Mon 22 Apr 2019
SF Stories I’m Reading: C. N. GLOECKNER “Miscount.”
Posted by Steve under Science Fiction & Fantasy , Stories I'm Reading[8] Comments
LESTER del REY, Editor – Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year: Second Annual Edition. E. P. Dutton, hardcover. 1973. Ace, paperback, December 1975.
#10. C. N. GLOECKNER “Miscount.” Vignette. First published in Analog SF, November 1972. Never reprinted.
In his introduction to this story, Lester del Rey states his dislike for stories presented in the form of a diary or a series of communications (letters, emails, and so on) between two or more parties, but he decided to include this particular story as an exception to his rule.
This one consists of a series of messages back and forth an operative for an alien salvage company and its headquarters, back wherever that may be. It seems that they picked up some discarded vacuum suits on the satellite of a planet of a developing culture in an area which was supposed to off limits.
To correct their error and to stay out of trouble, they decide to replace them with facsimiles, but this serves only to make things worse. Read the title again, and you can easily figures out what goes wrong.
This is short and cute, designed to give the reader a smile for just a moment before he or she moves on, but to include it in a Best of the Year anthology? Lester del Rey should have followed his basic instincts on this and said no.
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Previously from the del Rey anthology: VERNOR VINGE “Long Shot.”
April 22nd, 2019 at 5:19 pm
This was the first of only four SF stories Carolyn Gloeckner had published. The other three appeared in anthologies edited by Roger Elwood, the first of which, “Earth Mother,” was picked by Lester del Rey for a later Best of the Year anthology.
April 22nd, 2019 at 8:13 pm
Nice vignette with an obvious punchline, not really a story.
The most successful story told in the form of letters, diaries, recordings and such may still be DRACULA, which gets a tremendous boost from the various modern technologies being used to tell a Gothic tale (typewriter, dictaphone …).
April 26th, 2019 at 8:02 pm
The first issue of ANALOG I was able to read as a very young kid. I had no memory of what the story was about when I saw it cited here, but I remember trying to figure out how to pronounce her name.
April 26th, 2019 at 8:18 pm
My guess, but only a guess, is something like Gluckner.
April 26th, 2019 at 8:27 pm
Here are the rest of the stories in that same issue, Todd. Of these I’d say only the serial by Simak would be memorable, but if this was the first issue you read, maybe some of the others have stuck with you, too.
Cemetery World [Part 1 of 3] · Clifford D. Simak · n.
The Parties of the First Part · Richard F. DeBaun · ss
Pigeon City · Jesse Miller · nv
Request for Proposal · Anthony R. Lewis · ss
C. N. Gloeckner · vi
Jim Durham · nv
In the Matter of the Assassin Merefirs · Ken W. Purdy · ss
April 27th, 2019 at 12:27 am
The Purdy is clever (his stories tended to be), and the Lewis is another “apparatus” story (told in the form of memos)…I think Bova liked such a lot more than Del Rey did.
Phoebe Gloeckner and some others seem to pronounce it Glockner, but I suspect there are shades of preference available…Old Country “Gloakner”?
April 27th, 2019 at 12:29 am
Oh! Yeah, “Pigeon City” is a Very good story…Miller wasn’t able to come up with a good followup, apparently, and gave up pretty quickly.
By me, the Simak serial was one of his weaker novels.
April 27th, 2019 at 10:15 am
Sounds like a prime example of “You can’t tell stories by their authors.”