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Astounding/Analog
Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, Vol. 90, No. 4, December 1972
Vol XC No 4.
Contents:
4 • Man in Space • [Editorial (Analog)] • essay by The Editor
8 • The Second Kind of Loneliness • [Star Ring] • short story by George R. R. Martin
21 • In Times to Come (Analog, December 1972) • [In Times to Come (Analog)] • essay by uncredited
23 • Magic: Science of the Future • [Science Fact (Analog)] • essay by Joseph F. Goodavage
38 • Original Sin • novelette by Vernor Vinge
67 • The Analytical Laboratory: September 1972 (Analog, December 1972) • [The Analytical Laboratory] • essay by uncredited
68 • When I Was in Your Mind • short story by Joe Allred
82 • Cemetery World (Part 2 of 3) • serial by Clifford D. Simak
127 • P.R.D. and the Antareans • short story by Miriam Allen deFord
137 • Pard • [LaNague Federation] • novelette by F. Paul Wilson
168 • The Reference Library (Analog, December 1972) • [The Reference Library] • essay by P. Schuyler Miller
173 • Brass Tacks (Analog, December 1972) • [Brass Tacks] • essay by uncredited
Contents:
4 • Man in Space • [Editorial (Analog)] • essay by The Editor
8 • The Second Kind of Loneliness • [Star Ring] • short story by George R. R. Martin
21 • In Times to Come (Analog, December 1972) • [In Times to Come (Analog)] • essay by uncredited
23 • Magic: Science of the Future • [Science Fact (Analog)] • essay by Joseph F. Goodavage
38 • Original Sin • novelette by Vernor Vinge
67 • The Analytical Laboratory: September 1972 (Analog, December 1972) • [The Analytical Laboratory] • essay by uncredited
68 • When I Was in Your Mind • short story by Joe Allred
82 • Cemetery World (Part 2 of 3) • serial by Clifford D. Simak
127 • P.R.D. and the Antareans • short story by Miriam Allen deFord
137 • Pard • [LaNague Federation] • novelette by F. Paul Wilson
168 • The Reference Library (Analog, December 1972) • [The Reference Library] • essay by P. Schuyler Miller
173 • Brass Tacks (Analog, December 1972) • [Brass Tacks] • essay by uncredited
- GenresScience Fiction
180 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1972
18 people want to read
About the author
Ben Bova
692 books1,047 followersBen 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 13, 2026
This is the thirty-first 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 in Clarkesville, Tennessee. Dad is in graduate school, and my mom is working at a boot company. This month is also when the Apollo 17 mission occurs, the last time humanity walked on the moon. Fifty-three years and waiting.
It looks like Dad got his hands on a stamp with his name on it, as the magazine contents page and the back cover both have been stamped. Will all future issues be stamped, or was there a friend he lent this issue to? There's also an orange mark on the top of magazine, as by a marker or highlighter. I have no idea if he made that mark or someone else did.
The December 1972 issue has a cover from Kelly Freas illustrating Martin's story "The Second Kind of Loneliness." It definitely matches the story both in style and substance.
Ben Bova's editorial "Man in Space" is a plea for the manned space program as the last Apollo mission takes place. He criticizes the American public's desire for immediate gratification and then starts talking about how obviously we'll need astronauts to repair satellites in space. With 50 years of hindsight, Ben--no, we don't.
"The Second Kind of Loneliness" by George R. R. Martin is an excellent psychological piece about loneliness (and a bit of madness--what an ending!). This is Martin's first story in Analog (he had a computer chess article a few months ago), and it also contributed to him being a finalist for the brand new Campbell Award (now Astounding Award) for Best New Writer that will begin in 1973.
Joseph F. Goodavage's Science Fact article "Magic: Science of the Future?" is an incredibly disappointing article, as Goodavage is one of those pseudoscience guys who believes in astrology. This article is mostly about things like the Hieronymous machine (which is nonsense). I thought we'd be done with stuff like this since Campbell's been gone.
"Original Sin" by Vernor Vinge features a scientist research life-extension for shark-headed aliens that only live for two years before dying. The aliens are fascinating, especially as they're incredibly smart despite their short lives, but um, they're also ravenous beings who will eat when they get a chance. Maybe we shouldn't be extending their lives just yet? The main character's motivation is incredibly suspect in this scenario.
"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 we have September 1972 (link goes to my review). The top story rankings are mostly what I expected, and I'm glad to see that other readers also didn't like "Generation Gaps," but John Strausbaugh's "The Hated Dreams" is dead last and I strenuously disagree with that ranking (it should probably be at least 3rd or 4th). And in what world is "The War of the Worlds" even doing at 4th? Awful story.
Joe Allred's "When I Was in Your Mind" is all about psychic surgery. The premise seemed interesting, but we get into some weird confusing imagery by the end of the (un)successful surgery. I appreciate the effort but not really my kinda thing.
"Cemetery World (Part 2 of 3)" is the next part of Clifford D. Simak's serial. Carson and Elmer and the gang are on the run on a depopulated earth, and make some potential allies and discoveries. It's feeling like it's losing the plot a bit, especially with the census taker's shades.
Miriam Allen deFord's "P.R.D. and the Antareans" is an epistolary story featuring a scientist's diary of how she warded off the Antareans whose internal conflicts threatened Earth. Unfortunately, the punchline for this story was so incredibly stupid. (She discovered a .)
"Pard" by F. Paul Wilson was actually quite fun--a space agent accidentally gets an alien symbiote that enhances his skills and abilities for the mission. Or rather, it was quite fun until we got to Wilson's usual libertarian lecture.
P. Schuyler Miller's review column "The Reference Library: Asimov Inside Out" is a short one, only reviewing a book analyzing Asimov's writing structure, Wolfe's Fifth Head of Cerberus, and a "Soviet superheroine" (but it's actually a hoax in hindsight--it was not made by a Soviet dissident group but by a Czech writer using art stolen by his fellow artists).
The letters column "Brass Tacks" is the usual mix of pedantry, nerds, prudes, and astoundingly a McCarthyite annoyed by Bova's description of his hero. Two of the letters were very mad about the "sexual content" of Joe Haldeman's "Hero" (later part of The Forever War). One interesting letter actually tried to collate all the Analytical Laboratory stats since 1949, and that is definitely an interesting project.
Since this is the final issue of 1972, I’ll just take the opportunity to do a quick rundown on Analog award recognitions that I could find (note that most of these were all awarded in the following year):
* Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor: Ben Bova (the Best Professional Magazine award was retired)
* Finalist of the Hugo Award for Best Novella: Frederik Pohl's "The Gold at Starbow's End" (March 1972), Joe Haldeman's "Hero" (June 1972), and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mercenary" (July 1972) lost to Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Word for World is Forest."
* Finalist of the Nebula Award for Best Novella: Frederik Pohl's "The Gold at Starbow's End" (March 1972) lost to Arthur C. Clarke's "A Meeting with Medusa."
* Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist: Kelly Freas, who did 5 out of 12 Analog covers in 1972. I also haven’t been doing a good job of pointing out all the interior art that’s included in these issues, but Freas also contributed a few interior pieces to Analog this year. Finalists included fellow Analog cover artists John Schoenherr and Jack Gaughan.
* Winner of the John W. Campbell (now called Astounding) Award for Best New Writer (given in 1973): Jerry Pournelle, and I’m listing this award here since he had additional works that qualified him for this award in Analog (5 additional short stories). However, Ruth Berman's "Stretch of Time" (October 1972) and Jesse Miller's "Pigeon City" (November 1972) also helped get their authors nominated for the Campbell Award.
It looks like Dad got his hands on a stamp with his name on it, as the magazine contents page and the back cover both have been stamped. Will all future issues be stamped, or was there a friend he lent this issue to? There's also an orange mark on the top of magazine, as by a marker or highlighter. I have no idea if he made that mark or someone else did.
The December 1972 issue has a cover from Kelly Freas illustrating Martin's story "The Second Kind of Loneliness." It definitely matches the story both in style and substance.
Ben Bova's editorial "Man in Space" is a plea for the manned space program as the last Apollo mission takes place. He criticizes the American public's desire for immediate gratification and then starts talking about how obviously we'll need astronauts to repair satellites in space. With 50 years of hindsight, Ben--no, we don't.
"The Second Kind of Loneliness" by George R. R. Martin is an excellent psychological piece about loneliness (and a bit of madness--what an ending!). This is Martin's first story in Analog (he had a computer chess article a few months ago), and it also contributed to him being a finalist for the brand new Campbell Award (now Astounding Award) for Best New Writer that will begin in 1973.
Joseph F. Goodavage's Science Fact article "Magic: Science of the Future?" is an incredibly disappointing article, as Goodavage is one of those pseudoscience guys who believes in astrology. This article is mostly about things like the Hieronymous machine (which is nonsense). I thought we'd be done with stuff like this since Campbell's been gone.
"Original Sin" by Vernor Vinge features a scientist research life-extension for shark-headed aliens that only live for two years before dying. The aliens are fascinating, especially as they're incredibly smart despite their short lives, but um, they're also ravenous beings who will eat when they get a chance. Maybe we shouldn't be extending their lives just yet? The main character's motivation is incredibly suspect in this scenario.
"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 we have September 1972 (link goes to my review). The top story rankings are mostly what I expected, and I'm glad to see that other readers also didn't like "Generation Gaps," but John Strausbaugh's "The Hated Dreams" is dead last and I strenuously disagree with that ranking (it should probably be at least 3rd or 4th). And in what world is "The War of the Worlds" even doing at 4th? Awful story.
Joe Allred's "When I Was in Your Mind" is all about psychic surgery. The premise seemed interesting, but we get into some weird confusing imagery by the end of the (un)successful surgery. I appreciate the effort but not really my kinda thing.
"Cemetery World (Part 2 of 3)" is the next part of Clifford D. Simak's serial. Carson and Elmer and the gang are on the run on a depopulated earth, and make some potential allies and discoveries. It's feeling like it's losing the plot a bit, especially with the census taker's shades.
Miriam Allen deFord's "P.R.D. and the Antareans" is an epistolary story featuring a scientist's diary of how she warded off the Antareans whose internal conflicts threatened Earth. Unfortunately, the punchline for this story was so incredibly stupid. (She discovered a .)
"Pard" by F. Paul Wilson was actually quite fun--a space agent accidentally gets an alien symbiote that enhances his skills and abilities for the mission. Or rather, it was quite fun until we got to Wilson's usual libertarian lecture.
P. Schuyler Miller's review column "The Reference Library: Asimov Inside Out" is a short one, only reviewing a book analyzing Asimov's writing structure, Wolfe's Fifth Head of Cerberus, and a "Soviet superheroine" (but it's actually a hoax in hindsight--it was not made by a Soviet dissident group but by a Czech writer using art stolen by his fellow artists).
The letters column "Brass Tacks" is the usual mix of pedantry, nerds, prudes, and astoundingly a McCarthyite annoyed by Bova's description of his hero. Two of the letters were very mad about the "sexual content" of Joe Haldeman's "Hero" (later part of The Forever War). One interesting letter actually tried to collate all the Analytical Laboratory stats since 1949, and that is definitely an interesting project.
Since this is the final issue of 1972, I’ll just take the opportunity to do a quick rundown on Analog award recognitions that I could find (note that most of these were all awarded in the following year):
* Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor: Ben Bova (the Best Professional Magazine award was retired)
* Finalist of the Hugo Award for Best Novella: Frederik Pohl's "The Gold at Starbow's End" (March 1972), Joe Haldeman's "Hero" (June 1972), and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mercenary" (July 1972) lost to Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Word for World is Forest."
* Finalist of the Nebula Award for Best Novella: Frederik Pohl's "The Gold at Starbow's End" (March 1972) lost to Arthur C. Clarke's "A Meeting with Medusa."
* Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist: Kelly Freas, who did 5 out of 12 Analog covers in 1972. I also haven’t been doing a good job of pointing out all the interior art that’s included in these issues, but Freas also contributed a few interior pieces to Analog this year. Finalists included fellow Analog cover artists John Schoenherr and Jack Gaughan.
* Winner of the John W. Campbell (now called Astounding) Award for Best New Writer (given in 1973): Jerry Pournelle, and I’m listing this award here since he had additional works that qualified him for this award in Analog (5 additional short stories). However, Ruth Berman's "Stretch of Time" (October 1972) and Jesse Miller's "Pigeon City" (November 1972) also helped get their authors nominated for the Campbell Award.
December 11, 2024
George R. R. Martin kicks off his phenomenal career with “The Second Kind Of Loneliness”, where a lone monitor of the Cerberus Star Ring, a nullspace vortex used for interstellar travel, located six million miles beyond Pluto, is having a breakdown with catastrophic results. • The native intelligent species on Shima are shark-headed, skinny, clawed bipeds with high intelligence. Their only drawback is a cruelly short lifespan - about two Earth years. Earth has interdicted Shima fearing an explosive technological growth, but greedy entrepreneurs are now bartering immortality treatments with the Shima. “Original Sin” by Vernor Vinge is a sobering. reminder of just what humanity must look like to other creatures. Joe Allred’s “When I Was In Your Mind” starts out as a tale of psychic surgery but ends up being almost incomprehensible, and Clifford D. Simak continues his novel “Cemetery World”, where Fletcher Carson, now accompanied by Cynthia Lansing, who is seeking a mysterious treasure, instead finds a shocking truth. I have reviewed the novel version of this in detail elsewhere. “P.R.D. And The Antareans” is a gag story and a pretty feeble one at that. I’d expect better of a writer as talented as Miriam Allen deFord. Closing the issue is the much better “Pard” by F. Paul Wilson, where an observer for the Federation is tracking down an experimental brain from a crashed spaceship. Unfortunately it appears to have achieved sentience and is now being revered as a godling and providing guidance for the natives into higher technologies. OK issue.
May 31, 2023
A+ (outstanding):
Pard by F. Paul Wilson
A (excellent):
Cemetery World (pt 2 of 3) by Clifford D. Simak
B (very good):
When I Was in Your Mind by Joe Allred
C (average):
The Second Kind of Loneliness by George R.R. Martin
P.R.D. & the Antareans by Miriam Allen DeFord
Original Sin by Vernor Vinge
Pard by F. Paul Wilson
A (excellent):
Cemetery World (pt 2 of 3) by Clifford D. Simak
B (very good):
When I Was in Your Mind by Joe Allred
C (average):
The Second Kind of Loneliness by George R.R. Martin
P.R.D. & the Antareans by Miriam Allen DeFord
Original Sin by Vernor Vinge
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews