Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, Vol. 91, No. 5, July 1973

Astounding/Analog

by Ben Bova (Editor), Anne McCaffrey (Contributor), Gary E. Myers (Contributor)

Vol XCI No 5.

Contents:
5 • The R&D Budget • [Editorial (Analog)] • essay by The Editor
10 • A Bridle for Pegasus • [Talents (Anne McCaffrey)] • novella by Anne McCaffrey
69 • The Analytical Laboratory: April 1973 (Analog, July 1973) • [The Analytical Laboratory] • essay by uncredited
71 • Rarefied Atmospheres • [Science Fact (Analog)] • essay by Gary E. Myers
86 • Peace Probe • short story by Roy L. Prosterman
102 • The City of Ul Chalan • novelette by Richard K. Lyon
137 • In Times to Come (Analog, July 1973) • [In Times to Come (Analog)] • essay by uncredited
140 • Young Beaker • short story by J.T. Lamberty, Jr.
159 • Godsend • short story by Edward Wellen
166 • The Reference Library (Analog, July 1973) • [The Reference Library] • essay by P. Schuyler Miller
172 • Brass Tacks (Analog, July 1973) • [Brass Tacks] • essay by uncredited

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180 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1973

About the author

Ben Bova was born on November 8, 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1953, while attending Temple University, he married Rosa Cucinotta, they had a son and a daughter. He would later divorce Rosa in 1974. In that same year he married Barbara Berson Rose.

Bova was an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He was an environmentalist, but rejected Luddism.

Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute.

In 1971 he became editor of Analog Science Fiction after John W. Campbell's death. After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni during 1978-1982.

In 1974 he wrote the screenplay for an episode of the children's science fiction television series Land of the Lost entitled "The Search".

Bova was the science advisor for the failed television series The Starlost, leaving in disgust after the airing of the first episode. His novel The Starcrossed was loosely based on his experiences and featured a thinly veiled characterization of his friend and colleague Harlan Ellison. He dedicated the novel to "Cordwainer Bird", the pen name Harlan Ellison uses when he does not want to be associated with a television or film project.

Bova was the President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past President of Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

Bova went back to school in the 1980s, earning an M.A. in communications in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1996.

Bova has drawn on these meetings and experiences to create fact and fiction writings rich with references to spaceflight, lasers, artificial hearts, nanotechnology, environmentalism, fencing and martial arts, photography and artists.

Bova was the author of over a hundred and fifteen books, non-fiction as well as science fiction. In 2000, he was the Author Guest of Honor at the 58th World Science Fiction Convention (Chicon 2000).

Hollywood has started to take an interest in Bova's works once again, in addition to his wealth of knowledge about science and what the future may look like. In 2007, he was hired as a consultant by both Stuber/Parent Productions to provide insight into what the world is to look like in the near future for their upcoming film "Repossession Mambo" (released as "Repo Men") starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and by Silver Pictures in which he provided consulting services on the feature adaptation of Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon".

http://us.macmillan.com/author/benbova

Reviews

[David H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the thirty-eighth magazine issue of my personal project to read the Analogs that my dad gave me before he passed away (I collect all my reviews for it here). My parents are still in Tennessee, though it's the summer between semesters for Dad. In Watergate scandal news (always exciting), a White House aide testified and confirmed the existence of tapes that might have incriminating conversations on them. And another Skylab mission is launched! The space stuff must've been so cool after the disappointment of the Apollo program ending in 1972.

The July 1973 issue has a cover from Kelly Freas illustrating McCaffrey's "A Bridle for Pegasus." It definitely represents a scene from the story, in a somewhat abstract (or telepathic/empathic) sense. It's quite colorful, though, so I quite like it.

The editorial “The R&D Budget" by Ben Bova has him lamenting the failure of Nixon to commit to his administration's promise to invest more into scientific/technological research and development with the wind down of the Vietnam War. Bova is such a booster of this topic, which, y'know, is great and predictable given that this is a science fiction magazine. A lot of his arguments are the ones I've been hearing forever, but I think Bova and some of his position are a little too dismissive of the "let's see if we can fix other things, too" position. Sometimes the biggest obstacles to progress is not the science, but the people.

Anne McCaffrey's "A Bridle for Pegasus" is a return to her Talents universe. It's also one of the rare rereads for me in this project, as this story is included in To Ride Pegasus which I must've read in the '90s or early 2000s. I didn't remember much of the story specifics, though. As I remembered, McCaffrey's writing is easy read, though the specific plotting of this seemed a little convoluted, partly because Amalda and Bruce represent a new type of (psychic) Talent, that Dafydd is also figuring out. There's also a lot of talk about ethics, but also a perfect willingness to forget them when the going gets tough. I didn't like how the antagonist of the story was apparently redeemed and his literal crimes handwaved away at the end.

The Science Fact article “Rarefied Atmospheres" by Gary E. Myers is interesting but technical article about vacuum and how we've used it in technological applications, and how we produce vacuum for those purposes.

Roy L. Prosterman's "Peace Probe" is a story set in Buenos Aires, featuring the Probe Corps, people who constantly monitor individuals throughout the world to make sure they don't have any WMDs. It's vaguely interesting, but the implications of the world are disturbing.

"The City of Ul Chalan" by Richard K. Lyon is a really fun story about a CIA spy who gets herself sent to Tibet to investigate a mysterious plateau that seemed to throw off a Chinese invasion. It's written in a fun and funny way, and I'm surprised that this is apparently Lyon's debut story. The mystery of Ul Chalan is perhaps a little silly, but I liked it and its implications. The only "problem" I have with this is that Bova published a vaguely similar story (also set in Tibet) just four months ago in Herbie Brennan's historical SF story, "Death of God."

J. T. Lamberty, Jr.'s "Young Beaker" focuses on students who are being tested for their math skills, as done on a computer. One child, Beaker, appears to be cheating, but it turns out he actually knows how to do math, as this is a future where no one knows how to calculate anything without a computer. As corny as it is, I quite liked it.

"Godsend" by Edward Wellen is a not very good story about a "deformed" child abandoned and raised by a blind man, and despite lacking almost any resources, he essentially is a one-man superscientist, and figures out a way to gain acceptance in a wider human society. I did not like this one much.

P. Schuyler Miller's "The Reference Library: The Campbell Years" focuses his reviews on some anthologies (he sure loves the Campbell years, does not like Damon Knight's Orbit series, and likes the latest Nebula Awards anthology). He also reviews favorably Poul Anderson's There Will Be Time.

"Brass Tacks" is the letters column, and Bova finally finds a balance that makes me happy--plenty of pedantic nitpicks of stories, people taking issues with multiple reviews, one person very annoyed with Bova's favored SF mode, and someone who complained about one story in particular in such a way that Bova's one-liner reply was basically, Did you read the other story in the same issue that actually addresses your speculation? So fun.

From a future issue: "The Analytical Laboratory" is a feature where Analog readers rank each issue’s stories, published several months after, with the top two winners getting pay bonuses. Here are the results, posted in the October 1973 issue:
2.16: "The City of Ul Chalan," Richard K. Lyon
2.26: "A Bridle for Pegasus," Anne McCaffrey
3.16: "Young Beaker," J. T. Lamberty, Jr.
3.67: "Godsend," Edward Wellen
3.71: "Peace Probe," Roy L. Prosterman

I actually agree with most of this! There's obviously no serial in this issue, which always skews these rankings a bit, but this almost exactly agrees with my feelings except that I'd probably swap the Wellen and Prosterman.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

A member of the Parapsychological Center has detected an unusual Talent singing in a bar. The woman, Amalda, seems to be a much stronger empath, both sending and receiving, than ever seen before. She has the ability to use another person as an amplifier, but she is terrified of a regional union organizer called Roznine, who has plans for her talents of his own. More psi stuff from Anne McCaffrey. In a future where World War III has devastated most of the planet the United States has imposed a unilateral declaration forbidding all weapons of mass destruction. Oddly, they still feel that they should have them. “Peace Probe” by Roy L. Prosterman looks doveish but is paternalistic and hawkish. CIA undercover agent, Gertrude, has stumbled over a region of Earth that there is no record of any human ever visiting. “The City Of Ul Chalan” in Tibet is now under investigation as an escalating number of Chinese troops have entered and not emerged. With a monk and some Chinese secret service, Gertrude enters the mysterious city and finds conditions much like those on Mars. Interesting debut from Richard K. Lyon. Riffing on Asimov’s The Feeling On Power, J. T. Lamberty Jr. shows us “Young Beaker”, who can do computations in his head, and Edward Wellen has a mutant baby adopted by a blind man in the jungle who becomes a sort of genius, but his secretive life is imperiled by a meteor strike in “Godsend”. OK issue.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

A+ (outstanding):

The City of Ul Chalan by Richard K. Lyon

B (very good):

Peace Probe by Roy L. Prosterman
Young Beaker by J.T. Lamberty, Jr

C (average):

A Bridle for Pegasus by Anne McCaffrey

D (poor):

Godsend by Edward Wellen