Sat 3 Jan 2026
SF Diary Review: THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION – December 1967.
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Magazines , Science Fiction & Fantasy[7] Comments
THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION. December 1967. Cover artist: Jack Gaughan. Editor: Edward L. Ferman. Overall rating: ***½.
DAVID REDD “Sundown.” Novelette. The confrontation between man and creatures of fantasy; creatures not of love, but of hate, yet capable of understanding, and of pity. (5)
LARRY EISENBERG “The Saga of DMM.” Emmett Duckworth. The discovery of a new chemical stimulant. (4)
STUART & JENNIFER PALMER “Brain Wave,” Novelette. Telepathic contact with another galaxy – anticlimactic, like a long bad joke. (3)
ALGIS BUDRYS “Carberus.” Not Sf, or even fantasy, but four long puns. (3)
DEAN R. KOONTZ “To Behold the Sun.” Adventure and trauma upon an expedition to the sun. (3)
GAHAN WILSON “The Power of the Mandarin.” A series character not unlike Fun Manchu comes to life and to have power over the author (and editor). (4)
LEONARD TUSHNET “The Chalmlins.” The guardian angels of some Jewish Polish-Americans, who need them. (3)
J. G. BALLARD “The Cloud Sculptors of Coral D.” Vermilion Sands. Three, no, four men who sculpt clouds, and the insane woman whose portrait they create. Haunting. (4)
January 4th, 2026 at 3:21 am
I don’t think I ever read anything by Redd, but it sounds as if I should. The Ballard story is particularly good, and Wilson always fun.
I’m not sure I knew Stuart Palmer ever tried SF.
January 4th, 2026 at 1:30 pm
Palmer is certainly a lot more known as a mystery writer, but over the course of his career he also wrote over a dozen works sf and/or fantasy. Back in the late 20s and early 30s he produced a number of tales for GHOST STORIES. Later on most of what he wrote in the 50s or so were for F&SF, none of which seem to be very significant.
January 4th, 2026 at 3:27 pm
I’ve been a big fan of F&SF from the beginning through the Ferman era, after which my interest sort of petered out. when the magazine was gong on all four cylinders, kit= was hard to beat.
Significant or no, I always found Palmer enjoyable. I read a few stories by Redd in the late 60s and early 70s, and remember I enjoyed them but I could not tell you a thing about them today; from your review, this looks like of the stories I should definitely read, sooner than later. Both Eisenberg and Tushnet were pretty good writers and I’ve liked all I have read from them. Gahan Wilson, of course, is in a class by himself; I loved the way his mind worked. Budrys has always been excellent. Koontz, while not always excellent, is worth checking out just to watch his development as a writer. The big draw in this issue, for me, is Ballard; few people wrote so powerfully and so poetically and so enigmatically. From the table of contents alone, I’d give this issue four stars.
January 4th, 2026 at 6:08 pm
Every story is 3 stars or above. That’s super super super in its own right. You remember some of the authors better than I do, and rate the whole magazine a bit higher than I did, but all in all, we’re as much in sync with these stories as a couple of SF geeks of about the same vintage as a pair of SF geeks can.
No disrespect intended!
January 4th, 2026 at 6:12 pm
PS. I haven’t read Ballard in a quite a while, and I should have. Some of his work I haven’t cared for, but that’s just me. When he was on, he really was, as he was in this issue. One of the all time greats.
January 7th, 2026 at 5:14 am
Of course, Palmer began contributing to F&SF when it was a stablemate of ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE and was co-edited by “Anthony Boucher”, so CF crossovers were de rigeuer…Budrys once noted that while he didn’t find all of Ballard’s work fully successful, it’s hard to dismiss a writer who could so vividly allow the reader to feel heat and thirst, and then move on to whatever the given story was mostly about.
January 7th, 2026 at 8:09 pm
I don’t believe that Ballard ever caught on with general audiences, but if he did, it was only for a very short while. Even good writers are soon forgotten.