Magazine Review: Analog Science Fiction Science Fact November 1965 edited by John W. Campbell
It’s time for another random issue of the classic science fiction magazine.
“Colloid and Crystalloid” by John W. Campbell starts the issue off with an editorial beginning with the notion that humanoid killer robots probably aren’t going to be a thing because it turns out that metal is less strong in certain ways than bone. He cites the difficulty in creating artificial hips and elbows that would be anything as good as the originals, and artificial hearts? Well…while progress was being made even as Mr. Campbell wrote, it wasn’t until the 1980s that there was a successful permanent artificial human heart transplant. It ends with the notion that any artificial intelligence “smart” enough to do certain tasks will be smart enough to refuse.
“Down Styphon!” by H. Beam Piper is the second story in the “Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen” series. While it’s billed her as Mr. Piper’s last story, the story had already been expanded into the middle third of the Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen novel which came out shortly thereafter. (Later books in the series are by other hands.)
Calvin Morrison of the Pennsylvania State Police is accidentally transported to a parallel Earth where “Aryan” tribes immigrated to North America instead of the tribes that in our timeline became Native Americans. There he learns that the land is divided up into many small fiefdoms that are constantly having conflicts. It turns out that the root of much of the trouble is the cult of Styphon.
In this timeline, the making of gunpowder is a religious secret controlled by the Brotherhood of Styphon. As a result, they have become rich and bloated off the sale of “fireseed”, and pit one petty prince against another with primitive firearms to keep themselves in demand.
Lord Kalvan, as he’s now known, learns that the priests of Styphon are targeting the kingdom of Hostigos, where he’s landed, for their sulfur deposits. As he’s fallen in love with the princess Rylla (and vice versa), he decides to help Hostigos. And as it happens, the one thing Calvin Morrison was good at in school was military history, including the formula for gunpowder and how to make better weapons.
This story covers the second major battle in the campaign as the recently upgraded Hostigos military must defend against the much larger invading force of neighboring Nostor. There are some scenes where the Paratime Patrol and historians debate how to handle Kalvan being dumped in the wrong timeline but the answer is mostly “leave him alone and watch what happens.”
If you’re into military strategy and tactics, this is great stuff, but lean on almost everything else. There’s an attempt at building suspense towards the end, but “no isekai author would let that happen” and so it falls flat.
“Even Chance” by John Brunner starts with an anecdote about a downed World War Two pilot in remote Burma. In the present day, a World Health Organization team is startled when a dying boy stumbles out of the jungle bearing a curious object. The story ends with a matching anecdote that leaves the fate of the world in question. Much is left deliberately ambiguous.
“A Long Way to Go” by Robert Conquest is also ambiguous. A 20th Century man is brought to the 26th Century by…means. He’s deemed mentally sturdy enough to receive some, but not much information about the future he’s now in. What little he does learn seems to make the civilization seem utopian by present standards, but in the end he must be brainwashed so that he won’t go insane–it seems the future has developed its own problems. More frustrating than interesting.
“Some Preliminary Notes on FASEG” by Laurence M. Janifer and Frederick W. Kantor is a parody of research papers, this time involving Fairy Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Godmothers using some bits from the Cinderella story. Mildly amusing.
“Onward and Upward with Space Power” by J. Frank Coneybear talks about the possibility of steam-powered satellites. At great length with lots of math. I fear that I am the sort of person who is more interested in the steampunk aesthetic (and cultural critique) than in the actual engineering, but steam enthusiasts might enjoy this.
“Space Pioneer” by Mack Reynolds is the conclusion of a short novel. Enger Castriota is an Albanian bent on ending an ancient family feud with the Peshkopi clan. He’s gotten a clue that the last Peshkopi is going to be aboard the colony ship Titov, so stows away. Once on board, he discovers that one of the board members of the New Arizona Company, Rog Bock, failed to embark for reasons that are never explained, and borrows his identity. Also, there are no people named Peshkopi on the passenger or crew list.
No one actually knew Rog Bock, so the masquerade holds until the ship reaches New Arizona, but the ship lands poorly, making it impossible to take off again, and someone sabotaged the smaller space lifeboats and communications equipment. The colonists and crew are stuck.
Enger’s real identity is eventually exposed, but more pressingly, it turns out the colonists are not alone when natives attack.
This half of the story has Enger exiled from the board, but becoming “sheriff” of the colony as the ship’s security force is more like a military/secret police than useful law enforcement. Finally, the “Kogs” attack. Enger helps drive them back, but puts together that the colonists are looking at the problem wrong, especially the Titov’s captain, who is still hoping to get rich off this world’s natural resources.
SPOILERS: Turns out there’s some severe racism going on as the white colonists utterly fail to recognize dark-skinned people as fellow humans. END SPOILERS.
There’s a bit of a discussion about how Marxism never really got a firm grip as its prediction of capitalism eventually reaching a point where it would inevitably collapse never fully happened.
There’s some interesting stuff here, but I suspect this novel would serve best as grist for a class on colonialism in SF.
“The Reference Library” by P. Schuyler Miller is the book review column. I was not aware that Margery Allingham had written one of her Campion mystery novels to involve psionics. Mr. Miller is not impressed.
“Brass Tacks” closes out the issue with reader letters on topics ranging from the mysterious darkness of June 1950 through the Berkeley student riots to the role of unions. (Mr. Campbell prefers third-party arbitrators.)
A bit below average issue, of most interest to H. Beam Piper fans.
