ANALOG SF – October 1967. Edited by John W. Campbell. Covert art by John Schoenherr. Overall rating: **½

ANNE McCAFFREY “Weyr Search,” [Dragonriders of Pern] Short novel. Reviewed separately here.

TOM PURDOM “Toys.” A good idea, the effects of advanced toys on children, is completely wasted. Two policemen save hostages from kids holding them prisoner. Action, action, unreadable action. (0)

CARROLL M. CAPPS “The Judas Bug.” Novelette. A sense of paranoia pays off, as a member of Phase Two of the Expedition begins to suspect that the leaders of the original party are plotting against him. Is the author C. C. MacApp? (3)     [Answer: Yes.]

W. MACFARLANE “Free Vacation.” In a society run by consensus, dissenters are given the choice of rehabilitation or space exploration. The author has little sense of either description or dialogue. (1)

J. T. McINTOSH “Pontius Pirates.” Novelette. Pontius Pirates are cautious, looking both ways trying to be in the clear whatever happens. But IP agent Jack Sheridan’s suspicions of the girl who picks him up in a bar on the planet Molle tell him someone there has something to hide,. Amazing by-play that does not develop into anything serious. (3)

FRED SABERHAGEN – The Broken Lands. Ace G-740. Paperback original, 1st printing, 1968. Cover art: Richard Powers. Baen Books, paperback, 1987. Collected in The Empire of the East (Baen, paperback, 1990; Tor, trade paperback, 2003).

   The are very few good examples of effective combinations of science fiction with swords-and-sorcery. This may be the best so far, better to my mind than anything by Andre Norton, for example. Since a sequel is definitely required, Saberhagen may have more in preparation, very good news indeed.

   Some large indefinite time in the Earth’s future, magic and sorcery have replaced science and technology in the scheme of things. Magic works, while science is regarded with superstitious awe. But the old things do work, and a nuclear-powered tank found buried under a mountain comes to life to help fulfill a myth, as an evil satrap is overthrown by the outlaw Free Folk.

   Try to imagine a Barbarian learning the operation of that tank, succeeding by trial and error. The fascination is so great that it truly comes as a disappointment when he is captured and the secret of tank’s existence is lost.

   Humor is present, too, as when instructions for a magic stone allowing its holder to escape go unread because of the very active requirements of doing so, ’Tis a very deep stone, too, to be able to determine which side of a barrier leads to the “outside” or to the “inside” …

   Not to be put down easily.

Rating: *****

ELLERY QUEEN – The Quick and the Dead. Ellery Queen #17. Pocket, paperback, later printing. Originally published as There Was an Old Woman (Little Brown, hardcover, 1943). First reprinted under this original title as Pocket Book #326, paperback, 1945. Reprinted several times since.

   It seems senseless to have changed the title,as the original one fits so much better. Remember “There was an old woman who lived in a shoe” from Mother Goose? That verse is the basic theme; Ellery Queen picks it up early, to his later confusion.

   Cornelia Potts, president of the Potts shoe business, lives with her six children and second husband, all in one house, which is the site of numerous hatreds, jealousies, and various eccentricities. Three murders, including a surrealistic duel at dawn, and one natural death later, Ellery’s deductions disrupt a weeding bring him a new secretary named “Nikki Porter.”

   We have many exaggerated character studies: Thurlow, the feeble-minded nitwit; Louella, the slave and science and invention; and Horatio, who lives in a continued childhood. It is easy to suspect that the name Potts is merely a lively excuse to call the whole family potty.

   What may or may not be a flaw is the failure of Inspector Queen to read the old lady’s will immediately after her death. While rationalized, it does lead to the clue which gives Ellery the answer, or rather, the proof of his accusation. Details fit together beautifully.

   But are duels really legal? Even those supposedly rigged to be harmless (with Inspector Queen spying on)?

Rating: *****

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

C. C. MacAPP “The Fortunes of Peace.” Novelette. Forced to make a deal with Kyshan pirates, “Taintless” Wend manages to doublecross them while trapped in orbit about a dead dwarf star. (3)

ROBERT SILVERBERG “Bride Ninety-One.” A tale of interworld marriage, between a Terran and a Suvornese, with insight into marriage customs or mores. (5)

PERRY A. CHAPDELAINE “To Serve the Masters.” First story; novelette. The Masters have a sensory organ which allows them to feel emotions and thus has enabled them to dominate all other life forms in their part of the galaxy. Humans are bred for generation to give them specialized intelligence. Such a specialist in genetics is given the task of improving the Masters’ race, but his solution forces them to begin the path of evolution from the beginning again. The genetics goes over my head and tends to make the story drier than it should have been. (3)

J. G. BALLARD “Venus Smiles.” Novelette. A sonic metal statue begins to grow and has to be dismembered as scrap, with disastrous results. I resent Ballard’s references to “twanging sitars” and “hack classics.”  (2)

PHILIP JOSE FARMER “A Bowl Bigger Than Earth.” Novelette. Farmer’s view of Hell: regimented life in brass houses in sexless bodies. Not to be confused with his Riverworld series, (2)

JAMES BLISH “Faust Aleph-Null.” Serial, part 2 of 3. To be reviewed when all three parts have been read.

HARL VINCENT “Invader.” Novelette. An engineer gets an impulse to help a strange girl in distress, and in actuality helps a princess’s mind trapped on Earth to return to Tau Ceti. Planet Stories brought up to date, almost. (2)

STARTLING MYSTERY STORIES, Summer 1968. Editor: Robert A. W. Lowndes. Cover art by Virgil Finlay. Overall rating: *½.

COL. S. P. MEEK “The Black Mass.” Originally published in Strange Tales, November 1931. The monastery of St. Sebastian is attacked by Asmodeus, the master of a c oven celebrating the Black Mass. Is not made believable. (1)

EARL PEIRCE, JR. “The Last Archer.” Novelet. First published in Weird Tales, March 1937. A hated Crusader Knight, put under a curse by a dying Saracen, is condemned to die only at the hands of the world’s greatest archer. An electronics expert is brought to his deserted island castle to help him killing himself as his mirror image. Effectively weird, in spite of diary format. (3)

JAY TYLER “The Sight of Roses.” Lester Morrow thinks he has contacted the Devil in his efforts to have his unfaithful wife done away with, but his perfect plan works too well. Uneven writing, some good, most terrible. (1)

FERDINAND BERTHOUD “Webbed Hands.” Originally published in Strange Tales, November 1931. A South African uses a monstrously deformed assistant to kill female relatives for insurance money. The author uses clumsy inverted sentence structure as he generally displays ignorance of the English language. (0)

PAUL ERNST “Hollywood Horror.” Dr. Satan #3. Novelet. Originally published in Weird Tales, October 1935. Dr Satan invents a ray that makes flesh invisible and uses it to threaten the motion picture industry, Not very scientific to be sure, but fun reading. (2)

TED WHITE – The Spawn of the Death Machine. Paperback Library 63-680; paperback original; 1st printing, July 1968.  Jeff Jones cover art. Warner Books, paperback, April 1974.

   Sometime after Chaos, the computer-complex know as the Death Machine sends Tanner out into the world to report on the state of humanity. Tanner is superficially human, but he has non-human superpowers that at times isolate him from the humans he finds. Some are savage barbarians, others are pioneer frontiersman, but the group he and the girl Rifka finally find have developed empathetic powers and seem to be the future of the race.

   Tanner’s memories of the pre-Chaos past haunt him and contribute to his worries about his quasi-human condition. That he is human is proven by the birth of his son, but he must learn to live with his discovery that it was he who helped decide that destruction must precede rebirth for the human race.

   The violent story of an outsider, realistic in treatment of both violence and sex, equated with humanity. Very easy to read, but also lacking in depth, and no deep conclusions result.

   Nero Wolfe is a popular character, The Mayor of New Mercer, later brutally killed by Tanner, has the same physical characteristics and habits (page 93). And what becomes of the town after his death? Tanner passes through, destroys, and goes on.

Rating: ***

ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE. September 1967. Overall rating: ***

ELLERY QUEEN “Wedding Anniversary,” Ellery Queen’s final return to Wrightsville is marred by murder  and revenge striking after death. (3)

FRANK GRUBER “Eagle in His Mouth.” Process server Harry Ives finds a dead with a rare penny in his mouth, a la Black Mask. (3)

PATRICK QUENTIN “Mrs. B’s Black Sheep.” Short novel. Previously published in The American Magazine, March 1950, as “Passport for Murder.” Mrs. Black’s European Tour, conducted for wealthy debutantes, is threatened by murder. The clues point to someone closely connected with her group, and she fears the worst. Easy to read. (4)

STEVE APRIL “The Greatest Snatch in History.” A plan to kill the President fails. Ha. (2)

      [Note: Steve April was another pen name for Len Zinberg, aka Ed Lacy.]

ROBERT L. FISH “The Adventure of the Missing Three Quarters. Schlock Homes somehow helps invent the miniskirt, Good puns, but I really don’t understand. (3)

ARTHUR PORGES “Murder of a Friend.” Selby of the OSS is given a dirty job. Elementary topology. (2)

LARRY MADDOCK “The Death Wish.” Psychological bunk leads to a job as a hired killer. (1)

JAMES LEASOR “The Seventy-Sixth Face.” First published in Vogue, November 1 1965, as “Doctor Love Strikes Again.” Jason Love helps catch an international jewel thief. Full of trivia. (1)

REV. NORMAN E. DOUGLAS “The Washing Machine.” First story. An impoverished minister turns to crime. (5)

JOHN PICK “They Said It Couldn’t Be Done.” First story. And safecracker Tony Lepula couldn’t. Good atmosphere. (4)

YOUNGMAN CARTER “Alias Mr. Manchester.” A criminal is busted by a policeman’s anonymous letters. {3)

SUSAN SEARS “A Tale from the Chaucer.” The Chaucer is a village coffeehouse. Its owner has to take on a free-lance detective job to solve a folk singer’s murder, (3)

FRANK SISK “The Shadow of His Absence.” Richard thinks his twin brother Robert has disappeared, but he has no twin brother. (1)

WILLIAM BANKIER “Traffic Violation.” Policeman turns down $20,000 to help his prisoner escape, but $20 to a delivery boy does the job. (5)

NEDRA TYRE “In the Fiction Alcove.” Murder in the library is solved by a page. (3)

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

DASHIELL HAMMETT “$106,000 Blood Money.” First published in Black Mask, May 1927. Collected in The Big Nightmare (Random House, 1966).

   Sequel to “The Big Knockover.” The brother of a murdered gunman attempts to collect the reward money for bringing in Papadopolos. These two stories together vividly describe the underworld and its inhabitants, the temptation of crime, and its viciousness. (4)

DASHIELL HAMMETT “The Big Knockover.” First published in The Black Mask, February 1927. Collected in The Big Nightmare (Random House, 1966).

   Hoods from all over the country are imported into San Francisco to pull off a multimillion dollar double bank robbery, As the Continental Op investigates, most of the gunmen are found murdered, victims of a vicious double-cross. Papadopoulos, the headman, fools the OP and escapes. (4)