer his work of genius not be assoicate with him. It would be a lot safer that way...

The story is apparently set on Earth but I couldn't tell when. It takes place at the monastery of San Cherno, built up from the bedrock of the cliffs, where the church has stood for many centuries comforting those who work the sea.

The first female visitor in its 450 year existence, Madam Karp comes to speak to the abbe, Mensil. She's been sent by someone name Seroia. They discuss a blowup at the Gratz facility, a disaster that wasn't nuclear because there was no radiation or fallout. It was some unknown particular reaction, never seen before. One white flame.

A lot of talk goes by and we hear about an unsigned letter that arrived, filled with mathematical calculationf for producing a particulate reaction more basic than convention nuclear physics. The Institute at Ornado tried using it and built a bomb. The test in the desert went very wrong. And now they are trying to figure out who this author of this letter is who caused this calamity.

The story is a lot of talking, so it could be filmed cheaply, except for clips of nuclear explosions because you need to have explosions to keep it exciting. (I feel asleep reading this one, so... I don't know about exciting). The mystery does get unraveled, so between that and the Techno-babble, it could make a decent segment on an anthology show.

Science Fact: "The Imbrium Impact" by Nils Aall Barricelli. The image is a map of the Moon, showin the Sea of Rains and the Sea of Serenity. The caption reads, "That the Moon has been the target of enormous meteor impacts has been recognized for some time. Only with the coming of the great compters has it been possible to analyze exactly what must have happened. This work, done in Sweden, indicates the impacting bodies weren't asteroids -- but Earth's other moons!"

The discussion concerns the different impacts on the Moon. The more explosive ones come from objects out of Earth's orbit and made craters. The "seas" were likely made by lower velocity impacts of objects that were already in Earth's orbit that essentially resulted in lava flows across the Moon. Also, the Moon likely started out closer to Earth and slowly moved out causing these collisions on the far side of the Moon. However, these impacts caused the Moon to spin until its far side now faces the Earth. Interesting stuff.

Science Fact: "Topological Electronics" by G/ Harry Stine. No image. The caption reads, "Does the circuit have two wires, or one? Does the electron know which way it's going when it goes two ways simultaneously? But whichever way it goes, the physicist has achieved the hitherto known to be impossible -- a noninductive resistar!"

An article about Mobius strips and resistors that I didn't entirely follow. Apparently, the U.S. patent is fascinating reading!

Novelette: "Analog" by Grant D. Callin, with an illustration by Leo Summer, showing impressionistic wall-computer systems in the background with words like "neutrino", "laser", "WiBaVis", and "hologram" superimposed. There is the outline of what one assumes is a human hologram. Two men are shooting billiards in the foreground. The caption reads, "The trouble with a human-model computer is that the program is so complex it takes years to work out . . ."

A story in Analog named "Analog"? Okay.

The Director of Research for the Library of Congress wants to build a computer which duplicates at a much higher speed the associative processes of the the human mind. Basically, a holographic AI, but 50 years ago before all the current scifi have done it.

I put it in that perspective because now if they need a holographic AI, it's just there. This story gets into the nitty gritty of trying to get it done. I don't know if it's filled with Technobabble or just the Jargon of the time (or extrapolated from that time).

It was a little too long getting things done for my taste, although it might've been fascinating reading back then. I did get a kick out of the history of computers of the 70s and 80s (and a reference to the "past decade") which anticipates increases in computing power and the ubiquitousness of computers, and yet they still fill rooms at businesses and universities, but haven't shrunk to be found in homes. Likewise, fifty years ago talk of 10²³ bits was talk of megabucks. (The author likes that word, in a little sense.) Nowadays, other than the fact that that number would be expressed in binary, I don't think it's very large at all, less than 2⁶⁴. (I know, I'm a math guy, and I should run the numbers.)

The billiards thing in the image is just something for a couple of characters to bond over.

WiBaVis means something, but I forgot what it was. amd there isn't much need to remember. An attempt to create jargon. It reminded me of "Wysiwyg" in the 90s, which was "what you see is what you get" for word processing.

It goes on too long and then, after years of work, it comes online with a twist that wasn't worth the wait. It might've been humorous in a shorter story, but for a novelette, it wasn't a good payoff.

As a story for television, it's a bit dated in the technology. Maybe that could be remedied and writers could use this as a starting point? I don't know. I'd add a bit more humor if the end is to be kept.

Novelette: "A Little Knowledge" by Poul Anderson, with an illustration by Michael Gilbert, showing a small rocket standing in a grassy field, three old-looking humans, one of whom has on arm in a sling and is holding a blaster in the other hand. They are approaching a beaver-like humanoid sitting on a rock. The caption reads, "It's amazing how much misunderstanding can stem from the way a man uses a language. It tends to give one false impressions of his character . . . "

A lot of novelettes in this issue! Confession: while I've probably read Poul Anderson before, I couldn't swear to it.

The story opens with an introduction to a strange planet called Paradox. It's massive (subjovian) and should've been a gas giant but a lot of the H atoms were blown off so it never ignited. It didn't generate a lot of interest so scientists and explorers left, and they left whatever they didn't want to drag home.

The neighboring system contains a planet Trillia, which has intelligent life. Bryce Harker and some others go there and visit a small being there name Witweet. (I don't know if his name is "wit weet" or "we tweet", the latter being funnier these days.) Harker is unfriendly and all business. He wants to take an old spaceship belonging to the Trillians. Witweet, very polite, wants to know why when his ship is show much better.

The crux of it is that the bandits have a plan t mak out like kings. They need the older ship because it has tech that other worlds could try to emulate and advance themselves. Harker and his men could live like kings after that. Outlaw kings, to be sure, because the League would frown upon this.

After some discussion (exposition), the group leaves with the ship with Witweet flying it. Their first stop is Paradox, to check out the equipment left behind. They don't plan to stay long because of the gravity. Things start to go wrong for the men (starting with the ship), but the little creature (who is less polite now) is not affected as much by the increased gravity. Square-Cubed law in action.

It's an interesting story and could be done with a smaller actor (or even a child) as Witweet, possibly with some CGI. There's one scene on Trillia by and in Witweet's home, inside the rocket ship, and a scene at the landing site. With only a handful of characters, it could be easily produced, and it has a nice little trip at then end, so long as modern writers don't try to change it to make it better and ignore the actual science of it.

Novelette: "Dummyblind" by Douglas Fulthorpe, with an illustration by Leo Summers, showing a soldier coming up a river bank with the water behind him either steaming or on fire. Ahead there is a tank-like object firing in the jungle. The caption reads, "In combat, your best, most daring and effective men are, of course, the ones you need most -- and are most apt to lose."

I'd forgotten about the "apt to lose" as I was reading this. Published in 1971, "Dummyblind" was written during Viet Nam, and reading it then must've been a different experience. It's a jungle mission that Vandersen is sent on, along with a half dozen dummyblinds, which are independently moving robots designed to be mistaken for an actual soldier and draw attention away from the real man. But for all this advanced tech, the war is on Earth against other humans. Moreover, after dodging and surviving numerous obstacles, Vanderson is caught. When he's interrogated, the officer is Canadian, not American or British as he originally suspected, which made me wonder whose side he was on. (If it was stated, it flew by me.)

It's a pretty straightforward story, for the most part, combat with future tech, and it could be filmed for TV easily enough. What makes it interesting is the Twilight Zone-type twist ending after he is caught, which seemed to come out of left field. It works for the story, but the last three pages could've been something totally different and it still would've worked fine. In any case, I enjoyed the story.

Short Story: "Ratman" by F. Paul Wilson, with an illustration by Vincent Di Fate, showing a man and a woman in futuristic clothing. In the foreground, there's a rat on a crate. The caption reads, "If it takes a thief to catch one -- then this scheme ought to work just fine!"

Samuel Orzechowski is known as Sam or Orz, for short, but he's really known as Ratman. That's because his converted tramp freighter doesn't hold any cargo other than rats. He has specially trained "space rats" which can help him catch other space rats. He is hired by the planet "Neeka", which is mostly unpopulated and doesn't take sides in Federation politics, to deal with a rat problem.

We learn pretty early on that Orz is resposible for the current rat problem, but not because he's drumming up business for his removal services. He actually works part-time for the Federation, and there's a "rat" on Neeka with a subspace transmitter feeding information to the Reconstructivists, who want to change the Federation to more of their liking. Cleaning rats out of the warehouses is a perfect excuse to get invited inside in the first place.

This is a fun little story with Orz and Jess, his contact on Neeka, and the businesspeople who own the warehouse. Some of them could be diversified for television. Everything takes place within a ship and a space station, so sets aren't ridiculous. The worst part would be working with trained rats, but who doesn't like trained rats on TV?

The Analytical Library: The top five stories from May 1971. Gordon R. Dickson's serial takes the top spot. Serials generally take top (low) score. Again, I remember the titles, but not a lot about the other stories, which is part of the reason I keept a blog.

The Reference Library , by P. Schuyler Miller.
The Nebula and Hugo Award for 1971 lead off the column. Ringworld won Best Novel Nebula. Books reviewed include Macroscope, by Piers Anthony, and Mechasm by John T. Sladek, known as "The Reproductive System" in England.

Brass Tacks: Very long letter about dealing with campus crime and cries of "Brutality", and heroin as biochemical warfare in Vietnam. I've started skimming through these letter columns, just in case anything catches my interest fifty years later.

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