Galaxy Science Fiction, February 1952

An average issue for Galaxy at that time.

Double Standard • shortstory by Alfred Coppel
A man is using a fake ID and masks to get on a space ship to which he could not be accepted because of his genetics. He is caught soon after liftoff by women who is the gender more suited to space travel. Have seen better writing - and very often. **
Conditionally Human • novelette by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
As very strict population control (based on genetics) is being enforced pets which are modified either to have a higher intelligence or to resemble human children are popular. A man who is responsible for the district pound has to find run away pets and often put down "surplus" ones. As can be imagined this can be a stressful job. Especially his wife (who of course is at home even though they haven't and can't have children) has many qualms about the work ( it apparently comes as a surprise to her...). A mutant strain of pets has been released by accident. The restrictions on the growth and intelligence aren't working as they should. What to do when "a pet" looks like a two year old girl, and is on the intelligence level of about a five year old and "it" should be put down? ***½
Dr. Kometevsky's Day • shortstory by Fritz Leiber
Moons of Mars and Jupiter have disappeared. And there are a lot of people who are claiming to be "gods". Feels like a very old-fashionable story and finishes far too easily ( all the planets of the solar system are camouflaged space ships hiding from the enemy who is now approaching, and the ships must fight or escape - destroying earth and all the other planets while doing so. It happens that the bad guys have stopped being bads, and everything is nice and good...**
Fresh Air Fiend • shortstory by Kris Neville
A man is suffering from debilitating disease on a foreign planet. A woman is tending him, but unfortunately she is very stupid, it is hard to give her instructions. About as appalling it sounds. Writing as such is ok, but otherwise pretty bad at all levels. It doesn't even seem to be written as an ironic piece.**-

The Mind's Eye by Oliver Sacks

This book continues the series of interesting neurological case studies. This time the emphasis is on visual perception and sight.
The book describes some interesting cases, among others a musician who lost her ability to read sheet music, but was ably play from memory, and a man after a stroke lost his ability to read written text, but was still able to write (without being able to read his own writing!). The last part of the book describes Sacks’ own experiences when he lost his sight from his better eye.
The first half wasn’t as good as his earlier books. The writing felt somewhat more complex but at the same too “loose” and it was not as entertaining as the earlier books. The latter half was better and very personal. There was one pretty bad irritant in this book: there were a great number of footnotes, on some pages there was more text on footnotes than in the body text. And many of the footnotes were very redundant and little would have been lost if they were omitted.

As a whole a pretty interesting book, but probably worst book by Sacks I have read.
260 pp.

Analog Science Fiction and Fact September 2011

A serial takes lot of space from this issue. Otherwise below average issue.

Therapeutic Mathematics and The Physics of Curve Balls • novelette by Gray Rinehart
A boy with a malformed skull living on a freak show (in the 1930s) is a mathematical whiz kid, and is able to read minds and influence thoughts. He is maltreated by the owner of the freak show (I wonder why he isn't able to influence him?). He runs away to see a baseball game. There are some good ideas in the story, but it is far too short to explore them properly. And there is the baseball, always a turnoff for me...**1/2
Hostile Environment • shortstory by Emily Mah
Two teenagers on a Mars colony manage to get in trouble more than once. They have an accident while driving surface vehicles and they suspected from a foul play. A pretty simple story where children seem to be behaving below their age. Writing was ok. ***
The Chaplain's Assistant • shortstory by By Brad R. Torgersen
There apparently has been a human invasion of a hostile alien planet. It has failed completely, but a few survivors of the invading fleet live in a sort of reservation where they are studied by insectoid aliens, most of whom seem to have lost interest. It might be only a short while before the aliens destroy the survivors. One day an alien visits a small church some of the humans have built. Apparently the alien have no concept of religion at all. Is that something which could be so interesting for the aliens they will think that there might be something to be learned from the humans. Average story with old and irritating trope: “no religion” = “cold and evil”. ***+
Asteroid Monte • shortstory by Craig DeLancey
Humanity has joined a sort of galactic community. The more barbaric species (like humans) are often used for police work. A human who has broken some rules is drafted to a very elite police force. His first mission is to examine the smuggling of a potentially dangerous machinelike life form. The background of the story feels very interesting, but the plot and resolution of this story (the first of a series?) wasn’t anything really special. ***-
Helix Of Friends • novelette by Carl Frederick
An experiment in some sort of mind melding using some sort apparatus as help leads to a discovery of alternative worlds, as an imaginary friend of a child turns out to be something more. A small nice twist in the middle of the story, but otherwise something which could have been published in Astounding during Campbell’s Dianetics phase. Writing is on about the same level, also. **-

Darwinia: A Novel of a Very Different Twentieth Century by Robert Charles Wilson

Europe is overnight replaced with a strange land with strange plants and strange, most often poisonous animals. The geography is the same, but no trace of any human habitation remains. After a short period of puzzlement there is a scramble for new territory and resources. The main character is a photographer who takes part on an ill fated expedition to mountains which used to be called the Alps. The expedition finds a strange artificial structure before they are attacked by unknown villains. The few survivors keep a very low profile after their return, especially after some very unusual visitors contact them..

The later half of the book is pretty different from the beginning. There turns out to be strange factions fighting age old battles and the people find themselves drafted to take part of the fight. And by the end of the book things turn out to be very metaphysical and the world itself might not be what it appears.
The idea of the book is pretty good, and the first half is excellent. Unfortunately the second half is much worse. It covers a very long time – decades - in fairly sketchy manner and and even the final battle is over in a few pages and is described in very detached manner.


320 pp.

Analog Science Fiction and Fact July-August 2011

I read this issue weeks ago, but haven't had time to write the review. Stupidly I hadn't made any notes about stories, either – and had some real trouble remembering the details of some of them. That naturally tells something about the quality of those stories, also. Two goods ones, others less so.


Coordinated Attacks • novella by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Practically all leaders of the moon are assassinated or at least tried to assassinate with a very strange poison. A police officer investigates the crime. Her examination of an earlier crime (which almost ended very badly for her and her partner) is followed on another time level. There is a connection between those events, but a fairly loose one. A well-written story, but somehow not so well structured as it could have been. The ending was also a bit too open. ****-

Jak and the Beanstalk • novelette by Richard A. Lovett
A young boy wants to climb to the orbital elevator when he grows up. It takes some planning and maneuvering, but when he is a young man, he gets his chance. It is only 35,786 km vertically...
Surprisingly good story, but there a little too much (perhaps unneeded) drama at the end. ****-

A Witness to All That Was • shortstory by Scott William Carter
A married couple with serious issues find a lone robot from a desolate planet. The robot has a story to tell. Writing was fairly good, but the plot felt very familiar with some echoes from Star Trek TNG:s “Inner Light”. ***

Death and Dancing in New Las Vegas • shortstory by Ernest Hogan
Some extremely confusing happenstances in Mars. Some sort of band is supposed to perform on Martian city. I didn't get the story at all, or at least couldn't recall any real details when writing the review.. Apparently, it was supposed to be funny. **

One Out of Many • novelette by Kyle Kirkland
A brain stimulator which is supposed to be safe might have some unforeseen consequences after all. But why a legendary character, a possible crime lord, is interested in it and kidnaps a member science regulations bureau? A lot happens in the story and not everything in it is very logical. The world is fairly strange – you must wait in a line to get access to information databases and you are not supposed to take notes. Some pruning of some details or expansion might have served the story. ***-

The Naked Lady Who Stood on Her Head: A Psychiatrist's Stories of His Most Bizarre Cases by Gary Small

A collection of unusual cases from the practice of American psychiatrist, varying from a naked young woman standing on her head on the emergency ward to a slowly progressing dementia of a colleague. All cases are solved very neatly and quickly by the author, while most of his fellow doctors tend to be arrogant fools. Pretty interesting as such, but gives an impression that psychotherapy is a fast process which is most often based on a clever insight of the therapists. The book was entertaining to read in spite of a great amount simplification of the process.

267 pp.

A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin

The long waited installment of perhaps the best fantasy series there is or have ever been.
The story continues partly in parallel with the earlier book and deals with those characters who were not featured in it.
As usually, the story is seen from multiple viewpoints, perhaps from too many. For some reason there seemed to be a fair amount of fluctuation of quality between different chapters. Some of them (especially the most Reek/Theon chapters,) were extremely good, some less good, or seemed even superfluous.
As a whole, this book felt more than a little like a middle part of a series: the pieces are being set up for the more important events in the later books and the Real Events will happen sometime later. Well, there were some moving and surprising turns of the plot, but even they seemed to be more cliffhangers for the rest of the series and the consequences were not explored at all, and practically all characters were left to hang on cliffhangers. This was not the best book on the series, and it seems that GRRM has reached that point in his career that he doesn’t have to use an editor anymore. There are a fair amount of things which could have been condensed and even removed resulting in a more satisfying and entertaining book, not to say that this wasn’t one.

1040 pp.

Katja Bargum: Kutistuva turska ja muita evoluution ihmeitä

Excellent and entertainingly written book about the basic principles of evolution. Something every creationist should read, but probably wont.

Viihdyttävästi kirjoitettu johdatus evoluutioon ja sen perusmekanismeihin. Kirja lähtee evoluution perusmekanismeista ja päätyy siihen kuinka ihmiskunnan itsekkyys (joka on evolutionaarisesti ymmärrettävää) vaarantaa koko maailman. Loppupuolella ehkä mennään hiukan liiankin moralisoivalla puolelle. Parasta kirjassa ovat kuvaukset evoluution erikoisista ratkaisuista, mm tilanteissa joissa evoluutio on johtanut lajeja umpikujaan suosimalla yksilön selviämistä lajin selviämisen asemesta. Evoluution logiikka ja mekanismi selitetään kirjassa erittäin hyvin ja selkeästi. Jokaisen sekopää kreationistin lukulistalle tämä kuuluisi, tosin ei taida siitä olla pelkoa.


317 s.