I've had a special place in my heart for Galaxy ever since I listened to old episodes of X-Minus One with my dad as a kid. The show dramatized great stories "from the pages of Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, Edited by H. L. Gold" and I always wanted to have copies of that magazine in my hand. Well, I finally have a few, and this is the first one I read. October, 1957; it's jam packed with SF goodness.
Wolfbane, Part 1 of 2 by Frederick Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth
The story started out extremely slow. I wasn't sure I was going to like it at all. I felt lost for the first 1/4 or so. Eventually the setting became clearer, the characters and their motivations became clearer, and the story started to get really good. The story is really about the two extremes of humanity. The extreme apathetic part, that in a situation where survival seams hopeless will give up and view struggle as a waste. The other extreme is the pure survivalist, the person that takes what they want, who needs to get an advantage over other people in all situations.
The story sets this up by first creating a world where some mysterious, unknown alien force has taken the Earth and Moon out of the orbit of the sun, so far that the sun is no longer close enough to provide warmth. To solve this, the aliens have lit the Moon as a replacement sun, but this new sun dies every 5 years and must be lit again.
At first the story focuses on a cult that thinks it obscene to struggle. Their society is on a strict 1,000 calorie diet, and any waste of movement is wrong. To walk at a normal pace, and not at the proscribed shuffle is disgusting. Physical touching beyond strictly described social norms is unacceptable. There are 17 gestures one must make during a meal.
People that don't follow the rules are called "Sons of the Wolf" or "Wolves". These people are killed by having their spinal fluid drained, then drank in a pompous ceremony.
Later the story shows the society of the Wolves. These people, instead of giving up and barely surviving, have set up permanent cities. They have harnessed the old technology and rebuilt machines. They have working agriculture and live on much more food. Their bodies are stronger. They are also trying to find out whatever they can about the aliens that moved the Earth, so that eventually they can kill them.
As a serial, it ends on a cliffhanger. I'm eager to see how it ends.
|Characters:4|Prose:3.5|Story:4|Ending:4|Enjoyment:4|
|Overall:3.9|
Share Alike by Daniel F. Galouye:
A fairly funny story, with a fairly interesting science element. The science element is that on a colony world, living space is tight, so to make room people are shifted into higher or lower plains of existence after working hours and share living spaces. People that share living space work different shifts so that when one person is working the other is off work in the living space, because while their body and clothes have been shifted to a higher or lower plane, the rest of the living space is in the middle and shared between the two.
The plot of the story is that the main character, a woman, has been 'accidentally' paired with someone who lives on the B shift but works on the A shift so they are always living in the room at the same time and it's driving her crazy.
The story is definitely a 50s storyline, and is pretty funny. But there's not much to it beyond that. It would never be published today, but then it probably wouldn't be written today either. I found it enjoyable, but not great.
|Characters:3|Prose:3|Story:3.5|Ending:3|Enjoyment:3.5|
|Overall:3.2|
Double Indemnity by Robert Sheckley
A great story of time travel and greed.
Everett Barthold has an idea to get rich. It involves an insurance policy with double indemnity and faking a time travel accident. But how far will his greed take him?
The time travel mechanic is interesting in this story. At the time where Everett lives, everyone has access to time travel, but it is regulated by the government. To prevent accidents from occurring, it is illegal to go more than 1,000 years into the past or future. There are also certain 'Paradox Points' that are off limits, though these aren't specified in the story.
Double Indemnity in the Time Travel parlance, means coming back to Present Time with a mirror copy of yourself.
Robert Sheckley never disappoints. He is an under appreciated classic SF author.
|Characters:4.5|Prose:4|Story:4.5|Ending:5|Enjoyment:5|
|Overall:4.6|
Robots Are Nice? by Gordon R. Dickson
Very fun story that has smart robots trying to take over the world. Reading the description of robo-appliances taking voice commands and spying on the users from today's perspective, really makes one think of the rise of smart home electronics. The ending of this story was delightful.
|Characters:3.5| Prose:3.5|Story:4.5|Ending:5|Enjoyment:5|
|Overall:4.3|
Ideas Die Hard by Isaac Asimov
Two men are embarking on the first manned flyby of the moon. No robotic probes have survived previous attempts. In the cramped spaceship, the spacemen talk. A decent story with good payoff. Fun read, though not one of the best Asimov stories.
|Characters:3.5|Prose:3.5|Story:4|Ending:4.5|Enjoyment:4.5|
|Overall:4|
In addition the fiction there was the monthly non-fiction column by Willy Ley. This month he wrote a fascinating look at the history of the Dodo. This first went over the history of the Mascarene Islands; how they were first discovered, used, etc. Then it went over the discovery of the Dodo itself, and focused on the Dodo on Mauritius Island. I groaned on hearing all the unfortunate losses that occurred from the 1600-1800s. This is the first of 2 parts on the Dodo, the next part will go over the Dodo on the other 2 of the Mascarene Islands.
I'd say that was a pretty good issue. None of the stories were under a 3 by my scale, and Double Indemnity was really quite good. Robots Are Nice? was interesting to read in our modern age of "smart home" devices that spy on us 24/7.
