Weyr Search • [Dragonriders of Pern short fiction] • novella by Anne McCaffrey
A young woman is drafted by Dragonriders to bond with a dragon for life. At first, she has another agenda, but she turns out to be smart, confident and scheming. However, she doesn’t really know what is in store for her. A fantasy story in the guise of science fiction - that is usually a style I am not a great fan of. It takes its time to get going - I almost abandoned it, when little seemed to happen and what happened was hard to understand, but the latter half was slightly better. Not really Hugo material though, if you ask me. ***-
Toys • shortstory by Tom Purdom
A group of children has taken hostages. The have high technology security devices they are using to help them in that endeavor. There is a two person team, that tries to unravel the situation. A pretty stupid story – I didn't get it at all. There might be some sort point somewhere - this might be a parody of something or reference something I am not aware of, but I really didn’t get it. A stupid and pointless story. **-
The Judas Bug • novelette by C. C. MacApp [as by Carroll M. Capps ]
A helicopter has fallen down on a planet that is still being explored. Both pilots are found dead outside the helicopter and power cells of the helicopter are depleted, despite being added just a few weeks ago. The mechanic who checked the cell is accused of negligence. There are several strange things: why did the men leave the safety of the helicopter? The mechanic is sure he didn't make the mistake. A bad, overly long mystery where ending comes too fast after a long setup; the reader doesn’t have much of a chance to find out what is going on. The technology is somewhat strange. Apparently there is no way whatsoever to find out the charge of the power cells, and the mechanic is punished on fairly flimsy evidence. The writing is ok for its time. ***
Free Vacation • [Prodromals] • shortstory by W. Macfarlane
A man has broken the law and gets a choice: a psychological treatment or being sent to a new world. He chooses the space service. He then has some strange adventures in quick succession with a peculiar company. Short story that might reference something I don’t get. **-
Pontius Pirates • novelette by J. T. McIntosh
Some sort of spy arrives to a planet with some sort of semi-socialistic government. He is supposed to find out if some sort of buccaneers who have being raiding space ways are using the planet as a base. A beautiful young girl attaches herself to him. As a seasoned spy, he recognizes straight away that the girl is a government "mole" who is supposed to keep watch on him. Is he going to able to accomplish his mission anyway? A pretty nice story; the writing was OK, and this was the most enjoyable tale in the issue. The characterization of the girl was pretty bad, though. Some of the politics were kind of strange, also. ***+
Proofreading by eangel.me.
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