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

Page 32

DREAM QUEST 32
fare. I am not saying that the publication isn't worth 35c; I am merely saying that pulp readers will think twice about paying that much. For another thing, Wollheim is again guilty of the evil he committed in the Portable Novels -- the evil of knuckling too much to the Polite Established Literature set. The guy is no doubt trying to favorably impress the critics. However, we think the era when "pulp" spelled "bad" is ending; articles on stf in slick after slick, Heinlein in the Post, the two anthologies of last year, all have proved that. We don't think DAW has to put on so much of a show. For after all, he was the editor of two pulp detectives, of the pulpiest pulp tradition, before he went to work for Aven; he could at least be consistent. ## Maybe we are wrong, however; we sure hope so. DAW may be able to make it a go if he gets a select following, like UNKNOWN did -- this seems entirely likely, considering what that mag did in its lamented existence. At any rate, the jinx is broken at last; now maybe the flood of postwar proz will begin. Maybe we shall see some revivals, even. And at least the year 1947 and Aven shall have contributed something unique to the fantasy field, and something that we think fandom will remember for quite a while.
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FAMOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES  Vol. 8 #5, June 1947. 25c

The newest issue of the Reprint Collector's home companion leads off with a novel called "The People of the Ruins," by Edward Shanks. Also in the issue is E. F. Benson's short, "Caterpillars," from THE ROOM IN THE TOWER, which was reprinted in GREAT TALES OF TERROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL, the Random House anthology edited by Wise and Fraser and "The Reader's Viewpoint". ((Bad sentence, hey?))

THE PEOPLE OF THE RUINS IS, as its title suggests, another contribution to the apparently endless end-of-civilization saga which FFM has subjected us to in the past few months. We are beginning to wonder just how long this "Beginning and the End" business can go on. It has to stop sometime -- the editors have just got to quit deluging us with end of the world novels, prehistoric novels, and Tales of Spectral Terror. The supply of such items has to run out some time, unless they begin translations from other languages, including the Scandinavian. Anyway, the means by which world breakdown is accomplished in THE PEOPLE OF THE RUINS is different than the usual. Before, we have seen used wars, the breakdown of metals, plague, the reverting of mankind to apes, anarchy, the spiraling of the earth into the sun, the reverting of man's mind to boyhood, and Great Daughtery knows how many others. In this novel we are treated to a version in which labor unrest is the cause of the whole thing. It seems that one Jeremy Tuft, young London physics professor and veteran of World War I, wakes up one morning to find his maid, the lorrie drivers, the newspaper, and all of Britain out on strike. He then travels over to Whitechapel to consult with an inventor friend of his; while there he is shown a

SUBSCRIBE NOW TO DREAM QUEST, FANZINE EXTRAORDINARY! THIRTEEN FOR $1.

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DREAM QUEST 32 fare. I am not saying that the publication isn't worth 35c; I am merely saying that pulp readers will think twice about paying that much. For another thing, Wollheim is again guilty of the evil he committed in the Portable Novels -- the evil of knuckling too much to the Polite Established Literature set. The guy is no doubt trying to favorably impress the critics. However, we think the era when "pulp" spelled "bad" is ending; articles on stf in slick after slick, Heinlein in the Post, the two anthologies of last year, all have proved that. We don't think DAW has to put on so much of a show. For after all, he was the editor of two pulp detectives, of the pulpiest pulp tradition, before he went to work for Aven; he could at least be consistent. ## Maybe we are wrong, however; we sure hope so. DAW may be able to make it a go if he gets a select following, like UNKNOWN did -- this seems entirely likely, considering what that mag did in its lamented existence. At any rate, the jinx is broken at last; now maybe the flood of postwar proz will begin. Maybe we shall see some revivals, even. And at least the year 1947 and Aven shall have contributed something unique to the fantasy field, and something that we think fandom will remember for quite a while. ############### FAMOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES Vol. 8 #5, June 1947. 25c The newest issue of the Reprint Collector's home companion leads off with a novel called "The People of the Ruins," by Edward Shanks. Also in the issue is E. F. Benson's short, "Caterpillars," from THE ROOM IN THE TOWER, which was reprinted in GREAT TALES OF TERROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL, the Random House anthology edited by Wise and Fraser and "The Reader's Viewpoint". ((Bad sentence, hey?)) THE PEOPLE OF THE RUINS IS, as its title suggests, another contribution to the apparently endless end-of-civilization saga which FFM has subjected us to in the past few months. We are beginning to wonder just how long this "Beginning and the End" business can go on. It has to stop sometime -- the editors have just got to quit deluging us with end of the world novels, prehistoric novels, and Tales of Spectral Terror. The supply of such items has to run out some time, unless they begin translations from other languages, including the Scandinavian. Anyway, the means by which world breakdown is accomplished in THE PEOPLE OF THE RUINS is different than the usual. Before, we have seen used wars, the breakdown of metals, plague, the reverting of mankind to apes, anarchy, the spiraling of the earth into the sun, the reverting of man's mind to boyhood, and Great Daughtery knows how many others. In this novel we are treated to a version in which labor unrest is the cause of the whole thing. It seems that one Jeremy Tuft, young London physics professor and veteran of World War I, wakes up one morning to find his maid, the lorrie drivers, the newspaper, and all of Britain out on strike. He then travels over to Whitechapel to consult with an inventor friend of his; while there he is shown a SUBSCRIBE NOW TO DREAM QUEST, FANZINE EXTRAORDINARY! THIRTEEN FOR $1.