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Dream Quest, v. 1, issue 1, July 1947
Page 37
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DREAM QUEST 37 the poor customers' fingers. I just finished reading FA, as this review is written. A couple of the fingers of my right hand are smudged with blue. It is a new shade which I shall call "Ziff-Davis Blue". Aside from this, FA manages to remain consistently entertaining, if not too superlative along the deep thought line; it remains consistently a relief after too much technical jargon, end-of-civilization blues, and ghastly horror, if three other editors get what I mean... --------------------------- PLANET STORIES Vol. III, #8; Fall issue, June-August 1947. 20c This number has "two mighty novels of worlds at aby" featured, and in addition "eight thrilling short stories". And two features, the Vizigraph and the Feature Flash, as always. First of the two novels is by Emmett McDowell, and is called -- believe it or not -- BLACK SILENCE. This is the man who wrote RED WITCH OF MERCURY, THE BLUE VENUS, BEYOND THE YELLOW FOG, THE GREAT GREEN BLIGHT...this has gone on too long to be coincidence. It must be intentional. At any rate, it can't go on forever -- there are only a certain number of colors in the spectrum. We wonder what the next one will be -- somebody has suggested "Purple Prince of Pluto." There's always THE MAROON MARTIAN, or THE BEIGE BEM...in BLACK SILENCE, a Mars expedition returns to good ole Terra and finds civilization wiped out. A plague, which was borne to Earth on the light rays of a nova in Centaurus, took root and doomed all mankind. For some reason, the animals apparently weren't affected at first. A few women are found wandering around in nomadic herds; there are two men in the 300-woman crowd which the spacemen stumble upon. Women were less susceptible to the plague. Well, it turns out that the plague germs were life spores of silicon life. They rapidly evolve in the way in which the first carbon life spores did when they first landed on Earth -- we wonder what type of life the first carbon spores caused to die of what kind of plague -- and soon begin to force carbon life out of existence. Whereupon mankind's struggle to save himself, his plants, etc. from extinction is told of; a citadel is constructed out of some Army fort ("New Fort Knox," I believe it was called) and plans are made for a super-city to sometime be erected, built of an aluminium compound. Outside, the last of carbon life kicks off. Frankly we were surprised by the quality of this yarn. It was better than "Veiled Island," which McDowell sold to ASF some time back. If VI was good enough for JWC, this should have been too. Aside from a few rather formulized and hackneyed passages, the yarn is written in a quite realistic manner. One does not usually expect realism in a newsstand magazine like PS, so when it's found it is a pleasant surprise. Writing and characterization are up to snuff, especially characterization. And wait till you read the ending. All in all, we'd say that BLACK SILENCE is one of the best yarns PS has run. LET'S MAKE THIS MAG TAKE UP WHERE STFIST LEFT OFF! Send serious stuff!
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DREAM QUEST 37 the poor customers' fingers. I just finished reading FA, as this review is written. A couple of the fingers of my right hand are smudged with blue. It is a new shade which I shall call "Ziff-Davis Blue". Aside from this, FA manages to remain consistently entertaining, if not too superlative along the deep thought line; it remains consistently a relief after too much technical jargon, end-of-civilization blues, and ghastly horror, if three other editors get what I mean... --------------------------- PLANET STORIES Vol. III, #8; Fall issue, June-August 1947. 20c This number has "two mighty novels of worlds at aby" featured, and in addition "eight thrilling short stories". And two features, the Vizigraph and the Feature Flash, as always. First of the two novels is by Emmett McDowell, and is called -- believe it or not -- BLACK SILENCE. This is the man who wrote RED WITCH OF MERCURY, THE BLUE VENUS, BEYOND THE YELLOW FOG, THE GREAT GREEN BLIGHT...this has gone on too long to be coincidence. It must be intentional. At any rate, it can't go on forever -- there are only a certain number of colors in the spectrum. We wonder what the next one will be -- somebody has suggested "Purple Prince of Pluto." There's always THE MAROON MARTIAN, or THE BEIGE BEM...in BLACK SILENCE, a Mars expedition returns to good ole Terra and finds civilization wiped out. A plague, which was borne to Earth on the light rays of a nova in Centaurus, took root and doomed all mankind. For some reason, the animals apparently weren't affected at first. A few women are found wandering around in nomadic herds; there are two men in the 300-woman crowd which the spacemen stumble upon. Women were less susceptible to the plague. Well, it turns out that the plague germs were life spores of silicon life. They rapidly evolve in the way in which the first carbon life spores did when they first landed on Earth -- we wonder what type of life the first carbon spores caused to die of what kind of plague -- and soon begin to force carbon life out of existence. Whereupon mankind's struggle to save himself, his plants, etc. from extinction is told of; a citadel is constructed out of some Army fort ("New Fort Knox," I believe it was called) and plans are made for a super-city to sometime be erected, built of an aluminium compound. Outside, the last of carbon life kicks off. Frankly we were surprised by the quality of this yarn. It was better than "Veiled Island," which McDowell sold to ASF some time back. If VI was good enough for JWC, this should have been too. Aside from a few rather formulized and hackneyed passages, the yarn is written in a quite realistic manner. One does not usually expect realism in a newsstand magazine like PS, so when it's found it is a pleasant surprise. Writing and characterization are up to snuff, especially characterization. And wait till you read the ending. All in all, we'd say that BLACK SILENCE is one of the best yarns PS has run. LET'S MAKE THIS MAG TAKE UP WHERE STFIST LEFT OFF! Send serious stuff!
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