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

Page 38

The other "novel" is by Erik Fennel, who wrote "Atavism" a few issues back, and is dubbed "Beneath the Red World's Crust." Regardless of what the title might lead you to expect, this is not a dero story. It's a thud-and-blunder space opera of Mars, and it reminded us somewhat of "Shadow Over Mars," Leigh Brackett's novel in a long-time-ago SS which you will no doubt remember. Fennel's piece is a tale about a young man and a group of undergrounders, together with the last of the Martian civilization, gighting the earth's Exploitation company. It's well written, good as space operas go. Typical Planet material.

The shorts look something like this: CRASH BEAM, by John Barrett is about how a control tower man outwitted some crook who was causing ships to crash by raying them; neatly done, but it'll not be remembered long...ZERO HOUR, by Ray Bradbury, which deserves a longer note. The editor's blurb says: "PLANET STORIES proudly presents one of the best science fiction stories we have ever seen. Perhaps you will think it THE best." Well, that is overly extravagant, even for an editor. ZERO HOUR is almost exactly a duplicate of CALL HIM DEMON, Kuttner's TWS tale which won #5 place among last year's yarns. The kids this time are instruments of a Martian invasion. However, if it had not been rehash, ZH would have been a topnotcher; it's written with the usual Bradbury skill, and even as it is it's worthy of your perusal, we think...ASTEROID JUSTICE is by V. E. Theissen, and is a not-too-well-written space opera about asteroid miners and their peculiar brand of justice...AGAINST TETRARCH is a very poor man's VASSALS OF THE MASTER WORLD. The tetrarch enslaved Earth, and the humans on the planet Tetrarch are trying to break their bondage. Naturally they succeed. Another very unsensational story...ASSIGNMENT IN THE DAWN, by Bryce Walton, is an off trail and somewhat dizzying little thing about a couple of mutants' efforts to destroy the culture of humanity. It ends on a note of futility. Too many stories of that type will warp the readers' brains. All in all, AITD is one of the most unusual and maddening items we've seen in quite a while. Frankly, we don't know how to rate it; you'll have to decide for yourself...TEST FOR THE PEARL is another of those things about how the primitive Venusian natives outwit the greedy Earthman. It's by Vaseleos Garson...fan Bill Oberfield crashes PS with "Escape from Pluto." A crooked earthman named Marcius Kemble is exiled to Pluto. The Plutonians set him free in a space ship which actually turns out to be super-cooled mercury, and returns to its liquid state upon reaching warmer regions closer to the sun than Pluto. Whereupon Kemble falls into the sun. Aside from the fact that we have always been told that any body dropped toward the sun from space will take up an orbit around that luminary and not fall right in, the yarn is okay. And Kemble would have fizzled in any case...J. Harvey Haggard, oldtimer, returns with GIRL OF THE SILVER SPHERE, which is something like THE DIAMOND LENS except that Earth is under the lens and it's a galactic superbeing who falls for his beautiful Animula. It was okay, we suppose.
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The other "novel" is by Erik Fennel, who wrote "Atavism" a few issues back, and is dubbed "Beneath the Red World's Crust." Regardless of what the title might lead you to expect, this is not a dero story. It's a thud-and-blunder space opera of Mars, and it reminded us somewhat of "Shadow Over Mars," Leigh Brackett's novel in a long-time-ago SS which you will no doubt remember. Fennel's piece is a tale about a young man and a group of undergrounders, together with the last of the Martian civilization, gighting the earth's Exploitation company. It's well written, good as space operas go. Typical Planet material. The shorts look something like this: CRASH BEAM, by John Barrett is about how a control tower man outwitted some crook who was causing ships to crash by raying them; neatly done, but it'll not be remembered long...ZERO HOUR, by Ray Bradbury, which deserves a longer note. The editor's blurb says: "PLANET STORIES proudly presents one of the best science fiction stories we have ever seen. Perhaps you will think it THE best." Well, that is overly extravagant, even for an editor. ZERO HOUR is almost exactly a duplicate of CALL HIM DEMON, Kuttner's TWS tale which won #5 place among last year's yarns. The kids this time are instruments of a Martian invasion. However, if it had not been rehash, ZH would have been a topnotcher; it's written with the usual Bradbury skill, and even as it is it's worthy of your perusal, we think...ASTEROID JUSTICE is by V. E. Theissen, and is a not-too-well-written space opera about asteroid miners and their peculiar brand of justice...AGAINST TETRARCH is a very poor man's VASSALS OF THE MASTER WORLD. The tetrarch enslaved Earth, and the humans on the planet Tetrarch are trying to break their bondage. Naturally they succeed. Another very unsensational story...ASSIGNMENT IN THE DAWN, by Bryce Walton, is an off trail and somewhat dizzying little thing about a couple of mutants' efforts to destroy the culture of humanity. It ends on a note of futility. Too many stories of that type will warp the readers' brains. All in all, AITD is one of the most unusual and maddening items we've seen in quite a while. Frankly, we don't know how to rate it; you'll have to decide for yourself...TEST FOR THE PEARL is another of those things about how the primitive Venusian natives outwit the greedy Earthman. It's by Vaseleos Garson...fan Bill Oberfield crashes PS with "Escape from Pluto." A crooked earthman named Marcius Kemble is exiled to Pluto. The Plutonians set him free in a space ship which actually turns out to be super-cooled mercury, and returns to its liquid state upon reaching warmer regions closer to the sun than Pluto. Whereupon Kemble falls into the sun. Aside from the fact that we have always been told that any body dropped toward the sun from space will take up an orbit around that luminary and not fall right in, the yarn is okay. And Kemble would have fizzled in any case...J. Harvey Haggard, oldtimer, returns with GIRL OF THE SILVER SPHERE, which is something like THE DIAMOND LENS except that Earth is under the lens and it's a galactic superbeing who falls for his beautiful Animula. It was okay, we suppose. -------------------------- WANTED material. Articles, fiction, poems, artwork. Reviews, humor,.