BOB SHAW – The Two-Timers. Ace SF Special H-79; paperback original, 1968. Cover art: Leo & Diane Dillon.

   Nine years earlier John Breton’s wife Kate had been saved from a murderer;s attack by an unknown rifleman who disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared. Now when he returns, he claims Kate as his wife; his point seems well taken, for he is John Breton himself.

   In his alternate, parallel universe Kate had died, and guilt had forced him to find a way to travel in probability, as it were. A new sort of eternal triangle, but before the new John Breton’s plans for resolving it can be carried out, his presence in what is for him World B changes the fabric of space/time itself, foreshadowing the end of the world.

   If migraine is a symptom, there are many frustrated time travelers! Imagine the troubles or the police lieutenant still investigating the case: a hopeless sort of detective tale, but effective in science fiction. The characters are real enough to be living creatures, and the effort to make them so is clear and appreciated,

   Anyone who has ever been uneasy about answering the phone will understand Breton’s fear of opening his life to the unknown caller on page 6. The touches of the future involved are natural, so only the ending fails to live up to the originality one is led to expect. As a mathematical note, Shaw makes a mistake about a topological problem on page 108, but it is nothing that affects the story.

Rating: ****1/2

E. C. TUBB – Derai. Dumarest #2, Ace Double H-77; paperback original. 1st printing, September 1968. Cover artist: Jeff Jones. Published back-to-back with The Singing Stones, by Juanita Coulson (reviewed here).

   Dumarest is a wanderer, looking for legends of lost Earth. [This is the second in a series of his adventures.] In this one he takes on the job of returning the strange young girl named Derai to her home planet of Hive, not knowing she has telepathic powers that will involve him in a struggle for control of the planet,

   More importantly, however, is the the interest that the cybernetic brain Cyclan has in the girl, leading to a deadly competition in the mazes of Folgone, and to Derai’s death.

   These are interesting worlds, well described, with all the perversions, customs, and other necessities of life these worlds entail. Tubb displays an ability to write between the lines: or is he just unable to explain everything well? It does come off quite effectively.

Rating: ***½

JUANITA COULSON – The Singing Stones. Ace Double H-77; paperback original; 1st printing, 1968. Cover art by Kelly Freas. Published back-to-back with Derai, by E. C. Tubb (a review of which will be posted here soon).

   Strange stones that entrance those who touch them with their mysterious essence of music appear on the black market, and Geoff Latimer is sent by the Federation to the protected planet of Pa-Liina to discover their source. Also part of his assignment is the task of stopping slave trade carried on through “protecting” planet of Deliyas. To be done, of course, without requiring official intervention.

   A mutated goddess has developed the stones for the benefit of her fellow Pa-liinians, and Geoff must decide which side he will back in the struggle for rule of the planet.

   Things are not made clear at once, in a decidedly casual approach to the plot, but everything does finally get explained. Latimer works like the CIA is supposed to. He doesn’t much like it, but in this case, his manipulations work out fine. A strange way of doing business, after all that time.

Rating: ***½

BRETT STERLING – Danger Planet. Captain Future #18, Popular Library 60-2335, paperback; 1st printing thus, 1968. Cover artist: Frank Frazetta. Previously published in Startling Stories, Spring 1945, as “Red Sun of Danger.”

   The solar system’s supply of vitron, the chemical giving mankind lengthened life, is being threatened. Captain Future is sent in disguise to the planet Roo to investigate the native uprisings which threaten to bring about the colonists’ open rebellion, And independent government would then control a monopoly on vitron.

   With the help of his Futuremen and several scientists, Captain Future discovers what is upsetting the Roons – imminent release of the monstrous Kangas imprisoned on their moon.

   On page 7, one scientist’s opinion of Captain Future is that he is nothing but a cheap popular hero. Unfortunately not much happens to change the reader’s mind. Obviously a juvenile tale, and it does seem adequate on that level, though bad science and idiot plotting hurt. Actually a detective story, as enough clues are given to discover the evil Lu Suur’s secret identity before Captain Future does.

Rating: *½

EMIL PETAJA – Doom of the Green Planet. Ace Double H-70. Paperback original; 1st printing, 1968. Published back-to-back with Star Quest, by Dean R. Koontz (reviewed here). Never reprinted. Cover artist: Jerome Podwil.

   Evidently a sequel to Lord of the Green Planet (Ace, 1967), and a continuation of the adventures of Diarnid Patrick O’Dowd, ex-starman, on the planet Eu-Tarah, protected from the outside by an impenetrable green barrier. Diarmid is now High Lord of the Islanders, having defeated their god-king and creator.

   But this very act is leading to the gradual destruction of the green barrier, leading to the challenging appearance of a new renegade starman.

   A collection of cultural conflicts has an isolationist theme: the Green must continue to protect the people of Eu-Tarah from the exploitation of space-faring man. Too much scientific achievement is compulsively driving the rest of the universe, without reason or conscience. A similar theme of conflict between opposing societies is carried out by the Islanders and the barbaric Nords.

   And then there are the original inhabitants of the planet, who have a part in saying what their world shall become. As a style, Petaja’s SF reads strangely like fantasy.

Rating:   **½

DEAN R. KOONTZ – Star Quest. Ace Double H-70; paperback original, 1968. Cover by Gray Morrow. Published back-to-back with Doom of the Green Planet, by Emil Petaja (to be reviewed here soon).

   The universe has been the scene of a centuries-long war between the Romaghins and Setessins. On a restricted primitive planet Tohm is forcibly separated from his love, Tarnilee, by invading Romaghins. His search for her leads him to the slave planet Basa II, where he joins a group of hunted Muties, mutants caused by the effects of nuclear warfare. They have learned the power of shifting between divided universes, and have successfully rid their own of warring worlds.

   Shallow on first reading, but Koontz says there are allegorical points. The warring enemies are descendants of the radical right and the radical left, the mutants are “soulbrothers” – the victims of the attempted cleansing of guilt – who succeed in ending war.

   Tohm is the catalyst, anyone in particular? But who are the mutants with white eyes, tangible lust creatures, that periodically appear and disappear? This will probably not rate well with others, sorry to say. Koontz does have a good picturesque style.

Rating: ***

POUL ANDERSON -To Outlive Eternity. Serialized in Galaxy SF, June & August 1967. Collected in To Outlive Eternity and Other Stories (Baen, trade paperback, 2007). An expanded version was published by Doubleday in hardcover in 1970 as the novel Tau Zero. (See Comment #3.)

   The spaceship Lenore Christine, traveling at nearly the speed of light toward Beta Virginis, runs into a small cosmic cloud that disables the deceleration unit. Since by relativity time within the ship is not not so much a factor, the expedition can continue until the empty spaces between galaxies are reached; only then would it be safe to turn off the accelerator force-screens,

   But the velocity keeps increasing, making it difficult to find a region of space empty enough, and the rate if deceleration must be considered in finding a likely galactic cluster in which they could stop.

   And then the universe begins to die. The only possible answer is to continue until its rebirth.

   The captain is not the protagonist, but rather the officer in charge of discipline and morale – what he has to do is keep discouragement and frustration from leading to madness. Sexual relationships are dwelt with, almost frankly, but still not deeply. The stress on the physical situation the expedition finds itself in seems greater than the force [and the] effect has on them.

   Anderson does not seem capable of getting beyond physics, and his enthusiasm for physical ideas does not carry over to his readers. For example, the rebirth of a universe cannot really be told in two paragraphs, but it is, and it does, sad to say, seem dull.

Rating: ***

GALAXY SF – August 1967. Editor: Frederik Pohl. Cover artist: Dember. Overall rating: ***

ROBERT SILVERBERG “Hawksbill Station.” Novelette. Reviewed separately and appearing here. (4)

ROGER ZELAZNY “Angel, Dark Angel.” Dark Angels bring death to individuals who threaten the stability of galactic society, Of what significance is Sensibility? (2)

K. M. O’DONNELL “We’re Coming through the Windows.” A letter to Mr. Pohl about a time-machine. Funny but hopeless. (1)

R. A. LAFFERTY “Ginny Wrapped in the Sun.” Reversible evolution, told Lafferry-style. Is this based on an Asimov article? (3)

RICHARD WILSON “9-9-99.” Letters between the last two men on Earth, about a bet that can’t be paid off. (2)

H. H. HOLLIS “Travelers Guide to MegaHouston.” Non-fact article. The domed city of the future has its roots today in the Astrodome and the US pavilion at Expo76. Not very interesting. (1)

TED THOMAS “The Being in the Tank.” A strange man appears in the works of a hydrazine plant. Why didn’t this appear in Analog? (2)

LINDA MARLOWE “Hide and Seek.” Population controlled by a children’s game. (3)

MIRIAM ALLEN deFORD “The Great Stupids.” Discrimination because of age, and how to combat it — with soda pop. (2)

POUL ANDERSON “To Outlive Eternity.” Serial; part 2 of 2. Review to be posted here soon.

PHILIP JOSE FARMER – The Felled Star. Serialized in If SF, July-August, 1967. Combined with the serial “The Fabulous Riverboat” (If SF, May-June 1971) into the second Riverworld novel, The Fabulous Riverboat (Putnam, hardcover, 1971).

   Continuing the Riverworld series, we now follow the adventures and dreams of Sam Clemens as he and a shipful of Viking warriors [as they] sail upstream in search of a mysterious tower reportedly seen in the polar regions. One of the Ethicals intervenes again, to cause a meteorite to fall, promising a source of much-needed iron.

   The story does not end, and cannot stand by itself; hence the low rating. Who couldn’t it be told at once? Farmer’s Sam Clemens has only faint resemblance to the historical Mark Twain, though no doubt the facts of his life are correct. Some comments [are included] on the human condition, reflections on life by Clemens, etc.

Rating: ** ½.

IF SCIENCE FICTION. August 1967. Editor: Frederik Pohl. Cover artist: Gray Morrow. Overall rating: ***

JAMES BLISH “Faust Aleph-Null.” Serial: part 1 of 3. See report following that of the October 1967 (yet to come).

ROGER DEELEY “The Trouble with Vegans.” First story. They are very clever smugglers. An old joke retold. (3)

KEITH LAUMER “Clear As Mud.” Novelette. Retief and Magnan are Terran representatives on a planet where mud volcanoes are a bad problem. And the complications arise. Fun. (3)

FRED SABERHAGEN “The Winged Helmet.” Novelette. Sequel to “Stone Man” in the May issue of Worlds of Tomorrow. The berserkers’ attacks through time are concentrated on individuals who control a great deal of the planet’s destiny. King Ay of pre-civilized times is killed, and a replacement has to be sent to maintain history. The ending is not satisfying; there may be more to come. (3)

BURT K. FILER “Paint ’em Green.” The search of “effects machines” by Terran governments brings about interference by outside interests, for a second time. (3)

PHILIP JOSE FARMER “The Felled Star.” Serial; part 2 of 2. Report on complete story to appear here soon.