ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact January 1972

ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, January 1972

This January issue of Analog has Ben Bova listed as Editor, and he has a Science article as well. Poul Anderson has a guest editorial.

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. Additional Note: I do NOT work in television. I just watch it.

In this issue:

The Editorial: "The Asking of Questions". Poul takes about mutations stopping when we stop using things so there's no longer any natural selection, mentioning the appendix no longer being used for anything, and the fact that humans, unlike many mammals, cannot produce their own Vitamin C, but they don't need to because of all the plants around. Technology can affect evolution as certain things are no longer necessary. This moves along ecology and the world.

Novelette: "A Matter of Sovereignty" , by Wade Curtis with an illustration by John Schoenherr showing a small craft with a sail and a handful of people manning it on a body of water with something beneath the surface. There appears to be an island with palm trees and a hut in the background. (It's not a good scan.) The caption reads, Power is a strange thing: sometimes those who have it can't legally use it. But that never stops really determined men...

Whether or not I recognized Wade CUrtis's name, I didn't immediately realize that this was a sequel (or a follow-up) to a story in last month's issue. As soon as I saw San Juan Capristrano, I knew. This time, the story is in the South Pacific in the atolls of Tonga, which is having trouble with neighboring Fiji. They're farming protein, saving whales and harvesting plutonium. There's a ship of it that gets hijacked by Fiji and Nuclear General needs to get it back. Bill Adams works his magic again. And Dr. Arturo Martinez is back running things.

A long story that doesn't really overly long. It has the exotic locale, the ecology, and plutonium. Everything needed for a good story. This would be more scenic and adventurous to film than the original story was.

Short Story: "Truck Driver", by Robert Chilson with an illustration by Leo Summers showing three people in pressurized suits and fishbowl helmets, one is at the controls, one standing behind him and one in the foreground has a weapon drawn. The caption reads, A functional spacecreaft by its nature has some powerful -- though not obvious -- weapons to use!...

The seated person in the picture without a gun piloting the ship is Ynga Lancaster. She drives a truck, into space. She carries cargo beyond near-Earth orbit, setting it into an orbit where it will eventually spiral into the Sun. The "bird" is the Rival and it takes a couple of pages to get it up in space, with descriptions of Ynga, the ship, and other ships. When she finally in the air, she's confronted by two stowaways who are also in spacesuits. They are armed.

They are hijacking the ship and the cargo so they can launch it into an orbit where it will spiral out away from the Sun. Then they want Ynga to pilot the ship to the place where they are holding her husband and (they say) her son hostage.

Ynga figures that they smuggled radioactive fissionable material into the cargo of fusionable byproducts. And that they need it to make bombs. AND that while eyes are on the ship, no one will notice who intercepts the cargo. She spoils their plans with some crazy flying and then manages to rescue her husband. (Her son isn't there.) Once the government is on alert, they'd notice if any Mars ships were launched in search of that missing cargo, which would sail on by out of reach.

This could be condensed for a segment on TV. Hero pilot rescues her husband. Stock footage or CGI can take care of the space scenes. It's just a matter of filming a rescue in the ocean. Good story, but a little long (for a short story).

Short Story: "The Greatest Asset", by Isaac Asimov with an illustration by Leo Summers showing a man looking at papers on a clipboard. In the background, there's a hamster, and a computer screen with the word "REJECT", plus more computers in the background and another disembodied head. The caption reads, The great advantage of being in the frying pan is that it keeps you hopping

It's cool to read an original Asimov story that I hadn't read before. Even if it's not one of his better ones. If I'm framing this in terms of television adaptations, putting Asimov's name on something raises it up a little higher. (And then you can totally botch it, like "Foundation", which might not be bad, but it's not an adaptation.)

In the future, there's little wilderness left on Earth (and a lot of life on the Moon), and ecology is a delicate balance. Lou Tansonia flies to Earth to meet Ino Adrastus, the Secretary General of Ecology, who is little known but the most important post on Earth. Jan Marley agrees and he wants to write about the man and his office.

Tansonia wants to set up artificial ecologies on asteroids because experiments can't be done on Earth, but Earth is in need of help. In the end, Adrastus allows him to procede with a handful of asteroids. He later tells Marley that the data they have already shows that his experiment will fail, but he allows it because man is part of the ecology, too, and man needs tasks such as this one. Man's Greatest Asset is an Unsettled Mind.

This one doesn't require much of anything to film it. Three people, a room, maybe a spaceport. Update the circumstances of the reporter to reflect modern technology. And put Asimov's name in the credits.

Science Fact: "Galactic Geopolitics" by Ben Bova, with an illustration (presumably) by Kelly Freas, labeled Night Launch at Cape Kennedy. The caption reads, If the star-thick center of our galazy abounds with ancient civilizations, are they arrayed in empires, democracies, or ...?

The caption question really isn't answered here. The core of the article is if we were to meet other civilizations, what would we think of them, and what would they think of us? We they worship us like gods, tolerate us like puppies or be somewhat equal to us? And would any of those groups have any reason to offer any sort of trade with us, particularly given how long the round trip would be (oberying the speed limit).

There's talk of the age of stars and how long it takes for a civilization to grow. There there's talk of stars that are light on heavy metals and how any planets around those stars, if they formed, and if they managed to develop life, could never have wworked metals or advanced beyond the Wood and Ceramics Age that would be necessary to have an Iron Age (which would require heavy metals, like iron). The oldest stars in the center of the galaxy are all lacking in heavy metals.

I do like the idea of a dense cluster of stars surrounded by a wall of star dust. They would be close enough for there to be an empire of some kind.

Serial: "A Spaceship for the King" by Jerry Pournelle (Part Two of Three Parts) with an illustration by Kelly Freas showing (parts of) two people and a very stylized dagger.. The caption reads, They'd come light-years, but how do you get across a continent of pirates and barbarians when you can't use weapons the enemy hasn't got and you're outnumbered ten thousand to one?

I'm looking forward to reading this, either in February when it concludes, or sooner if there is a novelization available from the library.

Noveltte: "'Riddle Me This...'" by Christopher Anvil, with an illustration by Kelly Freas, showing a couple of large insect-like creatures. The caption reads, The Space Patrol has a riddle--how to get two hostages out of a fortress. The answer to a riddle is to riddle it--if you can!

Okay, so it was a walking crab in the illustration. Also, I checked and I read a story by Christopher Anvil last year. That one also had these Crustacean creatures and it dealt with a planet called Storehouse, which is referenced here. There's also a reference to something that happened in one character's past which merited an asterisk and a footnote that mentioned a story from 1967, some five years earlier.

The Cliffs Notes version of this story is that there is a Crustax space station that is a fortress which is holding two human prisoners, who are likely being tortured. Diplomatic channels won't work and Earth isn't about to go to war over two men. Blowing up the station would kill them, as would any assault on the station.

Four men go in on a rescue mission by disguising their ship as a battleship disguised as a crab ship (because the crabs would see through the disguise). All four of them are outfitted by the symbiotic computer in suit that look like alien species, including one who looks like a crab prisoner. They get captured, but manage to find a way out.

This could be done, but would have to be played for laughs, because it's just such a ridiculous situation. The problem it would be a bit expensive with the suits and the CGI required to operate them, not to mention the space fortress that they have to sail into.

Short Story: "Stormy Bellwether" by Jack Wodhams, with an illustration by Kelly Freas, showing something that looks like an alien creature but is actually a sophisticated telephone with a monitor that is somewhat reminiscent of a Apple Macintosh computer, except that it has an alarm bell where the "ear" should be, there are two camera stalks that look like eyes, a bunch of lines that could be display lights shaped like a grin. Below it's neck, is just a stand with buttons. On the other page, there is a facade of a fanciful woman with fanciful hair that the unkempt woman with the mop hiding behind it can poke her head into. The caption reads, The business of science fiction is to explore the probable consequences of introducing new technical devices. For instance now, let's consider the vuphone...

The vuphone, I assume, is short for "view phone" and should be pronounced that way, but it gets shortened to "voop".

A man named Birk (no relation) is married to a woman named Lena. He comes home to find that thanks to his boss, he now has a "vuphone", even though he doesn't want to have one. Everyone can look into his home, and he doesn't like it. He even gets a call from his boss when he's in the shower and is embarrassed to get in front of the screen. Then the problems start: people randomly calling who are down on their luck who can see his nice home, TV commercial hucksters who are basically the forerunners of telemarketers (they don't use the word "infomercial" but they could), and a lady looking for a good time (and $20).

Worse, Birk believes that his wife is getting hooked on using the machine. He goes to see someone to get some help, and they assume that he wants a divorce. (He doesn't.) Then finally come up with a plan to make her leery of the machine itself.

In the end, it didn't matter because vuphones turned out to be a fad, for reasons, and people prefer the audio only phones.

If this were made, it would have to be in the style of an old Twilight Zone episode, set in a Leave It to Beaver or Father Knows Best household that gets turned upside down by the "futuristic" invention. Obviously, 50 years ago, no one predicted having videophones in your pocket that you carry around with you, or that we'd just call them "phones".

This is another one that could be played for laughs with a retro-future look.

The Reference Library , by P. Schuyler Miller. Reivews include Chapayeca by G. C. Edmondson (which he loved and hoped that the author's first two novels were as good) and Tales of the Flying Mountains by Poul Anderson

Brass Tacks: The usual commentary that you can expect to find.

Now onto February. And maybe another magazine as well.