Tue 23 Jul 2024
SF Diary Review: ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION, August 1967.
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Science Fiction & Fantasy[3] Comments
ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION. August 1967. Editor: John W. Campbell. Cover art by Chesley Bonestell. Overall rating: 2½ stars.
POUL ANDERSON “Starfog.” Short novel. Ranger Daven Laure is assigned the task of returning a lost spaceship and its crew to their home planet. Complications arise since they have some from a strange region of space, a globular cluster, where abundance of stellar matter and sheer closeness of stars make ordinary navigation impossible. Lots of meat for the astrophysicist, but the story fails to inspire the ordinary reader, Quite boring. **
CHRISTOPER ANVIL “Babel II.” The next world crisis will be caused by the inability of scientists in different fields to communicate. Pertinent, and the analogy is apt. (3)
FRANK HERBERT “The Featherbedders.” Novelette. A race of telepathic beings think Earth would be useful for their purposes, but they don’t quite suspect they’re being exploited in turn. (3)
WALT & LEIGH RICHMOND “Cows Can’t Eat Grass.” A stranded space scout uses bacterial symbiosis, such as a cow does, to survive. (3)
MACK REYNOLDS “Depression or Bust.” A national depression is trace from its very roots. The solution” Go back to that family that started it all. Too long. [21 pages] (2)
July 23rd, 2024 at 10:37 pm
Some interesting names here but no stories to get truly excited about. If push came to shove, I’d probably reread this issue again, but I suspect my reaction would be the same.
July 24th, 2024 at 12:17 am
Jerry
“Some interesting names here but no stories to get truly excited about.”
My reaction tonight, almost exactly, based on my reaction to the stories so long ago. And yet, if I came across my copy of this very same issue again, would i read it? Probably!
July 26th, 2024 at 10:56 pm
Nice lineup, but ANALOG seemed at times to overwhelm otherwise good adventure writers.