Sunday, May 4, 2014

Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, July 1976


A pretty bad issue. The first story was sort of okay, Schmidt’s story was kind of readable, the other two were bad.


Tricentennial • shortstory by Joe Haldeman
A story about space exploration and human history. A ship is sent for a test drive, but the passengers hijack it and aim for starts. A lot of political wrangling is needed even before the ship is sent. I wonder why a space ship in 2076 would be named to honor people important from the perspective of 1976? Not everything goes smoothly – not on the ship, and not on earth. Somewhat "outline style" of story where things are mainly described. ***+
Fly • shortstory by Mal Warwick
A story that aims for beautiful and poetic language and succeeds so well, that I didn’t really understand much. The story deals with a church, spaceship and love - apparently. **-
His Loyal Opposition • novelette by Stanley Schmidt
Continues an earlier story (which I haven’t read). Aliens (or space faring humans) have apparently visited a medieval planet and left behind a floating ship. A violent tribe might soon attack, and those ships just might save the day. Then a member of the enemy tribe apparently defects. Could he be trusted? There wasn’t much real sf content in this story. It was readable, but not really anything special. ***-
Dolls' Demise • shortstory by George Guthridge
A short shaggy dog style of story with a stupid "point". Unfunny and really, really stupid. *

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