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

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

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The may issue of Analog has stories by Clifford D. Simak and Isaac Asimov, as well as the continuation of the 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: "Life Cycles". There are complex carbon molecules in interstellar space. Not life, not even pre-life, but the building blocks for life.

Short Novel: "Solo Kill", by S. Kye Boult. with an illustration by Leo Summers showing a winged creature with a beak, carapace, and taloned feet is on the ground in the foreground. There's a small plane flying over some high mountains on the left page. On the right page, there is another plane flying lower and trailing something. There are more winged creatures, including on taking off. The caption reads, Competing species may battle each other until one of them is driven into extinction. An intelligent species can speed the process -- but pays a cost of guilt.

I saved this for the end of the month to read. Halfway through I was losing interest but still reading. Actually, I didn't expect to get past the first few pages where there is a battle between two different winged creatures, neither of which is in a plane. The one that wins is the protagonist for the story, Baron Amarson, who can fly a plane. The other creature was one of "The Drak" which seem to be more animalistic in nature. This was a battle of honor for the Baron.

We're later introduced to the Rivermen, who appear to be the scientists. They have machines that measure celestial movements. There's one large red sun and a smaller yellow sun distant from the planet.

I'm not sure if I will finish this because as I went back to review the text to type some things above, I couldn't remember reading some of the pages that he passed by. Did I forget them? Did I skip them while I was falling asleep and didn't notice?

I was also distracted by continued references to flying above the mole where "mole" was obviously a place. Apparently, the fifth definition in Websters is a place formed by masonry and large stones, and the sixth is a harbor formed by a mole. Also, the machine I described above is apparently called an "orrery".

Maybe I should've known these things, but they were distractions. And since I was reading a PDF, the dictionary wasn't an option.

Anyway, it's a long story with different sets and winged creatures, so I don't know if this is something that an anthology series would want to take on. It could be a movie in its own right if a screenwriter could make it interesting and accessible.

Serial: "A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!", by Harry Harrison, Part Two of Three.

I'll get to this next month.

Short Story: "Lunch Box", by Howard Waldrop with an illustration by Kelly Freas showing an alien landscape and a lunar lander of some kind. The caption reads, Intelligent creatures can recognize the benefits of high tenchology -- even if it's not their own!

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: "Celestial Mechanics", by Rowland E. Burns. The caption reads, If you wonder why the astronauts don't whip out their trusty slide rules and quickly compute a new orbit when something goes a little wrong -- try this basic course in "Celestial Mechanics and why it drives people nuts." There *is* a solution to the three-body problem ... only it can't be worked out. To catch up to a ship ahead of you in orbit, you must slow down! Rowland E. Burns is a NASA orbital mechanics mathematician and knows the frutstations of which he speaks.

Sounds like it'll be over my head. If I can get back to it, great, but it's 27 pages long, so maybe not.

Short Story: "The Observer", by Clifford D. SImak with an illustration by Kelly Freas showing a volcano in the background with a large Sun-like object with a human eyeball in the center of it. There is what looks like a snake-like staff or the underside of some kind of creature. There are weird looking trees which look like vertical stalks with large tomatoes on top of them. The caption reads, To make a workable data-gathering system, you must understand what kind of information is being sought, why it's being sought, and -- ultimately -- who is the seeker.

The first of two "big names" that I wanted to read. It seemed like the story was going to be about an AI that became self-aware. It later seemed to be an actual person, or something that used to be a person, which has its memory erased after every mission. It remembers things and then realizes that it has remembered things.

In the end, it senses that it has been cut off from whoever launched it because it knew too much and was no longer of any use to them.

This could be a quick short story. It doesn't need much except a studio backlot or a remote section in the desert. A little cerebral though.

Short Story: "Mirror Image", by Isaac Asimov with an illustration by Leo Summers a seated man and another standing near him, both looking at a giant robotic head, which seems to be speaking. The caption reads, Lije Bailey could understand how two humans could tell exactly equal but opposite stories -- one of them was lying. But robots can't tell lies, it's a violation of the Laws of Robotics. And here were two robots telling exactly the same story ... except that they contradicted each other on every point.

With the exception of the I, Robot, I have not read any of Asimov's robot novels. (Amusingly, I used picked up a used copy of a book thinking it was Caves of Steel when it was in fact The Currents of Space, which is an Empire novel, and I was wondering where the robots were.)

I know of Elijah Bailey and R. Daneel Olivaw, but not much about them. (Like, I might've guessed that the R. stood for "Robot", but I didn't know that for a fact.)

The robot has worked with the private detective before, and he contacts him about a Spacer problem -- a case of theft among two Spacer academics, old elderly and ready to retire, and one young and new in the field. Each has a robotic assistant that supports their master's claim. Olivaw is allowed to contact Bailey, who must solve the problem from his living room because Spacers would never allow an Earthman on their ship.

Bailey figures out that under the Laws of Robotics a robot could lie to protect its master's career and public image. He even applies enough logic to the situation to get one of the robots to recant its testimony. Olivaw is pleased. However, Bailey tells him that he isn't done because the robot might've changed his testimony from truthful to falsehood for a logical reason.

Bailey figures out the problem based on human nature, and the fact that the young academic would be much more likely to consult the older fellow than vice versa, while the older academic would want one last hurrah while his younger college would have over a century ahead to make a name for himself. (Spacers live long lives in space.)

This requires one set, two humans, and a couple of retro-looking robot masks. It could be filmed tomorrow except that Asimov stories probably cost more to option. This one could be a good test to see of filming a novel might be successful.

The Reference Library , by P. Schuyler Miller. Reivews include Riverworld by Philip Jose Farmer, many years after the fact as Miller had always assumed it to be fantasy and not sci-fi, The Transvection Machine by Edward D. Hoch, Science Fiction: The Future by Dick Allen, 20 Years of Analog/Astounding Science Fiction Science Fact compiled by Jan A. Lorenzen.

Brass Tacks: A letter from Leslyn Campbell Randazzo, John W. Campbell's youngest daughter. A couple of readers sound off about a January letter. Someone else liked "Ecology Now" after thinking that they wouldn't. A letter about "Galactic Geopolitics", a complaint about an illustration of a vessel that should've had a gaff and boom on each of two masts, and a couple more round out the column.

Can I keep up with June? It depends if I read other things as well. I already figured out that reading more than one magazine a month wouldn't work unless I quit my book club and deleted most of my kindle library.

The Deep (Solomon)

The Deep, Rivers Solomon
with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes (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 browsed Good Reads looking for something short to read, something that I might not have picked up (or even heard of). I saw The Deep. The premise was interesting enough: it was about a society of sea beings who were descended from pregnant slaves who were tossed overboard from the slave ships traveling from Africa to America.

It turns out, and there are notes after the novella, that the book was inspired by a song. If you are familiar with the song, you might have a greater appreciation for the story since you have an idea what's coming. For me, I just got to enjoy the ride for the first time.

How the unborn human infants were transformed into these creatures is glossed over, but that's fine -- this is fantasy. It can be vague about this part. If I had any problem with the "wajinru", it was any time later in the text where they became even less human, more removed from the first women. This is, basically, a matter of identifying with the characters, along the lines of thinking "the wajinru are like human beings except..." and then listed one or maybe two traits. The more that changes, the more alien they become. A minor quibble.

The story is that there is a Historian, Yetu, who "remembers" all of their history. She remembers it so that the rest of them will not have to. Unfortunately, she experiences a loss of self because of this, and she is overcome with pain and memories because of it.

There is an annual Remembrance where for a few days, the Historian passes the memories back to all the people so that they can remember where they came from. However, Yetu takes this opportunity to flee and leave her people behind, free of these memories. She gets caught up in a storm and wakes up injured in a tidal pool of an island. Where this island is, I don't know. One would imagine that if must be in the Atlantic somewhere near the equator. I didn't realize until the end that this island is not the same one mentioned earlier in a flashback where some wajinru encountered a human lost at sea.

Yetu makes friends with a mysterious woman named Oori, who brings her food to help her get stronger. Oori leaves when a storm is coming. She invites Yetu to go with her, but Yetu decides to go home. The storm is from her people locked in the Remembrance.

A quick read. Again, not something I would've picked out normally, so I'm glad I did.

Final note: I like the cover shown above. The cover that my kindle showed (from the library loan) only had words and color patterns but no image. The image above comes from amazon UK.

The Geometry of Pasta (Hilderbrand, Kenedy, Vandy)

The Geometry of Pasta, Caz Hildebrand, Jacob Kenedy, Lisa Vandy (Illustrator) (2010)

(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 saw a picture of the book cover on Twitter. Without knowing anything about it, I searched both the Brooklyn and New York Public Libraries for a copy. I found a hardcover, which I'm not used to reading any more.

First off, it's a cookbook. Yes, I read it. I skipped the recipes and read all the introductions.

The book is organized by pasta type, listing over 100 of them, many that I never heard of, and some that are likely only available in Italy (or in heavily-Italian neighborhoods in NYC, of course). Some of them are only good if they can be made fresh (which I'll never do, nor am I likely to go buy them freshly made).

The introductions mention the shape and what sauces would be good with them. Some shapes scoop up sauce better than others. Some have to be cooked in a certain manner because the thinner parts might be overdone before the thicker parts are cooked.

Interesting read, and I'm glad I got a copy of it. I took photos of a couple of the sauces that seem easy to make, and of a few recipes for more common pastas that I could attempt on my own. I didn't bother with "simple" ones that called for ingredients I'm not likely to buy, like salmon or boar meat (or boar fat).

Jerry the Squirrel, Volume 1 (Robinson)

Jerry the Squirrel, Volume 1, Shawn P.B. Robinson (2018)

(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 in a Book Bub list. Once again, I thought it might be something to share with my nephew. Unlike The Monkey God, this one could be -- except I realized after the fact that I do know how -- if there is a way -- to send something from my kindle to his.

Jerry's an inventor, as it states at the beginning of every story, but his inventions dont' seem to go as planned.

Not objectionable about the book, except I'm not sure who it's targeted at. It's a chapter book which might be, say, grade 4, but the story is for a younger audience. Maybe this would be a good read-around book for earlier grades, one story at a time.

The Easy Life in Kamusari (Miura)

he Easy Life in Kamusari , Shion Miura (2009)
Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter (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 one of the free books I downloaded on Amazon's World Book Day.

The book is written as a memoir, but it's fiction. For one thing the main character is a man named Yuki (not to be confused with his coworker Yoki, who I did confuse him with at first). Less obvious, the author is female. (Obvious when you get to the picture and bio, of course.)

Also, when two woman appear who seem to be goddesses of the mountain, you can be sure that you've left memoir territory.

The Caiman (Manrique/Paris)

The Caiman , Maria Eugneia Manrique (2019)
Illustrated by Ramon Paris
Translated by Amy Brill

(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 one of the free books I downloaded on Amazon's World Book Day. It was a delightfully illustrated children's book about a caiman, which is a black alligator, named Negro, who was kept as a house pet. It's a children's book, so nothing horrific happens. In fact, it's quite sweet.

According to the notes, this is a true story that happened many years ago in San Fernando de Apure. A little girl named Julia found a baby alligator and was about to put it back in the river when the town watchmaker, Faoro, came along and adopted it.

The caiman was very friendly and gave children rides (including, according to the notes, the author), and slept in the bed with Faoro at night, even as he got bigger.

Faoro marries his neighbor Angela, but only after making sure that she and the caiman were okay with each other. Both Angela and the caiman are sad when Faoro passes away.

I classified this as fiction and nonfiction because it's a fictionalized account of a true story, and I'm too lazy to come up with a different label.