Not one of the best issues. Except for the stories written by Sheckley, all were very outdated stories.
Skulking Permit • novelette by Robert Sheckley
A small, forgotten human colony is getting visitors from Earth for the first time in centuries. Earth demands normal human behavior from all its colonies. Unfortunately, the colony is really backward, and there aren't even any criminals, murders or any other things all civilized worlds usually have, at least according to the few books which are available in the colony. So, one unfortunate man is ordered by the mayor to start a crime wave as soon as possible... Very good funny/ironic story. ****
Playback • short story by J. T. McIntosh
Discussion about time travel in a bar. One of the patrons seems to be a time traveler. Not much happens, the discussion isn't interesting. Boring and easily forgettable story. **
Uncle Tom's Planet • short story by Robert Sheckley
Slavery is permitted only if the enslaved race is clearly, demonstrably inferior compared to the enslaving race. Usually, that is a very hard thing to prove, but one arrogant species finds another that truly seems to be inferior. But nothing is always so constant. Nice ironic story, rather short. ****-
Assignment's End • novelette by Roger Dee
A man has always had a peculiar effect on other people, everyone seems to feel extremely nice around him. He starts to have visual hallucinations and have strange feelings. A story which has a bit of a paranoid feeling, but ends up being pretty much what you would be expecting, and not much else. Writing isn’t really special, either. **
Rough Translation • short story by Jean M. Janis
A scientist studies the lone returnee from Mars expedition who doesn't seem to be able to communicate anymore, as he uses wrong, strange words which seem to have a different meaning from their original meaning. The writing is ok, but the plot is nothing special. ***-
Joy Ride • short story by Mark Meadows
Everything is run by automatic machines. What happens if they start acting erratically?
Short, not surprising, mildly entertaining story. The fact that the story is told from multiple viewpoints is fairly interesting. **½
Collector's Item • novelette by Evelyn E. Smith
The first expedition to Venus has landed – and straight away an alien captures the most good-looking female. Luckily, they are soon retrieved, before anything indecent has time to happen, and the alien turns out to be telepathic and very helpful. But might he have an ulterior motive? Well, at least it doesn't involve any member of the expedition.
A very amusing (but not in a good way) story. Apparently, one professor has single-handedly made the spaceship capable of traveling to Venus just by swindling a bit of government resources and material. And that has pissed everyone off so much that a successful trip to Venus would not mitigate the reaction. Acting as the ship captain is a numbskull who has not even bothered to find out what the length of the day on the planet he is traveling to is. Other members of the expedition are at least as stupid, especially the women. The utmost stupidity and infantilism of the women is particularly strange, as this piece was apparently written by a woman. But everyone is behaving like they would be on an expedition to Africa in the early 19th century. Everyone (even the alien) will get comeuppance, but that doesn't save the story. **-
No comments:
Post a Comment