Author:	Science Fiction Authors of America, The
Copyright:	1973
Date Reviewed:	11/26/86
Rating:	8.0

Review/Synopsis: Volume IIA of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame was edited by Ben Bova and contains 11 of the best novellas published before 1966. Volume IIB was also published by Ben Bova and contains another 11 novellas. I found some of the earlier stories a little interesting but somewhat tedious because of the gaping errors in science they presented. I must have been reading science fiction a long time because of the 11 stories presented here, four I previously read as part of other novels and a fifth I was familiar with because it was set in the same universe as a book I read.

The first story, "Call me Joe", by Poul Anderson, takes place aboard a research station orbiting Jupiter. The scientists are trying to create life forms that will be able to survive the intense cold temperatures and pressures of Jupiter's surface (today we know that Jupiter has no surface). It costs half a million dollars to send a ship with a pseudobeing down to the planet. When it arrives, the pseudobeing is like a new born baby with no experiences so one of the crews scientists, a strong willed cripple with parapsychological powers, controls the pseudobeing with his own personality. Eventually the pseudobeing grows its own strong personality, as would a child under a strong parent, and begins to take over the scientist. The pseudobeing has control for as long as it takes to get more pseudobeings shipped planetside and the colony begins to flourish. This was one of the better stories in the anthology. Even though 30 years old, it presented an idea new to me.

"Who Goes There", by John W. Campbell (as Don A. Stuart) is the predecessor of the two "The Thing" movies. In Antarctica, a group of scientists discover a dead alien that landed 20 million years ago when Antarctica was warmer and froze over time. The scientists take the ugly alien back to the base for analysis and learn to their surprise that it is alive when it walks off. They also learn that the alien can imitate any host, animal or human, by taking over their bodies. Cut an alien in two an you have two aliens. The first thing the scientists do is break all radio equipment and all equipment necessary for air flight. They can't call for rescue and they can't leave on their own. This will contain the alien at least until summer. If they don't destroy it by then, it will take over the body of a bird and fly away to take over the entire planet. The scientist's next job is to create a test to determine which crew members are now alien. They know all the animals are. One blood test after another fails to be conclusive until they realize that blood drawn from an alien will try to flee from fire. With this test, they kill half the crew, now aliens, only to finds that it was all a ruse. Another alien had taken over the body of a scientist gone insane and almost completed an antigravity device that would have taken him away from the cold tundra. This short story was also pretty good but not quite up to the first one. Most of it seemed old hat. There tended to be a lot of talk and not a lot of action as the scientists searched for an accurate litmus test.

"Nerves" by Lester del Rey was perhaps the weakest novella of the lot. Here, an accident at an atomic plant, which is creating new synthetic materials, creates an abundance of particle "R". This substance is unstable and will explode in some unknown number of hours. The blast may knock out a 50 mile radius or it may destroy the whole Midwest. The story revolves around the doctor in charge of the plant who is treating those wounded. The only man alive who may be able to find a way of countering the actions of particle "R" is trapped in the ruined reactor. It is decided to risk many lives to get him out. This physics genius is just barely alive and it's up to the doctor to get him talking. Eventually he regains consciousness just long enough to give the doctor's assistant an idea. It seems the young doctor was the adopted son of the most famous atomic physicist and went into medicine when he couldn't learn about physics (medicine must have been a lot cheaper in those days). The doctor saves the day by pumping the contaminants into a stream where they will dissipate. This story was written in 1942 back when the possibilities of atomics must have been still largely unknown. Now we know that fission reactors are not used to create exotic materials, except perhaps in weapons research, and that it's highly unlikely that any unstable material could destroy a large part of a major continent. It is also unlikely that the only man who could save the day would be a young doctor not trained in nuclear physics or that any risky material would purposely be dumped into a stream. Overall there are a lot of inconsistencies in "Nerves".

"Universe" by Robert A. Heinlein is the first story that I had read before. While I didn't enjoy it as much as the first time, I'll admit it is a great story because it is the base upon which I compare all failed generation ship stories (by now a genre of its own). "Universe" and "Common Sense" comprise to make "Orphans of the Sky". I took this opportunity to reread the entire small book. "Universe" is about a five mile long cigar shaped generation ship that was supposed to reach its destination in two generations. Instead, something went wrong and mutiny occurs which kills the crew, the people capable of running the ship. Over time, the inhabitants forget they are on a ship and believe their world comprises the known universe. The normal people inhabit the lower levels of the ship (high gravitation) and are very religious. People who die and babies born as mutants make the "Trip" into the mass converter which provides energy for all. Also on the ship are the Muties (Mutants , mutineers) who are descendants of the first mutineers who fled to the upper levels. A young man named Hugh is caught by the Muties and taken to see the ship's bridge. He comes to understand that the Universe is really a ship. He wants to go back down and convince his fellow shipmates to mount the resources necessary to pilot the ship but instead he is captured and charged with blasphemy. Hugh escapes with help from the Muties. In "Common Sense", Hugh and the Muties help instigate a coup which places a man in charge who knows about the real purpose of the ship. However, his only ambition is power and instead of helping Hugh and his friends steer the ship, he turns against them. They just barely escape their Universe in a lifeboat and make it safely to a planet.

In "The Marching Morons" by C. M. Kornbluth, a seedy salesman from our century is reawakened two hundred years in the future. He was frozen in a dentist's chair after an accident. The salesman, Barlow, quickly comes to learn that over the years intelligence was bread out of the human race by macho men and buxom women who cared more about looks then smarts. By now the vast majority of the people are idiots who are being controlled by the few intelligent people left. Barlow, who could sell ice to Eskimos, concocts a scheme to get rid of the losers. A sales campaign will promote Venus as a beautiful place to start a new colony. Those stupid enough to fall for the pitch will die aboard the phony spaceships (and probably burn up on reentry). The plan is clean and easy to implement. Barlow's price for all this is fair: absolute dictator of the whole world. He is given his share until the last of the morons is gone from Earth and then he himself is put aboard one of the ill-fated ship. After all, a mass murderer such as Barlow can not be left to live among the better people now left. The "Marching Morons" was the funniest story as Barlow, the mad salesman, learns about the new world he's stumbled into. One must suspend belief a long way to accept the fact that one man could do so much in a world gone so mad. I liked the bitter sweet ending which was very appropriate.

"The Vintage Season" by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore (as Lawrence O'Donnell) was perhaps the best story of the collection that I hadn't read before. In this one, a man named Oliver rents out his house to three strange people for the month of May. Oliver has had a better offer to sell the house at three times its worth but can't bring himself to evict the new tenants. These tenants carry themselves with an air of superiority as if they were very rich. As the plot continues, Oliver learns more and more about these people and the others that are beginning turn up around the neighborhood. They speak very deliberately. In fact, the old woman who wanted to buy the house turns out to be the same kind of assertive self-confident person. Oliver falls for one of the strange women, who is addicted to a kind of euphoric drug, and she tells him more than he should know. It is strictly against rules to tell anyone anything. Eventually, Oliver learns that all the strange new people are from the future but he doesn't find out why they have come until the night that a meteor hits the small town. It seems that this May was the best May since they started recording weather statistics and it was culminated by a fiery show. Most of the people from the future are on tour, taking a relaxing month in calm weather and then seeing the fireworks. At the end of the show, they'll be off to the next stop on the tour, the coronation of Charlamagne in 11th Century Rome. The one connoisseur who stays behind to see the suffering is not just a tourist but an artist, making records of the strike and the terrible plague it brings on. Oliver learns all of this just before he succumbs to the plague. This is a great story for a variety of reasons. The authors introduced clues slowly so that I was able to predict a little about what was going to happen in the future but there were still many surprises. I've read many time travel stories and in all of those, people travel through time for some noble purpose like changing or recording in more history. This is, I believe, the only time travel story I've read about rich people doing it for a vacation.

"And Then There Were None" by Eric Frank Russell is a humorous novella about an Earth ship that lands on a planet that was colonized 300 years ago. Nobody on the planet seems to be very afraid of the strength that the ship carries. In fact, the population doesn't even seem to be at all interested in the ship or her crew. It takes a long time for the crew to learn about this society because it's so alien. For one thing, they don't use money. If a patron eats a meal at a local restaurant, he has taken an ob or obligation from the owner. This means that someday he will have to pay back the owner. He might do this by giving the owner some of his service or trading the ob to a third party. Similarly there are no property rights. A person might farm a piece of land and then when something better comes along, he'll simply leave the land for the next lucky person to take over. There are no rich people and no poor people in this society. If a person doesn't want to do something, he simply says "I won't" There is power in numbers of people saying "I won't". This whole society is descendent from Mahatma Gandhi and his philosophies. The ambassador in charge of the mission has plans to subjugate the inhabitant but when his own crew begins to abandon ship to live a more simple life, he orders the ship away before he looses too many more. This was an interesting story - at times boring but at other times difficult to put down.

"The Ballad of Lost C'mell" by Cordwainer Smith takes place in the same universe as the novel "Norstrilia" but in an earlier time. In this story, we are introduced to the underpeople who are transformed animals with as much intelligence as man. Even though they have no rights and are treated as slaves, they in fact run the world. The long lived humans have lost interest in making things run; they just enjoy their work and pleasure. One exception is Lord Jestocost of the Instrumentality. Thanks to C'mell, a C'woman and a strong mental presence named E'telekele, Jestocost agrees to help the underpeople so that some day they will have some rights. C'mell falls in love with Jestocost and he might be able to love her but any emotion he might show her would mean her death.

"Baby is Three" by Theodore Sturgeon is the second of three novellas making up "More Than Human" novel which I had previously read and took this opportunity to read again. The story is about a 15 year old boy who goes to a psychiatrist to find out why he killed someone. Through a series of flashbacks, we find out that Gerry is part of a new species of mankind - Homo Gestalt. Gerry is the head that directs the new life form. With his spinning eyes he can make people do whatever he wants. Baby is a six year old Mongoloid retard that is the brain or computer. Given enough information as supplied by Janie, Baby can answer any question. Janie knows telekinesis and is the hands. Bonnie and Beanie don't talk but they can teleport themselves anywhere as long as they leave their clothes behind. They are the feet of Homo Gestalt. The story tells how Gerry came to be a part of the new organism and how he became its head when the old head, an idiot, died. In reality Gerry never killed anyone, it was just his mind's way of telling him that their guardian, Miss Kew, was killing the entity and they must get out from under her. The two other stories are "The Fabulous Idiot" which told of the birth of Homo Gestalt and "Morality" which told of a search for ethics. The second story is indeed the best and the first comes close behind. There are a lot of problems with the concluding chapter. Overall I liked "More Than Human" but had to suspend belief in a number of places. It seems unlikely that all these gifted people would be able to find each other.

I need not describe "The Time Machine" by H. G. Wells in any great detail because the story is so familiar and will be with me always. It's hard to believe that such a fantastic story could have been written in the last century. The author was well ahead of his time.

The last story in Volume IIB is "With Folded Hands" by Jack Williamson. This novella preceded the much larger book version of "The Humanoids". "The Humanoids" is seen as a landmark science fiction and I enjoyed it the first time I read it but this latter reading disappointed me. I liked "With Folded Hands" which was about a small town automaton salesman that sees his business, and in fact all business, fold because of the new humanoids. They come to the planet promising benevolence and service but it soon becomes apparent that they are going to dominate all human activity. All the things we take for granted like driving and cooking are deemed too dangerous by the humanoids and outlawed. They will do everything for their human captives. Together with the man who created the humanoids to protect man from his warring self, the pair attempt to destroy Wing IV which is the planet that serves as central brain for the trillions of humanoids on the thousands of planets in the known galaxy. Unfortunately, they fail. The book "The Humanoids" is about a group of people who attempt to use parapsychological force against the humanoids but they also fail. The book failed to entertain me as it used very old science that just didn't work.