Analog SFF, March 2010 Read online

  The Voyagers books (Voyagers, The Alien Within, and Star Brothers) tell the story of astronaut Keith Stoner, first explorer of a strange alien starship that entered the Solar System. Stoner acquired the abilities and memories of the long-dead alien pilot, and eventually built his own starship. With his wife and children, he fled to the stars.

  Now, a century later, Stoner and his family return to Earth. But it's not the Earth they left; somehow, they have crossed over into the Grand Tour universe. And Stoner's not happy about it.

  In the Grand Tour series (as we most recently saw in Mars Life), Earth is no longer an attractive place. The anti-science and anti-technology kooks are winning the day, and ecological disaster looms.

  If anyone's going to save humanity, it's got to be Keith Stoner. And the rest is pure Bova: careful scientific and cultural extrapolation, well-drawn characters, and interesting philosophical underpinnings. While I'm still not convinced that bringing these two universes together was the best idea ever, Bova certainly makes it work.

  It'll be interesting to see where he goes next.

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  From the Pen of Paul:

  The Fantastic Images of Frank R. Paul

  Edited by Stephen D. Korshak

  Shasta/Phoenix,

  128 / 144 / 160 pages,

  $39.95 / $59.95 / $395.00

  ISBN: 978-0-9800-931-1-7 (hardcover)

  978-0-9800-931-2-4 (deluxe)

  978-0-9800-931-3-1 (ultra deluxe)

  www.shasta-phoenix.com

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  As long as there's been science fiction, there's been science fiction art. And at the very beginning of science fiction art, there was Frank R. Paul.

  Shashta/Phoenix has produced a magnificent coffee table book (9 x 12 inches) showcasing the life and work of Frank R. Paul. Paul has been called “the father of science fiction art,” and if anyone can lay claim to that title, it's Paul. Among the thousands of pieces he created were some of the most famous and iconic images of science fiction—including the cover of Amazing Stories number 1, early issues of Astounding, and the first book covers of such classics as The Skylark of Space and John W. Campbell's The Mightiest Machine.

  When you think of pulp sf, you're probably thinking of Frank R. Paul illustrations. Bright colors, fantastic air- and space-craft, futuristic cities, magnificent planetary vistas, odd aliens—he did it all, and inspired countless others to follow his lead.

  There's plenty of textual information in this book: biographies of Paul, an appreciation by Forrest J. Ackerman, a preface by Arthur C. Clarke, and a detailed bibliographical index. But the best part of the book is the pages upon pages of Paul magazine covers and paintings, reproduced in full gorgeous color. I can't imagine an sf reader who could walk by this book without picking it up, or leaf through it without getting snared for hours.

  The book comes in three different editions. The Hardcover Trade Edition has 128 pages and costs $39.95; it is a limited edition of 1,000 copies.

  The Deluxe Edition has 160 pages, including much more art, and has a slipcase. This one costs $59.95 and is limited to 874 copies.

  The Ultra Deluxe Edition is leather-bound and slipcased, and signed by Sir Arthur as well as editor Stephen D. Korshak and contributors Jerry Weist and Robert Hill. There are 126 numbered copies, and the cost is $395.00. All three editions are available from the Shasta/Phoenix website listed above.

  Whether you want to relive the nostalgia of those long-ago days, or you're a young whippersnapper who wants to see what all the excitement was about, you ought to treat yourself to this volume. If you're going to spring for the Hardcover, take my advice and scrape up the extra twenty bucks for the Deluxe Edition: it's definitely worth it.

  Copyright © 2010 Tom Easton

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  Reader's Department: BRASS TACKS

  Dear Stan,

  Having just read the editorial in your September issue, I wanted to give my thanks to your father (as you suggest) for the influence that helped cause many years of a very enjoyable reading experience.

  My own father, David Lyle, just recently passed away after battling cancer for the last year. Analog has been a part of my relationship with him from as long as I can remember. So much so, that your publication was mentioned in my eulogy at his funeral. Starting as early as fifth grade, and all through high school, I remember picking up copies of Analog along with nonfiction magazines (my dad was a forensic chemist and subscribed to several work related publications) and I strongly believe this reading played a large role in shaping who I became. After all, how many fifth graders know anything about Schrodinger's cat? I learned from a young age to ask questions, question the answers, and in general to think creatively.

  After I'd grown up and moved out, Analog was a part of every visit to my parent's house. He always kept each issue and passed them on to me to take back home. I have stacks and stacks of past issues, along with virtually a library of other science fiction (and a few nonfiction) books, hoping that one of my own children will develop an interest. My mother has changed the subscription address to my own so that I will receive the remaining issues directly, but I have to be honest and say receiving the first one that way will be emotionally difficult for me.

  Anyway, thanks again for the years of great reading, and for providing one of the main connections between my father and myself. Please keep up the great work!

  Nathan Lyle

  Ishpeming, MI

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  Dear Stan,

  Don Nix's letter in the October 2009 issue repeats a classic conservative claim: that the New Deal, rather than improving the economy, actually prolonged the Depression, and that the economy would have recovered much sooner had “free enterprise” been allowed to work its marketplace magic. “Doing nothing,” he says, citing an earlier letter from reader Sue Jarrell, “is the best course and will work out."

  Unfortunately for this argument, what even conservatives mostly agree ended the Depression was World War II. The preparation for that war, and the war itself, involved the conversion of the U.S. to a virtually absolute command economy, a government intervention far beyond the scale of the New Deal.

  Had FDR dared attempt any such thing for non-military purposes, he'd have been impeached or assassinated in short order—but in the wake of Pearl Harbor, such was the urge to teach those “little yellow monkey men of Nippon” (and, oh yeah, what's-his-name, Hitler) who was who and what was what that just about anything went. (At least at first, the war against Hitler was seen by most Americans as secondary to avenging what many Americans saw as not only a national but also a racial insult.) If the argument Nix and Jarrell borrow from conservative economist Thomas Sowell were correct, the wartime command economy should have left this country economically crippled by 1945—but instead, we emerged into a peacetime boom.

  As for the New Deal's effects, it's a matter of record that during FDR's first term, unemployment dropped from 25 percent to 14 percent. It's also a matter of record that under heavy pressure from the Supreme Court, dominated by conservative Republican appointees, and, after the 1936 elections, from a Congress controlled by a coalition of Southern Democratic and GOP conservatives, President Roosevelt was forced to scale back the New Deal—and that then the unemployment rate, rather than falling further, rose to 19 percent by the end of 1939, before the start of war preparations. Or, in other words, the New Deal worked, as long as it was allowed to. That it did not end the Depression before the Second World War is seemingly not due to its being too much, but too little—unless one cares to make the argument that government military programs possess some special economic magic civilian programs don't. Somehow, I don't find that very convincing.

  Eric B. Lipps

  Staten Island, NY

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  Dear Dr. Schmidt,

  Thoroughly enjoyed the November issue. Your choice of stories in this issue seems to reflect your editorial on the need to publish everything in SF
from the mundane to the highly improbable.

  As you wrote, many devices and techniques now in everyday use would be regarded as magic not that long ago. John Campbell, writing in the early 1950s, pointed out that scientists working before World War II would have difficulty understanding how a simple transistor radio works.

  Since the optical microscopes of their day could not resolve the solid-state logic elements of a PC or even a digital camera, they would have been utterly baffled by them.

  Even as it was in the past, it is likely that the latest scientific thinking will be swept away by new experimental findings. In my youth, I was taught that planetary formation was an extremely rare event, the result of a near collision of two stars; today we have proof by observation that practically all stars have planets. Planetary formation theory has been revised to match the new data.

  In the novelette, “Joan,” the inventor of the time machine is unable to show that a round trip in time has ever occurred; his audiovisual recorders haven't run, recorded nothing, and he is about to dismantle his machine. Kate, the protagonist, is, of course (among other things), an audio-visual recorder. She uses his machine, goes back in time and returns complete with memories of her trip. She is aware that she has come back to a new world, one with a different past. This implies that there is a world where the inventor has proof his machine works and is safe to use, even though he did not actually send it himself! Also, back in the world she left, when Kate pushes the Go button, apparently, nothing happens! If, in Kate's new world, the inventor repeats his experiment, his recorder again returns with its tape still at the start! In a third world, he then has proof the machine worked twice! In every world but the very first, he has proof his machine worked, one or more times, but his next trip may fail, as will all attempts thereafter! As has been said before, going back in time always creates a paradox.

  "Foreign Exchange” leaves several questions unanswered: why does an exclusively telepathic creature have a “mouth noises” name? What does “Tnaxis” exhale? What chemical reaction between methane, CH4, and “dry cat food,” made up of compounds of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, provides energy for his metabolism? Again, on Titan, methane is mostly a liquid; how then, can Tnaxis survive at Earth temperatures? Of course, this was a fun story and these items are not central to the plot.

  "Amabit Sapiens” has a similar chemistry problem, which is central to the story. How, in the anaerobic environment of an oil well, does a bacterium extract energy from a hydrocarbon (crude oil) by freeing hydrogen? What does it react the crude oil with, water? The metabolite would seem more likely to be carbon dioxide than hydrogen.

  In “To Climb a Flat Mountain,” how to construct a square (per the cover, or a cube, per the text) that has low gravity and also a dense, but breathable atmosphere, seems a problem, even without worrying about the structural strength of the material to make it out of (same problems as Niven's ringworld). Good adventure story but some suspension of disbelief required.

  Donald M. Seib

  Cocoa Beach FL

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  Dr. Schmidt,

  We have received our November 2009 Analog Science Fiction and Fact.

  My husband purchased the first subscription as a gift for me many, many years ago and I have enjoyed reading every issue and every story until this month.

  The second item in the table of contents is a novelette entitled “Amabit Sapiens” by Craig DeLancey.

  I have to tell you—this was by far the goriest story, and one that I personally believe did not belong in Analog. It may be a fiction, but it isn't what I'd call science fiction.

  I was totally unprepared for the unexpectedly gruesome details repetitiously getting more horrific throughout the story.

  Frankly, I was very disappointed that your editing team saw fit to include this item.

  Respectfully,

  Mrs. A. Schonwald

  * * * *

  Sorry you didn't like the story, but “goriness-level” has nothing to do with “science fiction level."

  * * * *

  Dear Dr. Schmidt,

  This past week I did something I had never done before. I read Jeffery Kooistra's treatise (or should I say expose) of a rather feeble attempt by a misguided group of followers of a certain ex-vice president to persuade the American people of a potential serious change to our global temperature. I regret the omission from the article of certain proofs of facts as reported by Mr. Watts and so noted by Mr. Kooistra in his informative statement (may I dare to call it a tour-de-farce?). You should speak to whoever heads the printing house that does your work! I congratulate Jeff on producing a statement that certainly gets my approval. Now—if Jeff could follow up this initial undertaking by discovering who is responsible for producing the obviously doctored pictures purporting to show the progressive melting of the polar icecaps—my cup would be truly running over.

  Fred Hauser

  Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ

  PS. The following is something I just want you to know. I read my first Astounding in 1937 (I was 16) and any issue I could find after that, until I became a subscriber in 1958 and I have every copy since then in my basement. I joined the Army in 1942, they sent me to Los Alamos in February 1944, and thanks to Cleve Cartmill's “atomic bomb” story, when they asked me what I thought they were doing I said, “I think you're working on making an atomic bomb” and bingo—I was put in the group that did just that.

  * * * *

  Dear Dr. Cramer,

  I have been reading Astounding/Analog for 60 years. Your Alternate View columns are the best content I have seen. Every one is worth the annual subscription rate and more. Overbye's cosmology and physics articles in the Science Times are good, but do not come close to your depth and exciting content.

  Thanks so very much for efforts over the years. Fabulous and fascinating stuff! Forever appreciated!

  Fred Stahl

  * * * *

  Dear Drs. Schmidt and Cramer,

  December's 150th Cramer Alternate View column has moved me to express my gratitude. Not only has no Dr. Cramer column ever disappointed me, but each Cramer column puts me in touch with something that I feel really matters to what is actually moving current science in physics. Dr. Cramer has taught me a slower, denser way to read, which the clarity and forthrightness of his writing, and particularly the wonderful coherence of the thought he leads me through, always reward. His latest column helped more than I can express to be a true communicant of research actually in progress into dark energy and dark matter. It offers a completeness of relevance I have found nowhere else. I appreciate his economy and care for inclusiveness, and these columns never let me down. At the level of information about science that is actually being done, and particularly about its significance, they privilege me incomparably.

  Sincerely,

  Joseph E. Quittner

  Cleveland Heights, OH

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  Reader's Department: UPCOMING EVENTS by Anthony Lewis

  5-7 March 2010

  POTLATCH 19 (Northwest SF conference) at Hotel Deca, Seattle, WA. Book of Honor: Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. Membership: $65 in advance, more at the door; youth membership $25, supporting membership $20. Info: potlatch-sf.org/; potlatch19@gmail. com; c/o Suzanne Tompkins, PO Box 25075, Seattle, WA 98165.

  19-21 March 2010

  LUNACON 2010 (New York City area SF conference) at Hilton Rye Town, Rye Brook, NY. Writer Guest of Honor: Tanya Huff; Artist Guest of Honor: Theresa Mather; Musical Guest: Allison Lonsdale; Fan Guest of Honor: Dominick Carrado. Membership: $45 until 14 February 2010, $55 at the door; children $15 until 14 February 2010, $25 at the door. Info: www.lunacon.org; [email protected]; PO Box 432, Throggs Neck Station, Bronx, NY 10465.

  2-4 April 2010

  MINICON 45 (Minneapolis SF conference) at Sheraton Bloomington Hotel, Bloomington, MN. Author Guest of Honor: Brandon Sanderson; Art Guest of Honor: Dan Dos Santos. Membership: $45 until 10 March 2010 (student $
30), more thereafter and at the door. Info: mnstf.org/minicon45; PO Box 8297, Lake Street Station, Minneapolis, MN 55408.

  9-11 April 2010

  RAVEN CON (Richmond area SF and gaming conference) at Holiday Inn Select, Richmond, VA. Author Guest of Honor: Richel Caine; Artist Guest of Honor: R. Cat; Gaming Guest of Honor: Steve Long. Membership: $35 until 1 April 2010, $40 at the door. Info: www.ravencon.com; [email protected]; 3502 Fernmoss Ct., Charlotte, NC 28269.

  2-6 September 2010

  AUSSIECON FOUR (68th World Science Fiction Convention) at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Guest of Honor: Kim Stanley Robinson; Artist Guest of Honor: Shaun Tan; Fan Guest of Honor: Robin Johnson. Membership from 1 January 2009 until some later date (see website for latest details): AUD 210, USD 175, CAD 185, GBP 100, EUR 120, JPY 16000; supporting membership AUD 70, USD 50, CAD 50, GBP 25, EUR 35, JPY 4900. This is the SF universe's annual get-together. Professionals and readers from all over the world will be in attendance. Talks, panels, films, fancy dress competition—the works. Nominate and vote for the Hugos. Info: www.aussiecon4. org.au/; [email protected]; GPO Box 1212, Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA 3001

  * * * *

  Running a convention? If your convention has a telephone or fax number, e-mail address, or web page, please let us know so that we can publish this information. We must have your information in hand SIX months before the date of your convention.

  * * * *

  Attending a convention? When calling conventions for information, do not call collect and do not call too late in the evening. It is best to include a S.A.S.E. when requesting information; include an International Reply Coupon if the convention is in a different country.

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  Visit www.analogsf.com for information on additional titles by this and other authors.