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Dream Quest, v. 1, issue 1, July 1947

Page 28

DREAM QUEST  28
of the ship -- the radiation shield. Radiation comes in, kills all aboard, and turns the records of the expedition, on microfilm, into an active Meson pile. Knowledge of our nearest stellar neighbors, which has become vitally necessary to civilization, is still not in our possession because of the frailties of human nature. Alas, alas.

And probably true. If no fast interstellar drives are developed, the human race will probably have to remain Sol-bound. For it would seem that the conclusions of the authors who maintain that lack of contact with Earth makes humans more or less members of a separate race, and no longer human, have a darned good chance of turning out to be true. 

This is one of Van Vogt's better stories. He has abandoned the air of general confusion and obscurity which permeated his great stories -- THE WEAPON MAKERS, WORLD OF A, etc. And this abandonment was no drawback to quality, by any means. All in all, CENTAURUS II is one of the better stories which has run across our attention in the past few months. Let us hope that A. E. continues in this new style and vein, and turns out many more yarns which you don't have to read a dozen times to understand.

LETTER TO ELLEN, by Chan Davis, is the first of the three shorts. It's about life-synthesis research, and the possible ethics involved in creating human life artificially. Probably Chan's best story to date, this little tale has a nice punch ending. Read it and see if you don't agree.

Raymond F. Jones contributes THE MODEL SHOP. Every engineering or research outfit has to have a model shop. This outfit's model shop began turning out ultra-super models, with utterly impossible features attached, and in lightning-quick time to boot. Finally it is discovered that traders from the future, trading in time, have lost one of their shipments, and that this shipment has ended up in the model shop. It is this mysterious shipment which has caused all the monkey business. Would have made an average quality SF short, had it not been for the slightly sob-storyish pulp ending, the heartrending wife-and-kids sort of crud. However, even as it is, the thing provides some interesting reading.

Best of the shorts, we think, is ERRAND BOY, by newcomer William Tenn, who may be Kuttner for all we know. He probably is. Anyway, the yarn concerns a plant foreman who hired an errand boy, and, as a practical joke, told him to, for his first errand, procure a can of green paint with orange polka dots. The guy comes back -- and brings back a can of green paint with only red polka dots -- he couldn't find any orange -- "hoping it will do, sir". The narrator -- high muckity-muck of the paint company in which the doings take place -- proceeds to investigate, and finds out that he has a boy from the future on his hands. From there on, the developments are more amusing than significant -- a fact which will no doubt lead many fans to dislike the 
***
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DREAM QUEST 28 of the ship -- the radiation shield. Radiation comes in, kills all aboard, and turns the records of the expedition, on microfilm, into an active Meson pile. Knowledge of our nearest stellar neighbors, which has become vitally necessary to civilization, is still not in our possession because of the frailties of human nature. Alas, alas. And probably true. If no fast interstellar drives are developed, the human race will probably have to remain Sol-bound. For it would seem that the conclusions of the authors who maintain that lack of contact with Earth makes humans more or less members of a separate race, and no longer human, have a darned good chance of turning out to be true. This is one of Van Vogt's better stories. He has abandoned the air of general confusion and obscurity which permeated his great stories -- THE WEAPON MAKERS, WORLD OF A, etc. And this abandonment was no drawback to quality, by any means. All in all, CENTAURUS II is one of the better stories which has run across our attention in the past few months. Let us hope that A. E. continues in this new style and vein, and turns out many more yarns which you don't have to read a dozen times to understand. LETTER TO ELLEN, by Chan Davis, is the first of the three shorts. It's about life-synthesis research, and the possible ethics involved in creating human life artificially. Probably Chan's best story to date, this little tale has a nice punch ending. Read it and see if you don't agree. Raymond F. Jones contributes THE MODEL SHOP. Every engineering or research outfit has to have a model shop. This outfit's model shop began turning out ultra-super models, with utterly impossible features attached, and in lightning-quick time to boot. Finally it is discovered that traders from the future, trading in time, have lost one of their shipments, and that this shipment has ended up in the model shop. It is this mysterious shipment which has caused all the monkey business. Would have made an average quality SF short, had it not been for the slightly sob-storyish pulp ending, the heartrending wife-and-kids sort of crud. However, even as it is, the thing provides some interesting reading. Best of the shorts, we think, is ERRAND BOY, by newcomer William Tenn, who may be Kuttner for all we know. He probably is. Anyway, the yarn concerns a plant foreman who hired an errand boy, and, as a practical joke, told him to, for his first errand, procure a can of green paint with orange polka dots. The guy comes back -- and brings back a can of green paint with only red polka dots -- he couldn't find any orange -- "hoping it will do, sir". The narrator -- high muckity-muck of the paint company in which the doings take place -- proceeds to investigate, and finds out that he has a boy from the future on his hands. From there on, the developments are more amusing than significant -- a fact which will no doubt lead many fans to dislike the *** If you don't like these prozine reviews, hasten to tell us why! ...