Sun 30 Aug 2026
IF SCIENCE FICTION. January 1968. Editor: Frederik Pohl. Cover art: John Pederson, Jr. Overall rating: **½.

JOHN RANKINE “The Peacemakers.” Novelette. [Rankine is a pen name of Douglas R. Mason.} The responsibilities of peace entail sabotage and violence to help an IGO agent escape from the planet Garamss. With all the subsequent rationalizations, and a beginning that doesn’t mean anything. Uninteresting and confusing. (1)
BASIL WELLS “From Distant Earth.” True love, unreturned, on an invisible planet, (3)
R. V. HUMPHREY The Taste of Money.” First story. Novelette. Comic story, funnier than Retief, of the flavorful Tastybushes of Gloomer. Real biological SF in addition. ($)
PHYLLIS GOTTLIEB “Rogue;s Gambit.” Novelette. What happens when an ugly man marries disfigured woman and takes her to an isolated spacelight [?], to later learn she can be cured. Psychologically interesting, (3)
FRED SABERHAGEN “Starsong,” Berserker story based on Orpheus’s trip to the underworld. (4)
JAMES WHITE “All Judgement Fled.” Serial; part 2 of 3. See report following my review of the February (1968) issue.
ROGER ZELAZNY “He That Moves.” An advanced race that can regenerate humanity discovers a a man who refuses, Who is he? (3)
September 2nd, 2026 at 10:18 pm
So, one of the weaker Pohl issues?
September 2nd, 2026 at 10:52 pm
Well, I recognize all but one of the authors, which is a plus. (I haven’t been able to do that in several years now with recent magazines.)
And IF has always been one of my favorite SF magazines, both then and now, when I get the chance to read an older one.
It was the Rankine story which brought the overall ranking down. If I’d liked that one better, this issue would have been solidly above average.