galacticjourney

by Victoria Silverwolf



America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality.

I'm a Kennedy liberal, so goodness knows I wouldn't normally quote a Republican President, let alone one as ineffectual as Warren G. Harding. I don't agree with everything he said in his address to the Home Market Club of Boston on May 14, 1920, quoted above. However, there's something in his plea for a return to normalcy after the horrors of the Great War that strikes a familiar chord in these times.



The Cold War has returned to its normal condition, and avoided boiling over into a Hot War.



Meanwhile, the Sino-Indian War has ended, leaving two great nations in a state of peace, at least for now.

As we breathe a sigh of relief, it's appropriate to turn to the pages of the December 1962 issue of Fantastic, where we will find stories about people who struggle to return to normalcy.



(see the rest at Galactic Journey!)

[if you’re new to the Journey, read this to see what we’re all about!]


by Gideon Marcus

With nuclear bombers parked just 90 miles off the coast of Florida, and last month having seen the United States go to its highest military alert level since we were fighting the Japanese, its no wonder that The Bomb remains a popular cinematic topic. In the last decade, most of the films that featured Our Enemy, the Atom starred horribly mutated monsters. More recently, there has been a slew of films portraying a post-apocalyptic world, starting with On the Beach, including the excellent The World, The Flesh, and the Devil, and also the less than excellent The Last Woman on Earth.

The most recent entry in this radioactive field is the Z-Movie This is not a Test...


This is a test... of your patience.

(see the rest at Galactic Journey!)

[if you’re new to the Journey, read this to see what we’re all about!]


by Gideon Marcus

In the last planetary article, I discussed the discovery and nature of the seventh planet, Uranus. It was the first sizable member of the solar system to be found since ancient times. And yet, its very discovery sowed the seeds for the quick locating of the next planet out from the sun.

Shortly after William Herschel spotted Uranus and deduced what it was, other astronomers realized that the green planet wasn't following a regular path around the sun. Some invisible thing was tugging at it, causing it to deviate from its orbit. Doing a little math, it was determined that this object must be a large planet, 30 times farther from the sun than the Earth, twice as far from the sun as Uranus!

After a comparatively short search to find Planet 8, the Frenchman Le Verrier discovered it in1846, a very neat application of orbital mathematics and organized observation, the likes of which may never again be repeated. The English wanted to name the planet "Oceanus," but since the French found it, they chose the name: Neptune – Roman God of the sea and brother to Jupiter.



(see the rest at Galactic Journey!)

[if you’re new to the Journey, read this to see what we’re all about!]


by Gideon Marcus

A plague has invaded the galaxy.

Well, more specifically, a plague has invaded Galaxy, as evidenced in the December 1962 issue.

It has become de riguer at my former favorite magazine, that of Fantasy and Science Fiction, to print "funny" literary stories. Tediously amusing, dully droll, laden with parenthetical (uselessly so) clauses -- and hyphenated articulations, sometimes "quoted" for extra sardonicism. And did I mention the extra verbiage? These magazines pay three cents per word, you know.

An author will not impress me with her/his command of the typewriter keys beyond the 36 letters and numerals, nor with an arcane talent for stringing comma-connected clauses unbroken across a paragraph. I want a plot, compelling characters, and for God's Sake, science in my science fiction. I have nothing against humor. The likes of Sheckley and (for the most part) Lafferty make me smile just fine. I've nothing against avant garde prose -- viz. the incomparable Cordwainer Smith.

No, what drives me crazy is the supremely affected garbage that is shouldering aside honest fiction. Am I the only one who hates this stuff? I'm not asking for a return to the mediocre gotcha tales starring James McAnglo-Saxon that larded the surplus of digest in the 50s (and which still regularly appear in Analog.) I just want good, readable stories with reasonable extrapolations of technology populated by genuine human beings...or plausible aliens (I'm no xenophobe.)



Read on, at your own risk. There's precious little to enjoy in this month's issue, save for the second part of Pohl's serial (the change in tone may give you whiplash) and the rather pedestrian nonfiction articles. Don't say I didn't warn you. And if you actually like this stuff, well, it's a free country.

(see the rest at Galactic Journey!)

[if you’re new to the Journey, read this to see what we’re all about!]


by Mark Yon

As we enter November here in England, it's clear that Winter is definitely on the way. The nights are longer and the weather is definitely colder. We're getting a fair bit of fog too in my home town. It means that waiting for the bus to take me to and from work is definitely chilly.

Of course, the good news from this is that this means more time for reading, watching television or going to the pictures!

Since we last spoke, of course, the news has been full of the Cuban Crisis, which I'm sure you know more about than me. When the BBC mentioned the first signs of trouble brewing a few weeks ago I felt that the British public were not too concerned about events happening elsewhere. How different things are now! Personally, I am pleased that things seem to be calming down now, though there is always the risk that with US/USSR relations being decidedly chilly (like our weather!) things could suddenly change again rather quickly.



Here, one of the effects of these international events is that in London we have seen major marches and protests against nuclear weapons, I guess much like your recent protests for Black Rights in the Mississippi. We have had hundreds of people march -- peacefully, mind you -- in protest at the escalation of the willingness to use nuclear weapons. Men, women and children -- even if you don't agree with their views, it is still impressive to see democracy in action.

Pop music-wise, Telstar is still at the top of the UK charts, having been in the charts for over ten weeks as I type and having had five weeks at Number 1. I suspect that it will be a contender for one of the best-selling singles of the year at this rate. It's appropriate -- the satellite bridged the Atlantic Ocean, and its namesake song soared to the top of the charts on both sides of it.



OK: to this month's New Worlds Magazine.

(see the rest at Galactic Journey!)

[if you’re new to the Journey, read this to see what we’re all about!]


by Gideon Marcus

There is one singular difference between the Cold War and all conflicts that have preceded it: for the first time in history, both adversaries have the power to wipe each other out utterly. Direct conflict is madness, and indeed, while we may rattle the sabers incessantly, it is this mutually assured destruction that may preserve the peace for longer than in any era before it. Perhaps the Chinese and Indians, whose border is seeing the greatest conflict in the world since Korea, need their own atomic bombs. On the other hand, the deployment of Russian nukes in Cuba, and the responsive blockade, may well turn our Cold War hot any day now, so the jury is still out on the deterrent value of the weapons.



As luck would have it, the Cold War has crept into my SF reading, too. Dean McLaughlin describes a new variety of the conflict in his latest science fiction book, Dome World. Deep sea dome cities have been set up by the world's new superpowers -- the United States of the Americas and the African Union. Their tenuous peace is deteriorating fast as both powers escalate claims over the rich mineral deposits on the ocean floor. The fragile domes are vulnerable to even the slightest attack. As the warships start to circle overhead, what can anyone do to preserve the existence of the undersea communities?



(see the rest at Galactic Journey!)

[if you’re new to the Journey, read this to see what we’re all about!]


By Ashley R. Pollard

With the days drawing in, marking the beginning of Autumn, and the evenings becoming longer, I know I look forward to going to the cinema more. I was very fortunate to be able to get a ticket to the premier of the first James Bond film, Dr. No, which was shown at the London Pavilion, and therefore I saw it three days before its general release to the rest of the country.

There was quite a buzz surrounding this film, but before I go into my piece let me give you some context to the books behind the movie: Ian Fleming's James Bond series.



It may be confusing to some Fleming fans to see Dr. No presented as the first James Bond film, because the title and plot are from the sixth book. So six is number one, but chronologically the first James Bond novel was Casino Royale, which came out in 1953. I understand that Casino Royale was adapted as an episode of an American television called Climax! (which sounds rather racy to my ears) and that the rights to the name of the first James Bond book are therefore tied up.

Anyway, in Britain, Ian Fleming's books have always sold well, and Fleming may rightfully be described as the inventor of the Cold War spy thriller genre, which while set in the mundane world has themes that require elements of science and technology for the plots to work.

Up to now Fleming hasn't taken American by storm, but I think that will change when Dr. No is released in America next year. It will not probably hurt that President John F. Kennedy has been quoted as saying that Fleming's fifth James Bond novel, From Russia, with Love, was one of his top ten all time favourite books.

Given that the title of the next James Bond movie is From Russia, with Love, I fully expect American audiences to take to reading James Bond as readers over here have. Last year, the ninth book in the series, Thunderball, featuring the capture of a NATO fighter, sold out of its initial print run of 50,938 hardbacks and has had to be reprinted to meet demand. Reviews have said it is the best since Diamonds Are Forever, the fourth book in the James Bond series.

To say Ian Fleming is prolific is I think over-egging it a bit, but he can certainly write, and his writing improves with each book. I have watched Fleming adding depth and character, to what would otherwise be a cipher who only served the whims of the author. Fleming has made James Bond more than that. He's the man every man aspires to be, and the bad boy that every woman wants to be chased by.



And here I am, and I haven't even started to tell you all how wonderful Dr. No is...

(see the rest at Galactic Journey!)

by John Boston

Once more, the question: must the middle of the road be the ceiling? Will this November Amazing present us anything more interesting than the competently readable fare featured in recent issues? Well, yeah, a little, but it takes a while to get there.



(see the rest at Galactic Journey!)

[if you’re new to the Journey, read this to see what we’re all about!]


by Victoria Lucas

OK, that’s neat. Mostly when I look at the covers of science-fiction magazines, I see silly bug-eyed monsters and rocket ships that look like they’re out of early movies, and I don’t know who those men or boys are who wrote those stories or why, but I suspect the stories are for other men or boys.

But now I see "Lee Chaytor’s" name on an sf magazine cover and I feel like giggling -- for Lee is no he! A friend going to San Diego State College sent me word that she’s a lecturer in English, name of Elizabeth Chater, and she is writing science fiction (and advocating that it be taught as literature, of all things!) while she works on her Master’s degree there.



Chater/Chaytor has a story in the May 1958 Fantastic Universe Science Fiction magazine that I happened to see when I was in that dusty bookstore I mentioned last time. On this visit the cat got down from the desk near the door and accompanied me as I fumbled around, trying to remember where I’d seen it. Ah, there, with bug-eyed monsters, a flying saucer, and a rocket ship, with an eagle harassing an alien. And “featuring their BAIT FOR THE TIGER A New Novel by Lee Chaytor.” So I gathered my pennies and, after considering leaving them with the cat since the owner was elsewhere, I found him, showed him the magazine, gave him my handful of change, and walked out reading it.



(see the rest at Galactic Journey!)

[if you’re new to the Journey, read this to see what we’re all about!]


by Gideon Marcus



Ah, Geek Girl Con. Every year, Seattle's clarion call of intellectual feminine fandom calls us to attend Washington's signature science fiction/fantasy event. It is an intimate (but growing) gathering of sff devotees with a fascination for things both creative and technical.

This year, as with last year, the Journey was invited to speak on the last 12 months in fandom, and boy did we have a lot to relate. From coverage of Marvel Comics' slew of new superheroes to a report on this year's Hugo winners, and with a special piece on the woman pioneers of space exploration, our four panelists ensured that our several dozen attendees left educated and excited.





(see the rest at Galactic Journey!)