Robert P. Mills (1)Kirja-arvosteluja

I no longer have any idea of what was anthologized here. There were stories by Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Bradbury, and others½

- "The Red Hills of Summer" by Edgar Pangborn. A colony ship's advance expedition studies and explores an alien world. It doesn't have any original ideas, or much of a story, or good science. I like a space adventure, though. 2.5/4 (Okay).

- "Varieties of the Infinite" (science column) by Isaac Asimov. Asimov explains the concept of infinity. He spends a frustratingly long amount of time repeating himself, seemingly convinced that no one will believe him. The last few pages get into some interesting concepts that were new to me. 2.5/4 (Okay).

- "Quintet" by various authors. Five brief stories or poems, written either by 12-year-old children or famous authors writing as 12-year-old children: you guess which is which. It's pretty embarrassing for this magazine that these are easily the strongest stories in it. 3/4 (Good).

- "The Devil's Garden" by Robert Arthur. An Englishman is tormented by a magical Indian beggar. This is a republication of an older British story (from 1941). Perhaps the editor was frustrated by modern (1959) American writers not being openly and pointlessly racist enough. 0/4 (Terrible).

- "To Give Them Beauty for Ashes" (verse) by Winona McClintic. 1.5/4 (Meh).

- "Who Is Going to Cut the Barber's Hair?" by Will Stanton. A man wants to go to a cocktail party, but something else is sent in his place. I can't tell if this is meant to be surrealist, or if the writing is just too bad to be coherent. 0/4 (Terrible).

- "Nor Custom Stale" by Joanna Russ. A retired couple is isolated in their automated home. It's bad with storytelling and logic. There's no character writing to speak of. But it's good at conveying an unsettling feeling. 2/4 (Indifferent).

- "Snip, Snip" (verse) by Hilbert Schenck, Jr. 1/4 (Bad).

- "Interview with a Dead Man" by Robert Graves. An animated corpse communicates from inside his tomb. I don't know why any of this is happening. 1/4 (Bad).

- "The Makers of Destiny" by Edward S. Aarons. People with mindpowers train and brainwash a new agent and try to control the fate of post-Nuclear America. This often feels like it was written by an AI, shuffling together bad tropes. 1.5/4 (Meh).

- "Ferdinand Feghood: XVIII" by Grendel Briarton. 0/4 (Terrible).

- "Game with a Goddess" by Leslie Bonnet. A monk charms the statue of a Goddess. It has cute moments, but no point. 2/4 (Indifferent).

(Apr. 2022)

- "Operation Ladybird" by Jay Williams. An invasion of Venus isn't what it seems. The writer seems a little oblivious to anything other than the particular points he set out to make. It's not boring, though. 2.5/4 (Okay).

- "The Ultimate Split Second" (science column) by Isaac Asimov. Asimov has a novel way of helping people visualize how short various impossibly-short fractions of time are. It doesn't occur to him that people who don't already understand this have no reason to care. 1/4 (Bad).

- "Day at the Beach" by Carol Emshwiller. Four years after a nuclear apocalypse, an family desperately tries to have a normal day out. This is very relatable in 2022. 3/4 (Good).

- "The Walker-Through-Walls" by Marcel Aymé. An uninteresting man discovers he is able to walk through walls. It's not much of a story, but it has an amusing delivery. 3/4 (Good).

- "Brave to Be a King" by Poul Anderson. A time-traveler accidentally becomes emperor of Persia. It's three or four times as long as it has any reason to be. There's some action and adventure, but not enough to keep it interesting. And in the end the whole thing basically boils down to a set-up for a misogynist "joke." 1/4 (Bad).

- "The Rosebud" by Ray Russell. A baby has a third ear because "evolution." What? 0/4 (Terrible).

- "The Innocence of Evil" (books column) by Damon Knight. A review of two horror collections digresses into speculation about why the genre is coming back into popularity after 15 years. It's all BS, but it's somewhat fascinating to see the perspective of someone from a time when horror was apparently not popular. I didn't know that was a thing. 2.5/4 (Okay).

- "Ferdinand Feghoot: XVII" by Grendel Briarton. Another joke getting paid by the word. The first few paragraphs of this aren't even related to the eventual pun. 1/4 (Bad).

- "Empty Nest" by Kit Reed. A nosy woman's neighbor is some sort of bird monster? Or maybe just related to bird monsters? It doesn't make any sense. 0/4 (Terrible).

- "Me" (verse) by Hilbert Schenck, Jr. 1/4 (Bad).

- "Obituary" by Isaac Asimov. An abusive husband is determined to be a famous physicist, or else. It's a crime story set in a sci-fi scenario where Asimov gets to invent all the arbitrary rules he wants, to suit his murder twist. That doesn't work. 1.5/4 (Meh).

- "Pact" by Winston P. Sanders. A demon summons a human. Cute concept, but it doesn't quite work as a story. 2.5/4 (Okay).

(Mar. 2022)

- "What Rough Beast?" by Damon Knight. A man is able to change reality by pulling things out of parallel universes. It's the standard Twilight Zone style I expect from MFSF, albeit with an original idea with some thought put into it. 3/4 (Good).

- "Love Those Zeroes" (science column) by Isaac Asimov. He literally just explains what large numbers are, for six pages. 1/4 (Bad).

- "Graveyard Shift" by Idris Seabright. The night clerk at Bloom's 24-Hour Sportsman's Emporium tries to survive the dark horrors of yet another shift. 3.5/4 (Very good).

- "No Matter Where You Go" by Joel Townsley Rogers. A romantic melodrama involving an interdimensional traveler. Joel Townsley Rogers would appear to be a gibbering idiot. 0/4 (Terrible).

- "Snitkin's Law" by Eleazar Lipsky. A sleazy lawyer is recruited to save the distant future. Cute. 2.5/4 (Okay).

- "Death Cannot Wither" by Judith Merril. A woman terrified of pregnancy is happily widowed, until things go unexpectedly wrong. I couldn't always follow this; I suspect some key bits may have been censored, or self-censored. 2/4 (Indifferent).

- "More Brave New Worlds Than One" (books column) by Basil Davenport. This guy wants to know if you've ever heard of some of the most popular books ever written, because, apparently, they exist. 0/4 (Terrible).

- "Misfit" by G.C. Edmondson. Some people chat with a time-traveler over dinner. Edmondson seems to have several points he wants to make, but doesn't communicate well - and also doesn't bother telling a story. 1/4 (Bad).

- "Nothing But Love" by George P. Elliott. From Venus... A Warning And An Ultimatum! It's a blatant Day The Earth Stood Still rip-off. The aliens have their own gimmick, but even that was apparently already used by the author in a different story. 1.5/4 (Meh).

- "Ghost Planet" by Charles L. Fontenay. A small expedition visits Earth's long-abandoned Martian colony. There's some good adventure, but Fontenay's lack of understanding of basic science concepts would embarrass even Edgar Rice Burroughs. 2/4 (Indifferent).

- "Natural Frequency" by Raymond E. Banks. An alien diplomat has a dangerously loud voice. I guess this is meant to be funny, but it is really, really not. 0/4 (Terrible).

- "Ferdinand Feghoot: XI" by Grendel Briarton. An unnecessarily long set-up to a bad pun. I like bad puns, but this is clearly a joke getting paid by the word. 1/4 (Bad).

- "The Willow Tree" by Jane Rice. Orphaned children are sent to live with some relatives in the past. It doesn't quite make sense, but also doesn't really need to. It's got great folktale and gothic horror atmosphere. 3/4 (Good).

(Jun. 2021)

- "A Different Purpose" by Kem Bennett. The first person in orbit deals with the psychological effects of isolation. This is surprisingly realistic (especially for this magazine), with regards to both science and psychology. 3/4 (Good).

- "Air Space Violated" (poem) by P.M. Hubbard. 1.5/4 (Meh).

- "Bewitched" by Michael Fessier. A witch turns a shy young woman into a cat-person. A modern fairytale with an offbeat sense of humor. 3/4 (Good).

- "Dust of Ages" (science column) by Isaac Asimov. Speculation about how the moon might be covered in mountains of dust. Yeah, this did not age well. 2/4 (Indifferent).

- "Critical Angle" by A. Bertram Chandler. The first men on the moon sink into the dust. Following both an article that already covers its central idea, as well as a well-researched story about very-near-future space travel (as opposed to this, which is lazy and not at all researched), this story is not served well by its context in the magazine. 1/4 (Bad).

- "Or the Grasses Grow" by Avram Davidson. New right-wing government policy steals the reservation from a small Native American tribe. It's not racist, despite being written by a white guy in 1958, but it's also not particularly interesting. 2.5/4 (Okay).

- "Wildcat" by Poul Anderson. A top-secret oil field is located in the Jurassic period. The dinosaur-fighting action/adventure elements are pretty great, but the plot is a cold-war conspiracy that thinks its more mysterious/clever than it is. 2.5/4 (Okay).

- Recommended Reading (department) by Anthony Boucher. 2/4 (Indifferent).

- "Beans" by Jack Williamson. A long set-up to a bad pun. 2/4 (Indifferent).

- "Mr. Milton's Gift" by Robert Arthur. A man is cursed with the ability to "make money," and also cursed to speak in verse (there was a two for one sale). Towards the end, the author stops bothering to write out the character's previously-amusing dialog. 2.5/4 (Okay).

- "Pelt" by Carol Emshwiller. Fur-hunting in space, from the perspective of a dog. It would have been pretty interesting, if the editor's introduction hadn't spoiled it - and if the concept of fur-hunting in the future didn't seem absurd. 2.5/4 (Okay).

- "For Analysis" by P. Schuyler Miller. Something to do with the space race, I guess? I don't even know what this is. 0/4 (Terrible).

- "Nine Yards of Other Cloth" by Manly Wade Wellman. A pioneer-era-set folktale about a bad man with a fiddle in the valley of a monster. The genuine old-timey style of this story is a delight. Apparently it's the conclusion of a series. Excuse me, I need to go find out if they've been released as a book. 3/4 (Good).

[correction: "Nine Yards of Other Cloth" is apparently not pioneer-era, just feels that way. Also, except for an audio version, the books are not currently available, despite being some of the most striking and influential fantasy/horror ever written.]½

"Harrison Burgeron" is the short story of an event taken place in 2081. The government has taken control of everything and made uncanny laws. For example: If you are better looking than most people, the government makes you ugly by doing things such as putting a mask on you or shaving your eyebrows. Another example is that inteligent people were put restraints on to keep them from thinking. There is a specific individual who is more inteligent and handsome than any other human on the planet. He had been put in jail for plotting against the government. And unfortunatly for them, he breaks out of jail and causes a huge corruption.