Galaxy Science Fiction, Vol. 13, No. 2, December 1956

by H.L. Gold

Wax & Wane • essay by H. L. Gold
The Native Problem • novelette by Robert Sheckley
Of All Possible Worlds • shortstory by William Tenn (aka It Ends with a Flicker)
For Your Information: Tracking Down the "Sea Serpent" - Part I • essay by Willy Ley
Rattle OK • novelette by Harry Warner, Jr.
You Go • shortstory by E. C. Tubb
The Stars My Destination (Part 3 of 4) • serial by Alfred Bester

Genres: Science Fiction

148 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1956

About the author

Horace Leonard Gold was a science fiction writer and editor most noted for bringing an innovative and fresh approach to science fiction while he was the editor of Galaxy Science Fiction, and also wrote briefly for DC Comics. Born in Canada, Gold moved to the United States at the age of two. He also published under the pseudonyms Clyde Crane Campbell, Dudley Dell, Christopher Grimm, and Leigh Keith.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

CONTENTS


◾FICTION:

▪️"The Native Problem" - Robert Sheckley
▪️"Of All Possible Worlds" - William Tenn
▪️"Rattle OK" - Harry Warner, Jr.
▪️"You Go" - E. C. Tubb
▪️The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester [Serial: Part 3 of 4]


◾Non-fiction:

▪️"Science Department: 'For Your Information (Tracking Down the "Sea Serpent" - Part 1)' " - Willy Ley
▪️"Editor's Page: 'Wax & Wane' " - H. L. Gold
▪️"Galaxy's Five Star Shelf" - Floyd C. Gale


This is an uncommonly entertaining issue of Galaxy. Not only is all the fiction good, the science column and the editorial are as well.


The major work of fiction here is part three of the four part serialization of Alfred Bester's novel, The Stars My Destination, one of the most acclaimed science fiction novels of the 1950's. My chief reservation about TSMD is the treatment of the female characters, especially in a violent rape committed by the male protagonist. There is no question, however, that Bester wrote prose of a much higher quality than many of the other science fiction authors of that period.

Harry Warner, Jr. is principally remembered for his work in science fiction fandom, including his authorship of the fan histories All Our Yesterdays and the Hugo Award-winning A Wealth of Fable. "Rattle OK" tells of a department store in the future discovering several unfilled orders from a present-day (in 1956) family and deciding to fill the orders with the aid of time travel. Unfortunately, that decision was made when the future department store staff were all very drunk.

Time travel is also at the center of William Tenn's story "Of All Possible Worlds." Someone must travel back in time to try to undo the action that rendered almost all human males sterile. Then someone must travel back in time to try to undo the action that led to worldwide famine. Then someone must travel back in time to try to undo the action that rendered almost all human males sterile. Then someone must travel back in time to try to undo the action that led to worldwide famine. Then someone must...

Resolving time paradoxes can be tough.

Of course, not all paradoxes are time paradoxes. In "You Go," E. C. Tubb has the two men who make up a gas station's night staff discussing other paradoxes, such as the famous "Achilles and the tortoise" race. And what about things that show up unclaimed at lost and found offices? False teeth, for example.

"How can a man lose his false teeth? They aren't something you carry around in your hand or loose in a pocket...And yet you'd be surprised at the number of dentures handed in to every lost and found office every week."

And what about people? Twelve thousand people in the United States (in 1956) vanish every year. Where do they go?

This really isn't science fiction, but it is a good story.

In Robert Sheckley's story "The Native Problem.," a young, somewhat anti-social man from Earth has decided to move to an otherwise uninhabited planet. As time goes by, he begins to miss people. And not just "people" in general.

He found again that he was thinking of women at all hours of the day and night - tall women, short women, white women, black women, brown women.

And then, a spaceship, "The Hutter People," arrives at the planet. He is no longer alone. Now there are the folks from the ship as well as the people they regard as the natives - him.

This is Sheckley at the top of his form. How can you convince folks that you are not a wily, scheming native but a man from Earth? And how can you convince folks that there aren't whole tribes of others natives just waiting to cause trouble?

(This is of limited relevance, but I think that "The Hutter People" was probably a reference to the Hutterites. The following is from Wikipedia:

The founder of the Hutterites, Jakob Hutter, "established the Hutterite colonies on the basis of the Schleitheim Confession, a classic Anabaptist statement of faith", with the first communes being formed in 1528. Since the death of their eponym Jakob Hutter in 1536, the beliefs of the Hutterites, especially living in a community of goods and absolute pacifism, have resulted in hundreds of years of diaspora in many countries. They embarked on a series of migrations through central and eastern Europe. Nearly extinct by the 18th and 19th centuries, the Hutterites found a new home in North America. Over 130 years, their population recovered from 400 to around 45,000. Today, most Hutterites live in Western Canada and the upper Great Plains of the United States.)

H. L. Gold's editorial has a common theme with E. C. Tubb's "You Go":

You can tag your socks like migratory birds or staple them together, but however carefully you handle them, you will invariably wind up with a handful (or drawerful) of single socks.

There is no known way of keeping your stock of handkerchiefs from steadily dwindling.

When you break a shoe lace, the ones in the drawer will always be the wrong size and color.

This is all absolutely true. I was once in charge of the problem of lost articles at a large hospital. Not only do things disappear, but they also multiply. If you leave a pen behind when you are discharged from a hospital, that is no big deal; you probably have plenty more at home. But there were literally dozens of canes left at the hospital. Canes can be expensive. Were those patients all totally cured and no longer in need of a cane?

I suspect that these mysteries also led to somebody finding a Hugo Award, since this topic is the theme of Avram Davidson's Hugo-winning story "Or All the Seas with Oysters" (Galaxy Science Fiction, May, 1958).

In this issue's book review column, "Galaxy's Five Star Shelf" (a title that made much more sense when the books were still given star ratings), Floyd C. Gale reviews only non-fiction. Gale states, "It seems to me that today's releases, aimed at the lay market, are of high interest and digestibility."

Willy Ley's science column, part one of the two-part "Tracking Down the 'Sea Serpent,' " is excellent.

I want to make an additional note about the quote above from "The Native Problem" referring to women. Editor H. L. Gold, the publisher Galaxy Publishing Corporation, and the story's author Robert Sheckley all deserved credit, now over sixty years late, for allowing the protagonist to obsess about "white women, black women, brown women." Galaxy also occasionally ran illustrations that included people of color even when that was not specified in the text. I could be wrong, but I don't think these would have appeared in Astounding.

And speaking of illustrations, I don't like most of Ed Emshwiller's work for this part of The Stars My Destination, I think Jack Gaughan's picture for "You Go" is very poor, but Virgil Finlay' s illustrations for "The Native Problem" and (especially) "Rattle OK" are fine. Finlay's cover, used later as the cover of a collection of Finlay's art, is very nice.