The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1956

by Anthony Boucher (Editor), C.M. Kornbluth, Robert Abernathy

The Cosmic Charge Account • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
The Year 2000 • shortstory by Robert Abernathy
What Goes Up ... • [Tales from the White Hart] • shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
Daydream • (1949) • shortstory by P. Schuyler Miller
The Anti-Climax • poem by Winona McClintic
The Jet-Propelled Couch • essay by Robert Lindner
On the Hills and Everywhere • [John the Balladeer] • shortstory by Manly Wade Wellman
Threesie • shortstory by Theodore R. Cogswell
Unbalanced Equation • shortstory by Paul A. Carter
Mr. Sakrison's Halt • shortstory by Mildred Clingerman

132 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1956

About the author

William Anthony Parker White, better known by his pen name Anthony Boucher, was an American author, critic, and editor who wrote several classic mystery novels, short stories, science fiction, and radio dramas. Between 1942 and 1947, he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle. In addition to "Anthony Boucher", White also employed the pseudonym "H. H. Holmes", which was the pseudonym of a late-19th-century American serial killer; Boucher would also write light verse and sign it " Herman W. Mudgett" (the murderer's real name).
In a 1981 poll of 17 detective story writers and reviewers, his novel Nine Times Nine was voted as the ninth best locked room mystery of all time.

Reviews

[Leroy Erickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the stories in this issue are only 3 stars, or even 2, but a couple of 4 star stories and an interesting intro combine to push my rating for the issue up to 4 stars. The intro to "The Jet-Propelled Couch" shows what can be so much fun about reading 60 year-old issues of F&SF. In describing the author the editor says:

"Until last year, Dr. Robert Lindner was chiefly known, at least in literary circles, as the author of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, an extraordinary and profound study of the hypnoanalysis of a criminal psychopath which has become almost a bible to such psychological-crime writers as John Ross Macdonald and Margaret Millar (and which is shortly to be made - heaven know how! - into a film)."

Well, I guess that they did manage to make the film!

C. M. Kornbluth - The Cosmic Charge Account - 3 stars
- A very scrambled story with a fairly unique plot. A woman reads most of a book on "Functional Epistemology" and understands it enough so that she ends up unintentionally controlling the thoughts and actions of everybody within several miles of her. How do you stop this?

Robert Abernathy - The Year 2000 - 3 stars
- A very short story about the wonderful, dreamy life to come in the year 2000, at least in your dreams.

Arthur C. Clarke - What Goes Up... - 3 stars
- Scientists at a bar describe research gone awry, with a few holes in the theory. It's Arthur C. Clarke, so it's a good story.

P. Schuyler Miller - Daydream - 4 stars
- A young boy's fantasy friend returns when he's older to save the day.

Robert Lindner - The Jet-Propelled Couch - 5 stars
- A well-written story about man who escapes into fantasy and the psychochiatrist who cures him, after almost falling into the same fantasy himself. The story is worth four stars, but the intro pushes it up to five.

Manly Wade Wellman - On the Hills and Everywhere - 3 stars
- A story of John, the wandering minstrel.

Theodore R. Cogswell - Threesie - 3 stars
- If you sell your soul to the devil and think that you're going to outsmart him, it probably isn't going to work out the way that you plan on.

Paul A. Carter - Unbalance Equation - 4 stars
- An end of civilization story. After a nuclear war the few survivors to try to colonize Mars and resort to a socially unacceptable way to handle the disproportionate number of men and women.

Mildred Clingerman - Mr. Sakrison's Halt - 2 stars
- A woman looks for the boyfriend that she lost on a train ride many long years ago. The author wrote it in an unusual format and, to me, it just didn't work.