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The Six Fingers of Time
Anthology of six stories from If magazine (though credited to Galaxy on cover): The Six Fingers of Time by R.A. Lafferty, A Pride of Islands by C.C. MacApp, Sitting Duck by Daniel F. Galouye, IOU by Edward Wellen, To Each His Own by Jack Sharkey, and The Junkmakers by Albert Teichner.
These imaginative stories explore new dimensions of time and space, as man learns that even the most advanced technology cannot protect him against primitive nature, intergalactic enemies, and the weakness, greed and treachery of human beings.
These imaginative stories explore new dimensions of time and space, as man learns that even the most advanced technology cannot protect him against primitive nature, intergalactic enemies, and the weakness, greed and treachery of human beings.
- GenresScience Fiction
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1965
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July 10, 2019
Galaxy Magazine must have been pretty amazing, if this is the level of stories they printed. The stories range from 1959 to 1961.
The Six Fingers of Time (R.A. Lafferty, 1960): A time-travel fantasy (and the namesake of the book; none of the other stories involve time travel), the ending is telegraphed right from the start, the suspense comes from whether or not the main character will transcend the obvious (to everyone but himself) ending. Charles Vincent discovers the ability to slow time to a crawl and get a lot of stuff done. He’s not the first person to have managed this—his doctor purports to know of a handful of others, and they all died. Very clearly, however, there are some who haven’t died. What will Vincent’s fate be? How will he use this extra time? It’s very much the standard movie plot, with Vincent first using this ability for frivolous endeavors and slowly realizing the potential for personal improvement.
A Pride of Islands (C.C. MacApp, 1960): In the vein of The Integral Trees or Ringworld, tribes of humans live on a world clearly not meant for them, in this case, each tribe living in the hair of a giant beast, raiding tribes on other beasts in order to steal things and to steal women. It’s a very strange example of the genre, and without any sort of resolution.
Sitting Duck (Daniel F. Galouye, 1959): The symbolism here is hammered hard; there is no missing it, from the title to the father-in-law continually going on about it. The duck-hunting aspect starts subtly, but rapidly goes over the top. It’s a fun story, but could have been a lot better.
I O U (Edward Wellen, 1960): Perhaps the most disappointing of the stories in the book because for most of the text it’s one of the best. Two men market eternal happiness as Instant Obituaries Unlimited, and by eternal happiness, they mean merely that when you die, you get a vision of the heaven you most desire before you go completely. The story touches on the moral and social implications, and the difficulty of following through in extreme situations. But the ending doesn’t expand on any of that, turning it into a simple revenge story.
To Each His Own (Jack Sharkey, 1960): This is a tricky story, but uses deception to get there (the ship does not touch down feather-light, as you’ll find out at the end, as a feather would never touch down). Venusians land on earth ready for diplomatic relations. They’ve spent decades studying us, learning our language, but when they land, we’re nowhere to be found. The most standard story of the bunch, and the twist at the end doesn’t actually explain why, as the characters keep wondering, there are no humans remaining, not even corpses.
The Junkmakers (Albert Teichner, 1961): Once every ten years, there’s a celebration, in which to keep everyone working everyone throws out gadgets into a great bonfire-like heap to be slagged in a great destructive blast. Manufacturing has become so efficient what is manufactured so reliable that without this, there’d be no jobs. It’s a Broken Window Fallacy world. Interestingly predicts “The whole last half of the 1900s was filled with instances where the drawing board kept outstripping the assembly line.” It reminds me of IBM’s problems described in IBM's Early Computers as well as the problems of the personal computer revolution; the range of computers in use by 1978-9 Kilobaud Magazine article-writers is fascinating for this. The story, however, is a standard adventure story, and doesn’t really explore the ramifications of everyone having to spend money on replacements rather than on advancements.
The Six Fingers of Time (R.A. Lafferty, 1960): A time-travel fantasy (and the namesake of the book; none of the other stories involve time travel), the ending is telegraphed right from the start, the suspense comes from whether or not the main character will transcend the obvious (to everyone but himself) ending. Charles Vincent discovers the ability to slow time to a crawl and get a lot of stuff done. He’s not the first person to have managed this—his doctor purports to know of a handful of others, and they all died. Very clearly, however, there are some who haven’t died. What will Vincent’s fate be? How will he use this extra time? It’s very much the standard movie plot, with Vincent first using this ability for frivolous endeavors and slowly realizing the potential for personal improvement.
A Pride of Islands (C.C. MacApp, 1960): In the vein of The Integral Trees or Ringworld, tribes of humans live on a world clearly not meant for them, in this case, each tribe living in the hair of a giant beast, raiding tribes on other beasts in order to steal things and to steal women. It’s a very strange example of the genre, and without any sort of resolution.
Sitting Duck (Daniel F. Galouye, 1959): The symbolism here is hammered hard; there is no missing it, from the title to the father-in-law continually going on about it. The duck-hunting aspect starts subtly, but rapidly goes over the top. It’s a fun story, but could have been a lot better.
I O U (Edward Wellen, 1960): Perhaps the most disappointing of the stories in the book because for most of the text it’s one of the best. Two men market eternal happiness as Instant Obituaries Unlimited, and by eternal happiness, they mean merely that when you die, you get a vision of the heaven you most desire before you go completely. The story touches on the moral and social implications, and the difficulty of following through in extreme situations. But the ending doesn’t expand on any of that, turning it into a simple revenge story.
To Each His Own (Jack Sharkey, 1960): This is a tricky story, but uses deception to get there (the ship does not touch down feather-light, as you’ll find out at the end, as a feather would never touch down). Venusians land on earth ready for diplomatic relations. They’ve spent decades studying us, learning our language, but when they land, we’re nowhere to be found. The most standard story of the bunch, and the twist at the end doesn’t actually explain why, as the characters keep wondering, there are no humans remaining, not even corpses.
The Junkmakers (Albert Teichner, 1961): Once every ten years, there’s a celebration, in which to keep everyone working everyone throws out gadgets into a great bonfire-like heap to be slagged in a great destructive blast. Manufacturing has become so efficient what is manufactured so reliable that without this, there’d be no jobs. It’s a Broken Window Fallacy world. Interestingly predicts “The whole last half of the 1900s was filled with instances where the drawing board kept outstripping the assembly line.” It reminds me of IBM’s problems described in IBM's Early Computers as well as the problems of the personal computer revolution; the range of computers in use by 1978-9 Kilobaud Magazine article-writers is fascinating for this. The story, however, is a standard adventure story, and doesn’t really explore the ramifications of everyone having to spend money on replacements rather than on advancements.
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