Strange Highways: Reading Science Fantasy, 1950-1967. Damien Broderick

the new world.

      William F. Temple’s “Double Trouble” is a ponderous stab at whimsical fantasy about a man vexed by an entity whose job it is to give him bad luck, and his efforts to change his fortunes.

J. T. McIntosh’s “Then There Were Two” is a silly story about a man who gets himself duplicated by hanky-panky with a matter transmitter so he can commit murder and have an alibi. It does not threaten the primacy of Rogue Moon13 for use of this device (despite getting there much earlier) but is redeemed by its brevity and tightness.

      E. R. James’ “The Moving Hills” combines a comic device (a man’s buddy is always talking him into things and getting him into trouble) with a complicated space exploration/alien contact plot, to completely self-defeating effect (but Colin and Brocky will be back, never fear). It collapses of its own uninteresting weight.

      Characteristically slickly done, E. C. Tubb’s “Grounded” displays a man who wants to go to the Moon, but is always thwarted. It is revealed that the government can’t let anybody have the military advantages of getting there. Australian N. (for Norma) K. Hemmings’ “Loser Take All” features those staples of an earlier SF day, a Professor with no discernible academic responsibilities and his beautiful daughter, whom the protagonist would like to get next to, in a style that obviates the need for parody: “From the centre globe, the pilot’s compartment, a girl emerged, and his eyes strayed from Liza’s metal curves in favour of softer ones. [Liza is the spaceship.] Jane Lawrence was a brilliant mathematician and research chemist and, with a name and profession like that should have been a very studious and unattractive girl blinking owlishly through horn-rimmed glasses. However, she was not, and her construction and general lines left nothing to be desired.” The plot is an alien invasion, the denouement is we lose in the short run, but the aliens didn’t bring their women so they will have to intermarry with us, promising—wait for it—“the new Earth.”

      None of these stories is particularly memorable by contemporary standards, though the best of them, Wyndham’s, is a characteristically well turned trifle. But there is nothing so archaic as in the first two issues. Even the Hemmings story is redeemed by its unconventional conclusion.

      §

      There is a new and better lot of interior illustrators (Quinn, Clothier, and Hunter), though how much of the improvement is in quality and how much in presentation, I’m not sure (the illustrations are given more space on the page and the pages are larger, and the reproduction seems clearer). In any case, they are at best competent.

6. Bibliographic and historical information not from the magazine itself, and not otherwise attributed, is from the Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Weird Fiction Index by Stephen T. Miller and William G. Contento (“Miller/Contento”) and Contento’s Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections (“Contento”) (both on CD-ROM from Locus Publications); from Mike Ashley’s article on Science Fantasy in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Weird Fiction Magazines, edited by Marshall B. Tymn and Ashley (Greenwood Press 1985) (“Tymn/Ashley”); and from Ashley’s recent histories of the SF magazines, The Time Machines and Transformations (Liverpool University Press, 2000 and 2005). Occasional references to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction are to the Second Edition by John Clute and Peter Nicholls (St. Martins, 1995), the latest available at time of writing. Also notable is Philip Harbottle’s Vultures of the Void: The Legacy (Cosmos Books, 2011). This book, very much expanded from an earlier, long out of print version, is a survey of UK SF publishing which emphasizes book publishing (especially paperbacks), but also includes useful information on the Nova magazines, some of which we have referred to.

7. See these covers at http://www.sfcovers.net/mainnav.htm . That URL takes you to the main page and you’ll have to navigate from there, but how to do so is self-explanatory. Among this site’s virtues is an artist index. Another handy source—and probably easier to use—is http://www.philsp.com/mags/sciencefantasy.html.

8. These publications have been scanned and made available on the web at http://efanzines.com/FR/index.htm (visited 10/19/11).

9. Gillings confirms that the “main contents” of the first two issues of Science-Fantasy came from the Fantasy inventory, specifically referring to the stories by J. M. Walsh, John Russell Fearn, and Christopher Youd. Walter Gillings, “The Impatient Dreamers,” Vision of Tomorrow, August 1970, p. 31.

10. This series of related stories, purportedly told in a tavern by one Harry Purvis, was collected as Tales from the White Hart (Ballantine 1957).

11. Those more sophisticated in publishing matters than I have explained that publishing two magazines at longer intervals can be economically preferable to publishing a single magazine at shorter intervals, since in the former case the issues will remain on sale longer. But Gillings says nothing of this concern, if indeed it was a concern.

12. See these covers at http://www.sfcovers.net/mainnav.htm or http://www.philsp.com/mags/sciencefantasy.html. Bull was the cover artist for a number of UK paperbacks and illustrated several books, and the “saucy” magazines published by Utopian Press, in the late 1940s, but little seems to be known about her career—if any—after the Nova covers. See http://bearalley.blogspot.com/2010/01/reina-bull.html and http://www.artslant.com/ny/articles/show/19524 (both visited 12/4/11) for what is known about her.

13. Algis Budrys, Rogue Moon (1961).

      2: SCIENCE FANTASY, VOLUME 2 (ISSUES 4-6)

      In issue 4 (Spring 1952), the inside front cover is occupied by another small-worldy artifact. The headline is “At the Pub of the Universe,” and it’s an ad for the White Horse Tavern, complete with photo captioned “Resident Manager Lew Mordecai in a familiar pose”—drawing a cold one, or I guess in the UK a lukewarm one. The other ads are generally similar to previous issues, with the addition of one for the Second International Science-Fiction Convention at the Royal Hotel. G. Ken Chapman joined the masthead as Assistant with issue 4.

      Non-fiction this issue includes another Guest Editorial (these would go on for some time), this one by H. J. Campbell, editor of Carnell’s competition Authentic Science Fiction. Maybe he didn’t consider Authentic the competition at that point, since Authentic started out presenting nothing but complete novels—or, more likely, he didn’t care. As Campbell says, his presence is “a tribute to the camaraderie that exists among members of the science-fiction fraternity.” Just so. Summarizing or selecting cogent excerpts from his editorial is almost impossible because it is virtually content-free. I guess the best I can do is SF is good, and it’s good that we’re all here, and that we have this good SF, and it’s good that it’s getting better. It’s exasperating to read now, but back in the small and beleaguered world of UK SF circa 1952, this sort of after-dinner speech reassurance probably served an important purpose, on the order of keeping the wolves on the other side of the campfire.

      The other non-fiction item is “Forecasts and Ratings,” equivalent to “The Literary Line-Up” in New Worlds, which appears in this issue but is not seen again in future issues. It contains ratings for the previous issue, which comfortingly put the more competent writers (McIntosh, Wyndham, Tubb, Temple) ahead of the less competent ones (Rayer, Hemming, James), and contains this interesting observation: “Readers had no doubts about the type of stories they preferred in Science-Fantasy, as the story ratings for the Winter issue show. The three fantasy stories in the issue were well ahead of the rest of the field.” In fact, the three most highly rated stories are about matter