Mon 26 Jan 2026
SF Diary Review: IF SCIENCE FICTION – December 1967.
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Magazines , Science Fiction & Fantasy[4] Comments
IF SCIENCE FICTION. December 1967. Cover art: Douglas Chaffee. Editor: Frederik Pohl. Overall rating: **½.
JAMES WHITE “All Judgment Fled.: Serial, part 1 of 3. See report following my review of the February 1968 issue.
JAY KAY KLEIN “On Conquered Earth.” Another story of unsuspecting aliens being outsmarted by dumb Earthlings. (2)
FRITZ LEIBER “Answering Service.” An old woman who says she is dying of a heart attack needs help. (4)
C. C. MacAPP “When Sea Is Born Again.” Novelette. Life on an alien world, well-pictured, complicated by the forces of an unknown sea and by visitors from space. (3)
TERRY CARR “City of Yesterday.” The control of humans by machines reaches its final stages, (4)
ROBERT E. MARGROFF & ANDREW OFFUTT “Swordsmen of the Stars,” Novelette. A typical story of mercenary swordsmen hired to fight each other to decide quarrels between rulers of worlds. (2)
ROGER DEELEY “The Time Travellers.” Napoleon revisited. (3)
HAL CLEMENT “Ocean on Top.” Serial, part 3 of 3. See report to be posted soon here.
January 27th, 2026 at 12:33 pm
I read this one when it first came out, long before I entered my dotage. I don’t remember all the stories here, but some stick out.
James White was a very popular and capable author who, despite good sales and exceptional talent., never reached the top tier in the field. You don’t comment on ALL JUDGEMENT FLED here, but it was a worthwhile first contact novel, somewhat reminiscent of his Sector General stories.
Jay Kay Klein was a big name fane who was seldom seen without his camera. For over fifty years, he haunted conventions and fan outings, taking pictures of everyone and everything. for thirty years, he contributed to ANALOG’s Biolab feature. Aside from two “Probabilty Zero” features in ANALOG, this was his only story; sadly*, I don’t remember it. I do remember him, though — he was always a welcome and friendly face.
I’m prejudiced. I cannot give Fritz Leiber anything but five stars, no matter what the story is.
C. C. MacApp is another writer who seems to have been given short shrift. He produced seven novels and forty short stories — almost of it in the 1960s, passing away in 1971. He had a clear style and preferred action-oriented plots. Had he lived, he might have gained a larger reputation.
Early in his career, Terry Carr was stunning the science fiction world with his short stories. His true metier, of course, was in editing. of which there were few more knowledgeable or capable than Carr. Because of this, his reputation for fiction has unjustly suffered. He was good.
Margroff was a journeyman writer, best known for his seven collaborations with Piers Anthony. Offut was a prolific writer in several genres, perhaps best known by fans for his work in writing and editing heroic fantasy. His major output seems to have been erotica (at least 420 works under at least seventeen pseudonyms). You have to wonder how he found time to collaborate on this story.
Roger Deeley published three stories in IF, plus two more stories and a vignette in David Gerrold anthologies. Given that, I know that I have read them all and can’t remember a blessed thing about them.
Clement was known for his hard science speculation, especially in his creation of alien life forms. At his best, he was brilliant and fascinating, albeit sometimes ponderous. OCEAN ON TOP has been described (I have not read it; I gave up on later Clement several years earlier) as DULL. I met Clement several times and he was a kind, friendly guy with a high school science teacher vibe, which he was.
The cover illustration, BTW, was for the
Carr story.
As I said, I can’t remember some of the stories in this issue, so I cannot carp about your score on merits, but I would probably rate it slightly higher based on effort.
January 27th, 2026 at 10:43 pm
Once again I enjoyed all your comments, observations and just general info, Jerry. Man many thanks. My rating for this issue was 2.5 stars, which exactly on average between 0 and 5. It should be noted, though, that my score, if you will, doesn’t include the installments of two serials, which take up a goodly chunk of the magazine. I don’t think we’re very far apart at all.
January 27th, 2026 at 1:54 pm
First thought–tbat’s a busy cover, even for a Pohl issue of IF.
That Leiber story beckons from the edge of memory. I’m pretty sure I haven’t read the Carr, but he continued to produce fine stories sporadically throughout his shortened life. I like not a few of his stories better than some of his he passed over for others’ in his several BOTY anthologies. Also, as Jerry notes less explicitly, IF’s tendency to feature relatively reliable fannish writers, particularly while Pohl edited, is very much in evidence here. That can’t have hurt when IF picked up its best of the year magazine Hugos.
January 27th, 2026 at 10:46 pm
I think you’re right, Todd. Pohl had a knack for aiming the stories he published right at the best age level he could. I was around 25 at the time I read this, and I think a lot of his readers were, too.