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

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

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This April issue of Analog has stories by Poul Andersen and Stanley Schmidt along with the beginning of a serial by Harry Harrison.

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: "What Good Is It?".

Serial: "A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!", by Harry Harrison. I know I'm falling behind with serials, but I definitely want to read this one. (Note that with the last serial Analog published, I took the book out of the library only to find that it wasn't the same version and it was late in a series of books.)

Short Story: "Wings of Victory", by Poul Anderson with an illustration by Laurence MacCaskill showing two armed men on the ground and a very large bird-like creature in the air. The caption reads, Simply because no terrestrial animal can achieve such performance does not prove an alien life form can't ...

A Grand Survey of Alpha and Beta Crucis brings three people from the Olga to a planet with 75% of Earth's gravity that's orbiting a G9 star with half the Sun's luminosity. The crew notes that there are no roads between towns and towns generally consist of just a few buildings. When they land, giant birds emerge from a building large enough to be a castle and fly off.

There is disagreement between whether those birds were pets of the absentee dwellers or if they were the dwellers. A strong argument is made that these creatures lack to the ability to do what would be necessary to build these homes or to carry tools or weapons of any kind.

On an Earth-like planet, these arguments might've neld/ But the lighter gravity as well as the differnt evolutionary track their creatures took put a lie to all that.

It was a lot of arguing for a story, but could make for an interesting segment on an anthology series. The sets could be found anywhere, with roads digitally erased from any overhead shots. The problem would be the cost of the CGI required for all the birds.

Short Story: "Misinformation", by Howard L. Myers with an illustration by Vincent DiFate showing the back of a man in some kind of science-fictiony suit standing in front of a long-barrelled weapon or a telescope of some kind. There are balls floating around here and there, with curved lines like seem on a basketball. The caption reads, The peculiar characteristic of creativity is that a man, given false clues, two misconceptions and eighty percent erroneous data comes up with a brand-new right answer!

I didn't make note of Myers name when I started reading this, but it became obvious with the mention of Radge Morimet and a reference to "war in our time" that this was a sequel last month's story.

Science Fact: "Skylab" by Joseph Green. The caption reads, Conclusion. The first three astronauts to fly in Sklab for 28 days have a tough job. But the real scientific work will be done by the two follow-up crews scheduled to live in space for a record 56 days each!

It is very strange to read about Skylab in future tense, as well as the record 56 days in space. I vaguely remember when it was launched. And I remember when it came down, scattering debris across Australia.

As I'm falling behind again, because I've been reading other things, this will have to wait. Maybe I'll read it. Maybe (most likely) I will not.

Novelette: "The Prophet", by Stanley Schmidt with an illustration by John Schoenherr showing what looks to be a face with a light shining from a ball on the forehead which radiants outward, shading the entire face. As the image pans to the right there is a planet or moon in the way of the shading. The caption reads, There's a take about a boy who cried wolf. But when a wolf is really out there and nobody wants to admit it, all the hollering in the world won't help.

It's been a while since I read this. I don't know why I didn't write something at the time. Here's a key thought: How do you get people to feel a sense of urgency about a problem which doesn't need to be solved for a long time -- but which will take a long to solve?

The story takes place in the future on a planet revolving around a star that isn't too far from another star. Through the detections of neutrinos (which might've been a new idea 50 years ago), a scientist determines that the other star is going to go nova (or supernova) in the near future, which could be a year, 10 years, or more than 100 years. There is no way to know from the original readings.

The science council and the powers that be won't take it seriously. They won't divert funds from something that is a maybe to research it. And they don't want to alarm the public, especially since there wouldn't be any means to save everyone.

This could've been a shorter story, but it kept moving, and it's supported by science, so it nees to extra pages. In the end, a century in the future, the world will end. However, the protagonist spent some time so that he and some others could be saved. But most will perish due to a century of inaction.

A cautionary tale, it might make for good TV.

Short Story: "Succor", by F. H. Rounsley with an illustration by Leo Summers showing a lizard on a rock in the foreground. A rocket in the middle ground and in the air in the background is another ship. The caption reads, Sometimes it's awful hard to tell what is "them aliens" or "us people".

It's either a search and rescue mission or seach and recover. A few aliens (they aren't from Earth) named Shorly, Slogan and Flinch are looking for an Earthman who disappeared 50 years earlier. They search on a hot desert rock where he had been headed.

There's a lot of backstory about the trust Jones set up to protect his assets from his family (after 7 years) and he even ensured that someone at some point would come looking for him and his descendants to bring him home if he couldn't do it himself. (Papers were unsealed 50 years after he left with an all-female crew .)

There doesn't seem to be anything on the planet except lizards, and there isn't any sign of what food the lizards eat or how they regulate body temp when it gets to 160 degrees outside. The aliens are ready to shove off.

The POV shifts to a man named Paul going underground. He has a son who is learner underground farmer. They open up the rock to let some light in. The old man had waited 50+ years for a ship to come get him and when one arrived, instead of humans, it was furry aliens. He was disappointed. They went back "home" underground.

This was a little disappointing. And it makes me understand what an editor told me about shifting POV. Paul is introduced out of nowhere, and at first I thought he was Jones. And then I realized that he had to be one of Jones' son. Also, Jones would be over 100 at this point.

This could be filmed, but I don't get the point of it. Surviving for so long and then ignoring a ship because it wasn't from Earth?

Novelette: "The Prophet", by Stanley Schmidt with an illustration by John Schoenherr showing a darkened face with an illuminated sphere in its forehead and concentric circles radiating out from it. THe fact seems to be superimposed over a background of empty terrain. Off the the right is a moon of another planet, which may or may not be affected by the lines emanating from the face. The caption reads, There's a tale about a boy who cried wolf. But when a wolf is really out there and nobody wants to admit it, all the hollering in the world won't help.

Short Story: "Answer "Affirmative" or "Negative"", by Barbara Paul with an illustration by Leo Summers showing an older woman in the foreground with white hair and a wide collar. In the background is a man in a suit with a hand to his face. The caption reads, Physics is an exact science, while language ...

There's a computer called WOMAN, Wideband Overlay Monitor and Assmblage Computer, which is the size of a university building (as supercomputers were imagined to be back then). It has a lot of information in it. Whenever it is fed technical data, it returns a poetic answer, sometimes quoting Shakespeare or the like. This annoys Gen Downs and Gibbs (does he have a title or other name?) is at a loss to explain. The answer comes from Miss Mickley and the humanities department. Oh, the humanities! WOMAC takes the drudgery out of literary research. Poetry is the most exact language.

A quirky little story. It could be played for laughs in a retro-future-tech set on an anthology series.

The Reference Library , by P. Schuyler Miller. Reivews include Best SF: 1970 edited by Harry Harrison and Brian W. Aldiss, World's Fair 1992 by Robert Silverberg, Dinosaur Beach by Keith Laumer, The Electric Bibliograph, Part I: Clifford D. Simak compiled by Mark Owings, Moonferns and Starsongs by Robert Silverberg, Stardreamer by "Cordwainer Smith" (Dr. Paul Linebarger), The Yngling by John Dalmas, and SF Published in 1970 by Joanne Burger.

Brass Tacks: No letters this month.

Now onto May. I hope I can keep up with my posting as well as my reading.

The Guest List (Foley)

The Guest List , Lucy Foley (2020)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a montly book club selection from my Pandemic book club (which is keeping that name even if we're all back to work).

I read PDF and hardcover editions. There were wait lists at both libraries for the ebook. I've gotten used to using the dictionary with ebooks.

Updated 5/18/22

This was a murder mystery where no one is murdered until very close to the end of the book.

The first scene throws you into a stormy wedding reception (in two senses of the word) between a woman's magazine publisher and a male TV star of a survival show. Someone's screaming and people going to investigate. Then you're pulled back to the day before the wedding.

This in itself isn't bad, but the narrative is fragmented across narrators and across time.

The book switches back and forth between past and present so that by the end, the "yesterday" timeline has caught with and passed where the "now" timeline had begun. It continues to go back and forth across the wedding night.

The narrators are the bridge, her sister, the plus one of the bride's best man, and the groom's best man. It stood out that the groom wasn't a narrator until very last in the book. It's also obvious from what people think of him and all the revelations that he will either be the one killed or the killer.

I based this on the fact that Foley didn't want us inside the groom's head for any prolonged amount of time. When we finally are in it, his account of events would make him seem pathological because his narration doesn't agree with any known facts -- and this isn't when he's talking (lying) to other people.

Where the book fails (and where some might think it succeeds) is that it gets to a point where all the narratives end with the lights going out. At this point, I could liken it to a specific episode of "Matlock" or the Broadway show The Mystery of Edwin Drood where you can vote on who you want to be the killer. Several people have been set up and given motive and opportunity.

If anyone else had been the killer, the result might have been just as satisfying (maybe even more so). I get the feeling that my book club wasn't happy with the outcome.

No spoilers here, but was the ending a fair one? Not likely. Did everyone get what they had coming to them or what they deserved? Again, no. Obviously, the dead person wasn't particularly nice, but the survivors didn't exactly get justice either.

My Hero Academia Volumes 22 Through 30

My Hero Academia Volumes 15 Through 21 , by Kōhei Horikoshi (2017-2019)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I am now caught up with all the books that are currently available at the New York Public Library in ebook format. I could switch to one of the spin-offs next month or later.

In these 9 volumes, I have caught up with and passed the TV series. Now I know why the last season of the show obsessed with the League of Villains for almost the entire run. Because the manga was obsessed with it and Re-Destro for several volumes, and beyond.

The thing is, this was a show about a high school for future heroes. And while it's great to get more backstory, and see more of the active heroes, the high school itself gets lost. There are occasional training bouts between the classes. And we've gotten more of Midoriya, Bakugo and Shoto and a few of the others, but the rest are almost minor characters. Yes, there's a greater storyline going on, but it does seem to drag out a bit.

The students in Class 1-A still haven't finished their freshmen year yet.

If there's another complaint, it's that Shigaraki has the powers of All-for-One, but Eraser stared at him for a couple of volumes to nullify his powers. Even still, he withstood super furnace blasts from Endeavor, which should've incinerated him. Now, the hero isn't looking to kill the villain, but if he's pumping his power up that high, how is the guy still standing?

The last volume I read (30) had a big reveal for Dabi, and what the source of his powers are, and what's up with that jaw of his. I wonder if that had been planned from the start or they thought it up along the way. The creator said that he could imagine the story running 30 issues, and here we are, so maybe. But there's more to do. Midoriya hasn't become the Number 1 hero yet. He hasn't finished school yet. And he hasn't had all of his powers manifest yet (even if they didn't all manifest for prior holders of One-for-All.)

I'll have to keep an eye out every so often for the next volume. Then again, I read 8 of the 9 parts of that other thing. I wonder if it ever came out.

Envy of Angels

Envy of Angels, Matt Wallace (2015)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a freebie from the Tor dot com reading club.

For the record, my first mention online of "The Sin Cafe" came in a closed writing blog, which was open at that time, back in 2011. It had its origins in a trip to Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic, several years before that. I mention this because "Sin du Jour" appears to be a series. However, I will continue to write Hell's Diner stories as the moods strike. I have at least two more in mind for whenever I work them out.

I started it a couple months ago. It had my attention but I wasn't sure I wanted to go where it was going. But I went back to it. It was actually a quick read and a short book. (It's actually a novella.)

Lena and Darren are out-of-work chefs in NYC and can't get a job. They get to try-out as substitutes at Sin-du-Jour (which along with the cover should be a massive hint). They are given a hands-on interview by someone who could make Gordon Ramsey cry, but they manage to pass while creating things they've never made before using the hottest of spices and ingredients that they've never tasted before. It's a bit exotic. And there's a forbidden food pantry. If you need something, ask the person authorized to go in there.

Well, they go in there, and all Hell breaks loose. Sort of. A creature is released from a jar that instantly starts growing in size and wreaking havoc.

Rather than fire them, the Chef tells them that their exclusive clientele is rivals groups of demons, and that these get-togethers are funded by the U.S. government, which mediates and helps keep the peace between the factions.

They it starts getting interesting when demons arrive with a special dish that they want prepared -- it's an angel, a spellbound, living angel, although more akin to one of ancient writings than of popular paintings. The crew is split on this because they don't want to slaughter an angel. But they can't refuse, so the best that they can do is fake what an angel tastes like. The crew discovers that angel tastes like Chicken Nuggies from Henley's (a fictional food chain). This leads to some industrial espionage, which leads to something else fantastical. It gets crazy from there.

One thing that doesn't make sense in the resolution is this: [SPOILER] Although the Nuggies have been created through fantastical methods for decades, the magicked Nuggies were based on an actual original recipe. How did those turn out to taste like angel? I guess I would've had an easier time believing that angels taste like "magic chicken" more than that they taste enough like chicken to form a demon.

Me & the Monkey

Me & the Monkey, Andy Darby (2021)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This title popped up in a mailing list. I saw the monkey in reddish/brown water in a jungle (I didn't notice the helicopter in the thumbnail, I don't think), and it carried the banner: Chronicles of the Monkey God. My nephew loves monkeys and this had a cartoonish cover, so I gave it a try. Who knew? Maybe it could be something I could share with my nephew!

Note: This could NOT be shared with my nephew. Cursing, sex, violence, death, and spooky crap besides. I found it amusing (the humor was also not age-appropriate) but it wasn't something for him.

The story is told in blog form, which is daring for 2021 when blogs are mostly done, really. (And I say that as someone who has multiple blogs, I know.) It starts out slow and unassuming, setting stuff up. Even the first few "off" days set things up. The narrative continues for almost a year, and the entries will get longer and longer.

The Monkey's name is monkey and the narrator (I have to find his name again, sorry -- that's the point of this blog!) we later find out won the Monkey in a game of Othello from his previous owner (who was old). When we first meet The Monkey, he's conducting rituals up in the spare room to stop the rain outside. He eventually succeeds (after the rain has stopped) but appears to have left a black hole behind. He tells the guy to vacuum around it. Later, tentacles pop out of it. And the Monkey makes sushi.

The Monkey has flashbacks to Nam, and we later find out a couple of things. First, he is someone who was in the Viet Nam War. Second, he's actually a Monkey God, which would explain the walking, talking, smoking, and drinking Jack Daniels while no one flinches. And for a dumb Monkey conducting silly rituals, he's pretty adept on the Dark Web and has contacts around the world.

Rounding out the cast of characters, there are a group of nerds who detect the activity from the Black Hole and later join Team Monkey to study it and to find out who else is watching the house. And then there are two Monster High goth chicks (refered to as "the Monster Highs" throughout the book). Thanks to an episode of Face-Off, I knew what that was. Apparently, those two characters were also ghouls who knew the main characters from a previous life, a story which they never got to tell.

If the main character had a job, I don't recall what it was. But whatever it was, he was able to take all the time he needed, and he didn't seem to want for cash.

Anyway, the story gets sillier and sillier as it goes on as they take adventures through the black hole and confort a villain with a blurry face. It had enough of an ending where you didn't need to rush out and find the second book. Obviously, they will have more adventures together.

I enjoyed it. I might look for the next book.

Famous Legends From Portugal (Abrantes)

Famous Legends From Portugal, Miguel Carvalho Abrantes (2021)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a freebie, and I was interested in legends other than the usual ones I see.

Divided into sections dating back to before Portugal was even Portugal, it's a collecton of stories about the stories. The tales aren't told, except as a summary of the legned (and sometimes popular variances). These are sometimes accompanied by travelogues, by which I mean, if it is the elgend is associated with a certain place, you are informed where that place is and what structures or artifacts remain from that time period. (Some have been completely torn down.

There are legends of kings and explorers along with religious legends and some famous people and places. Nothing that stands out, though, as I've finsihed two other books that I remember more.

Free ebook.

Greegs and Ladders (Mitchell and Mendlow)

Greegs and Ladders, Zack Mitchell and Danny Mendlow (2013)

An Incredible Journey Through Space and Time

It was not. CJB

(Not a review -- but if it were, it would be "this is bad. just bad." --
just some notes to help me remember the things I've read -- except that this is probably one I won't want to remember.
But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

So I downloaded this book many years ago. It's one of the oldest things in my kindle app, and I can't transfer it to my new iPad because the book was never archived anywhere. What I mean by that is that I didn't download this to my PC and then email it to my kindle account. I must've saved it directly into the app. So if I delete this book, it's gone.

Having no way to move it, I finally decided to read it while I was in between other things (my book club book and last month's Analog, specifically).

I managed to get through 10 chapters of rambling, possibly not pointless but hard to tell, exposition, that should've been a single chapter, possibly two. And while I made it through 10 of the book's 50 chapters, I was barely at 10% of the book. Something seemed off there.

It would appear that the authors are trying to make some kind of commentary, but they didn't get to that by a point where I gave up.

One thing I noticed was that if I read it to myself imagining the voice of the narrator from the old "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" TV series, I chuckle at least chuckle at the voice in my head reading this dreck, even though it didn't make the text itself any funnier.

Around this point I might mention the names of the main characters, but so far, there aren't any. A couple are introduced in Chapter 11, and the first thing you read is "He". Neither name appears until the next page. Again, this is on purpose, and there's a point to it, but whatever that point might be, it appears pretty dull.

I almost skipped making a record of this book. Instead, I'll post this the day before I finish my next book, so it doesn't stay at the top of the blog for longer than necessary.

And now I can delete this book, so it will be gone. After that, I wil not be able to have any discussions about it (not that I would) because I won't have a copy to refer back to.

I'm reading about a Monkey God now. Going quicker.