Cats, IF, and Yankee Doodle (7-04-1959)

[galacticjourney]

If you have a cat, you know what impediments to constructive activity they can be. Perhaps you're purposefully striding to your next chore; the cat will rub up against you or flop on the floor in a coy manner, and you will have no choice but to stop and give it a good petting. Maybe you're trying to read or, say, type up an article related to science fiction; said cat will purr alluringly, magically appearing under your hands, rendering keys or pages quite inaccessible.

There are worse fates, I suppose.

Luckily, I had the force of will to extricate myself from feline obstruction. It only took about 45 minutes! And now, without further delay, I can tell you all about the revived IF Science Fiction magazine.

Six months ago, I lamented that no sooner had I rediscovered IF, daringly helmed by Damon Knight, than the magazine folded. Imagine my pleasure upon learning that IF had not been discontinued but merely sold. In fact, looking at the masthead, I found that the new editor is H.L.Gold! It looks as if IF is going to be Galaxy's sister publication appearing in alternate months. This effectively makes Galaxy a monthly again. IF is only 130 pages long, while Galaxy is 196. This puts the average number of pages at 163, which is a good length for a monthly digest. Hurrah!

But the real question is whether or not the quality of Galaxy #2 is up to the standards of the original. After all, there is no Willy Ley article to look forward to. On the other hand, it looks like Fred Pohl will be a regular feature submitter, and a quick glance at the names of writers appearing inside (Rosel George Brown!) is encouraging.

So stay tuned. I'm afraid festivities in celebration of our nation's 183rd birthday preclude me from telling you about the July 1959 IF just yet. But I'll be back in three days with a full report. In the mean time, why don't you pick up a copy, and we can explore this new magazine together.

If you are from the United States of America, Happy Independence Day! If you're from the United Kingdom, no hard feelings. And if you're from anywhere else, Happy July 4th (or July 5th) of No Particular Consequence!





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Comments

[laurose8]

Thank you for sharing the picture. What gorgeous eyes! Good luck with the accessorised keyboard.

And it was nice to hear about If, too. Looking forward to reading more of this good magazine. This issue's very worth while. Lots of quality and quantity. Afraid there were a few not to my taste, but that left more than enough.

Wallace has great ideas, and good suspense. I like the way Alsint keeps control of himself. Mind you, I think there's a basic fallacy in treating biology as engineering the inert; and that the captain would just say 'You can't do that there here'

Davidson is a great disappointment, it falls between two stools. That's rather the trouble with Brown's fic. The beginning is brilliant - first rate female pov, with a deliciously horrible villainess, but very much trickles out.

The Whiteford doesn't try for more than very light, so it works. Good setting and twist.

The Galouye is certainly original, and horrifying in a good way.

[galacticjourney]

I'm glad you've torn through it! I'm on page 105, myself.

I was thinking about the logistics of rating magazines. While it's fairly straightforward to rate individual stories, how should one then average the scores in an issue? Does one give each story equal weight, or is it quality x number of pages?

[laurose8]

Actually, my copy is missing a few pages. Life and A Half for instance. Still, faced with so much good sf, I more or less inhaled it. Look, ma, no stomach ahe.

Thanks for the good wishes, and returning them for what's left of the week end. Hope the cats weren't too upset by any fireworks.