Fantastic Worlds So Far (Aug 2012)

Fantastic Worlds So Far (Late Aug 2012)

This is a by-topic linked table of contents for Fantastic Worlds.  "PG" = "Project Gutenberg."  In a few cases a post includes both a story reprint and a story review, and such are listed twice:  once under each category.

Introduction

"Entering Some Fantastic Worlds" (Jordan S. Bassior, Jan 23rd 2011)
Introduction and mission statement for the blogzine.

Stories, Retro Reprints (public domain)

"A Primer of Imaginary Geography" (1896) by Brander Matthews (May 5th, 2011)
All aboard the Flying Dutchman to sail the seas of fantasy!

"The Man Who Found Out" (1912) by Algernon Blackwood (Jul 17th, 2012)
And the Truth shall enslave you ...  Review run separately.

 "Spawn of the Stars"  (1930) by Charles Willard Diffin (Mar 1st 2011 from Astounding Stories February 1930 via PG)
A forgotten masterpiece of alien-invasion air-war science fiction.  Review run separately.

"The Cosmic Express" (1930) by Jack Williamson (Feb 1st 2011 from Amazing Stories November 1930 via PG)
The seminal story which inspired the Star Trek "transporter."  Review run separately.

"The Death's Head Meteor" (1930) by Neil R. Jones (Aug 20th 2012)
A 26th-century astronaut nearly gets killed near Mars, trying to assay a meteor.  Review run separately.

"The Meteor Girl" (1931) by Jack Williamson (Apr 21st 2011 from Astounding Stories March 1931 via PG)
We find out what Einstein is good for in an early application of relativity to the time travel story.

"An Adventure in Futurity" (1931) by Clark Ashton Smith (Apr 13th 2011 from Wonder Stories April 1931 via Eldritch Dark)
Befriended by a time traveler, a man from the present is taken to a future world in desperate danger!  Review included with story post.

"The Jameson Satellite" (1931) by Neil R. Jones
After he has his corpse put in orbit, a scientist is resurrected by and becomes part of a cyborg race of space explorers.  Review run separately. 

"Out Around Rigel" (1931) by Robert H. Wilson

Two scions of an ancient Lunarian civilization fly the first ship to the stars!  Review run separately.

"A Scientist Rises" (1932) by D. W. Hall (May 22nd 2011, from Astounding Stories November 1932 via PG)
A noble scientist invents a means of matter expansion, and realizes that Man is Not Yet Ready For It and that there is only one way to keep the secret.  Review included with story.

"The Eternal Wall" (1942) by Raymond Z. Gallun (Apr 6th, 2011 from Amazing Stories November 1942 via PG)
A modern man is resurrected in a posthuman future Earth.  Review run separately.

"All Cats Are Gray" (1953) by Andre Norton (May 14th, 2011 from Fantastic Universe, August-September 1953 via PG)
A highly-intelligent, but slightly-handicapped female librarian becomes a bold space adventurer.  Review included in post.

"Song in a Minor Key" (1957) by Catherine L. Moore (May 15th, 2011 from Fantastic Universe, January 1957 via PG)
A quiet vignette about Northwest Smith contemplating how he came into his outlaw life.  Review included.

Stories, Original or Authorized Reprints (copyrights by authors)

"Reflections on a Reign" (Jordan S. Bassior, Jan 25th 2011, earlier version (c) 2009)
Alternate-history vignette about Tsar Nicholas II.

"Like Father, Like Son" (Jordan S. Bassior, Feb 20th 2011, earlier version (c) 2006)
What will the child of our mind be like?

"The Fall of Oz" (Jordan S. Bassior, Feb 20th 2011, originally (c) 2006)
Humorous (?) science-fantasy.  Any resemblance to reality is purely intentional.

Poetry, Original or Authorized Reprints (copyrights by authors)

"To a Fallen Hero" (Jordan S. Bassior, Feb 20th 2011, originally (c) 2006, copyright given to The Gorilla Foundation)
Not all heroes are of our species.  Includes my commentary.

"Giants in Twilight" (Jordan S. Bassior, Feb 25th 2011, originally (c) 2006)
Not all nonhuman sapients are primates.

"The Star-Rover" (Yael R. Dragwyla, Feb 21st 2011, originally (c) 1984, 1997)
An archetype.

"Tyrannosaurus Regina" (Yael R. Dragwyla, Mar 14th 2011)
What would she think?

 Essays

Fandom

"Why I Am NOT Into Group Identity Based Anthologies" (Jordan S. Bassior, Jul 30th 2011)
They tend to result in inferior story selection, and here's the reason for this tendency.

Fantastic History

"Historical Cycles and the Anachronism Argument as Applicable to Space Opera" (Jordan S. Basssior, Jan 26th 2011)
Are feudalism or imperialism really all that improbable for our futures?

"How To Make a Family Conspiracy Theory" (Jordan S. Bassior, Feb 21st 2011)
For the fun and profit of anyone who wants to write paranoid history or historical speculative fiction.

Fantastic Magic

"Why Magic Has To Make Sense" (Jordan S. Bassior, Jun 21st 2012)
The reason why even the most fantastic things in a tale must be at least internally consistent.

Fantastic Military

"Weapons Technology of the Future" (Jordan S. Bassior, Feb 25th 2011, originally (c) 2000, 2006 and 2010)
Some speculations regarding the capabilities of the weapons of 100, 200 and 500 years from now.

"Natural Boundaries for Spacefaring Civilizations" (Jordan S. Bassior, Jun 17th 2012)
How the technology of space war would draw natural boundaries in space at various levels of technology.

Fantastic Societies

"Lone Adventurers versus Leaders in Space Opera" (Jordan S. Bassior, Mar 22nd 2011, originally (c) 2007)"
The tendency for protagonists to become increasingly alienated from their societies in later space opera, and its implications for plot.

"Generational Social Variance in Future Histories:  Sexual Mores of the American Mandate" (Jordan S. Bassior, Aug 9th 2011)
A discussion of the cyclical nature of societal change, and an example of how to chart a societal change from one of my own storyverses.

Fantastic Technology

"Milespires and the Rebirth of the Environment" (Jordan S. Bassior, Mar 6th 2011, originally (c) 2007)
Could arcologies lead to a better relationship between Man and Nature?

"The Ratchet Effect" (Jordan S. Bassior, May 9th 2011, originally (c) 2010)
Why technological progress and the expansion of Man's habitat is irreversible.

Mundane SF

"Why Many SF Fans No Longer Believe in Atomic Energy or Space Colonization" (Jordan S. Bassior, Feb 27th 2011, originally (c) 2007)
Why have so many lost the dreams which originally inspired science fiction?

"The Fear of Boundlessness:  Explanation for the Mundane SF Movement" (Jordan S. Bassior , Jan 27th 2011)
Why do some science-fiction writers want to turn their backs on the rest of the Universe?

"The Promise of Boundlessness" (Jordan S. Bassior, Apr 6th 2011)
The truth with which both traditional human cultures and Mundane SF Movements is unable to deal.

"Selective Science for Mundane Fiction" (Jordan S. Bassior, Apr 14th 2011)
Are the assumptions upon which Mundane SF is based really all that "scientific?"

"Damon Knight and the Conceptual Ancestry of the Mundane SF Movement" (Jordan S. Bassior, May 16th 2011)
An eye-opening essay from 1972 reveals one of the origins of the spirit behind Mundane SF.

Science

"The Richness of Our Solar System" (Jordan S. Bassior, Mar 30th 2011)
There are many worlds to colonize in our star system alone.

Super Powers

"Metahumans as Ultimate Weapons" (Jordan S. Bassior, Mar 15th 2011, originally (c) 2007)
Superhumans in warfare.

"How Superpowered People Would Change the World" (Jordan S. Bassior, Mar 21st 2011, originally (c) 1993, 2007)
Why and how the existence of metahumans would deeply change society.

Western Animation

"Spirit Animal Helpers to the Heroines in Western Animation" (Jordan S. Bassior, Aug 6th 2012)

Worlds For Man

"Part 0 - Sol" (Jordan S. Bassior, Mar 26th 2011, originally (c) 2007)
The largest world of the Solar System, and how it might be exploited by Man.

"Part 1 - Mercury" (Jordan S. Bassior, Apr 3rd 2011, originally (c) 2007)
Small, dense and hot -- and chock-full of valuable metals for mining.

"Part 2 - Venus" (Jordan S. Bassior, Apr 4th 2011, originally (c) 2007)
How Man might tame Terra's torrid twin.

Reviews

Universes

"The Seminal Status of E. E. 'Doc' Smith's Lensman Series" (Jordan S. Bassior, Apr 3rd 2011, earlier version (c) 2007)
A space opera series which deeply influenced how we think about spacefaring civilizations.  Analysis only.

Novels

"Advise and Consent (1959) by Allen Drury" (Jordan S. Bassior, Aug 12th 2012)
Famous political novel about the Senate in crisis is really science fiction.  Review only.

"The Jagged Orbit (1969) by John Brunner" (Jordan S. Bassior, Jun 13th 2011)
Pioneering and well-written tale of dystopia in the year 2014 -- but marred by a lack of logic.  Review only.

"The Dispossessed (1974) by Ursula K. LeGuin" (Jordan S. Bassior, Jan 25th 2011, earlier version(c) 2001)
A brilliant but flawed novel of an "ambigious utopia."  Review only.

"Escardy Gap (1996) by Peter Crowther and James Lovegrove" (Jordan S. Bassior, Jul 28th 2012)
This homage to Ray Bradbury's America has its strong points but founders under its weaknesses.  Review only.

"Mars Crossing (2000) by Geoffrey A. Landis" (Jordan S. Bassior, Jun 19th 2012)
A gripping and scientifically-accurate tale of adventure, exploration and survival on Mars.  Review only.

Short Stories

"'The Man Who Found Out' (1912) by Algernon Blackwood" (Jordan S. Bassior, Jul 17th 2012)
And the Truth shall enslave you ... Story run separately.

"'The Monster-God of Mamurth' (1926) by Edmond Hamilton" (Jordan S. Bassior, Apr 14th 2011)
Hamilton's debut in a tale of a lost city of Lovecraftian horror.  Review only.

"'The Star Stealers' (1929) by Edmond Hamilton" (Jordan S. Bassior, Feb 20th 2011)
Captain Ran Rarak of the Federation of Suns defeats an extragalactic menace to all Mankind!

 "'Spawn of the Stars' (1930) by Charles Willard Diffin" (Jordan S. Bassior, Mar 6th 2011)
An excellent alien-invasion air-war epic, mostly forgotten today.  Story run separately.

"'The Cosmic Express' (1930) by Jack Williamson" (Jordan S. Bassior, Feb 2nd 2011)
The science-fiction story seminal to the Star Trek "transporter."  Story run separately.

 "'The Death's Head Meteor' (1930) by Neil R. Jones" (Jordan S. Bassior, Aug 21st 2012)
A 26th-century astronaut nearly gets killed near Mars, trying to assay a meteor.  Story run separately.

"'The Prince of Space' (1931) by Jack Williamson" (Jordan S. Bassior, Feb 22nd 2011, (c) 2007)
The science-fiction story seminal to the orbital space colony.  Review only.

"'An Adventure in Futurity' (1931) by Clark Ashton Smith" (Jordan S. Bassior, Apr 13th 2011 from Wonder Stories April 1931 via Eldritch Dark)
Befriended by a time traveler, a man from the present is taken to a future world in desperate danger!  Story included with review post.

"'The Jameson Satellite' (1931) by Neil R. Jones" (Jordan S. Basior, July 21st 2012)
After he has his corpse put in orbit, a scientist is resurrected by and becomes part of a cyborg race of space explorers.  Story run separately.

"'Out Around Rigel' (1931) by Robert H. Wilson" (Jordan S. Bassior, July 16th 2011)

Two scions of an ancient Lunarian civilization fly the first ship to the stars!  Story run separately.

"'A Scientist Rises' (1932) by D. W. Hall" (Jordan S. Bassior, May 22nd 2011, from Astounding Stories November 1932 via PG)
This tale typifies the manner in which scientists were perceived by the interwar pulps.  Story included with review.

"'The Eternal Wall' (1942) by Raymond Z. Gallun" (Jordan S. Bassior, Apr 7th 2011)
An excellent tale of a man trapped in a posthuman future, with conceptual links to "Seeds of the Dusk" and The Eden Cycle.  Story run separately.

"'Rescue Party' (1946) by Arthur C. Clarke"(Jordan S. Bassior, Apr 3rd 2011, (c) 2008)
One of Clarke's earliest and best works, from his Campbellian period.  Review only.

"'All Cats Are Gray' (1953) by Andre Norton" (Jordan S. Bassior, May 14th 2011 from Fantastic Universe, August-September 1953 via PG)
An interesting early Andre Norton piece, presenting a most unusual heroine.  Story included.

"'The Valley' (1954) by Richard Stockham" (Jordan S. Bassior, Jul 15th 1012, originally published in If, June 1954)
Sometimes one searches the Galaxy for what one had all along back home.  Interesting both for its own sake and as an early example of the thread leading to the Mundane SF Movement.  Review only.

"'Song in a Minor Key' (1957) by Catherine L. Moore" (Jordan S. Bassior, May 15th, 2011 from Fantastic Universe, January 1957 via PG)
This quiet vignette gets to the heart of why we love Northwest Smith.  Story included.

"'Or All the Seas with Oysters' (1958) by Avram Davidson" (Jordan S. Bassior, Jul 25th 2012)
Two bicycle repairmen discover a whole new ecosystem.  Review only.

"'We Purchased People' (1974) by Frederik Pohl" (Jordan S. Bassior, Jul 22nd 2012)
A killer is sentenced to serve as a slave to interstellar aliens.  Story not included.

"'Child of All Ages' (1975) by Philip James Plaguer" (Jordan S. Bassior, Jul 4th 2012)
Meet Melissa,a cute little girl who has been exactly that for over two millennia.  Story not included.

"'The Fulcrum' (2005) by Gwyneth Jones" (Jordan S. Bassior, Apr 17th 2011, (c) 2008)
An interplanetary adventure tale badly marred by Mundane-SF logic and European assumptions regarding the practicality of gun control.  Story not included.

"'Exhalation' (2008) by Ted Chiang" (Jordan S. Bassior, Jul 10th 2012)
A scientist attempts to understand his most unusual universe.  Story not included.

"'G-Men' (2008) by Kristine Kathryn Rusch" (Jordan S. Bassior, April 2nd 2012)
How wilful ignorance of inconvenient history ruins this otherwise-enjoyable tale.  Story not included.

"'Guyal the Curator' (2009) by John C. Wright" (Jordan S. Bassior, April 14th 2012)
An excellent, atmospheric and well-thought-out expansion of Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" storyverse.  Story not included.

Movies

"Queen of Blood (1966)" (Jordan S. Bassior, April 3rd 2012
A surprisingly-well-written low-budget interplanetary sf horror film.

Web Comics

"Mindmistress by Al Schroeder" (Jordan S, Bassior, Jan 26th 2011)
An excellent though now sadly-ended webcomic about the smartest girl you'll ever know.

Blogs
"Season of the Red Wolf by 'The Red Wolf' (Jordan S. Bassior, Jun 15th 2012)
A detailed expose of modern anti-Semitism in fandom.


Essays

"'Transhumanism as Simplified Humanism' (2007) by Eliezer Yudkowsky -- A Really Elegant Apologia for Transhumanism" (Jordan S. Bassior, Apr 17th 2011, originally (c) 2007)
An essay which argues that "transhumanism" is really just a logical extension of "humanity."

Retro Review - "The Death's Head Meteor" (1930) by Neil R. Jones

Introduction

Neil R. Jones (1909-1988) was a pioneering science-fiction writer who, among other things, was among the first to write stories about cyborgs and robots as characters, and to set his stories in coherent future histories (anticipating the concept of John W. Campbell and the later efforts of Robert A. Heinlein and Cordwainer Smith).  His first story, "The Death's Head Meteor," was published in Air Wonder Stories in 1930, and has just been reprinted here in Fantastic Worlds.  As is common for first efforts, it's a little rough.

Synopsis

Sometime in the 26th century, around six hundred years in the future from a 1930 POV, Mankind has developed an interplanetary civilization which has colonized other worlds of the Solar System and which mines meteors.  A swarm of meteors is detected near Mars, and a young man, Jan Trenton, is dispatched from Earth in a one-man atomic-powered "space car" to intercept and assay the swarm.

When he makes the intercept, he is shaken to see that one of the meteors happens to resemble a gigantic human skull.  Mastering his fears, he closes in to begin examining the meteor, but he accidentally closes too fast and crashes against the meteor.  His array of waldoes becomes wedged in a crevasse.

What is worse, the impact has altered the meteor's trajectory so that it will now crash into Mars, with Trenton helplessly stuck to its surface.  Trenton frantically fires his jets and works his drills, but cannot break free.  The meteor hits the atmosphere, the heat rises within the space car, and Trenton blacks out.

He comes to in deep space, hurtling away from Mars.  By luck his car broke free at the last moment and he happened to be shoved onto a survivable course.  Trenton lands on Mars, shaken but unhurt.

The Good

Jones imagined a multi-planet, atomic-powered civilization with routine interplanetary travel in the 26th century, and did so at a time when in reality nobody had yet split the atom or successfully launched a rocket beyond our atmosphere.  In 1930, unlike in the later Golden Age, it was far from obvious to most lay people, or even to many scientists and engineers, that we would develop atomic energy and spaceflight.  He had the idea of meteor mining, though Garrett P. Serviss anticipated him here by over 30 years in Edison's Conquest of Mars (1898):  still, it was not yet a staple of science-fiction.  Jones also here invented the word "astronaut" to refer to a spaceman:  this one would stick.

Jan Trenton's space-car is one of the first examples of what is by implication a fusion torchship in science fiction.  It is explicitly atomic-powered and (given that it can take off from Earth's gravity well and reach Mars in under a day) capable of several gravities maximum and around a gravity's continuous thrust.  Jones doesn't go into the details, but then in 1930 even nuclear physicists didn't understand that much about nuclear physics, so he gets a pass on this.

Some modern readers may consider it a flaw that Jan Trenton just jumps into his car and takes off, without any elaborate ground-crew or check-list.  I actually consider this a virtue:  aside from the fact that there implicitly is some sort of space traffic control authority (note the huge radio in the beginning) and we do not know that Jan does not have a takeoff check-list, what Jones here implies is that spacecraft are by this point a fairly mature technology.  Mature technologies tend to be simpler to operate than their earlier forms, because inherent complexities become automated or desgined around with improvements:  the fact that we need to go through a lot of rigamarole to launch a spaceship today shows that we're still in an early stage of the art.

It's true that the space-car is in some ways -- particularly its life-support system -- poorly designed from a modern POV.  This just goes to show how difficult it is for one creative mind to anticipate the technological progress developed by many creative minds over centuries, or even decades.  This is a fundamental obstacle not merely to science-fiction but also to serious futurological prediction.

The space-car's waldoes (not called such because the "waldo" wouldn't be named until Robert A. Heinlein's eponymous tale of 1942 are a neat idea, the more so because real machines of this sort did not yet exist (and indeed the invention of such would be inspired partially by Heinlein's story).  I do not know if Heinlein ever read "The Death's Head Meteor" and was similiarly inspired by Jones.  This is the same sort of thing that the Zoromes would attach to their robot bodies in  Jones' Professor Jameson series, so Jones was obviously fascinated by the possibilities of mechanical manipulators.

The Bad

I said that first stories are generally rough, and "The Death's Head Meteor" is no exception. 

There is only one real character, Jan Trenton, and he is almost totally flat.  We see him playing "a game" with his friends (we never find out what they're playing, who's winning or how they feel about it).  He's young, brave and competent -- well, who else would you want to send out on a mission like that?  He doesn't want to die -- who does?  And that's pretty much it for Jan Trenton.  Jones had not yet realized that you need to give a character a personality to make the reader care what happens to him:  in this story, we only care about Trenton because we're putting ourselves in his (rather sticky) situation.

This flatness of character, while common to a lot of pre-Golden Age pulp science-fiction, seems to also be a specific weakness of Jones' style.  If you read the stories of, say, Edmond Hamilton or Jack Williamson from this era, you'll find stereotyped but reasonably strong characterization, enough that the reader is aware of the personalities of all major chracters.  In Jones' stories, characters tended to merely fill their roles without much variation -- very noticable in the case of his later Zoromes -- and this is very much the case in this first of his efforts.

When Jan Trenton goes unconscious, the first thing he does upon waking is turn on his air recycling system, because it's getting "hot and stuffy" in the cockpit.  An air recycling system is not something you want to have on manual control, as anoxia could easily rob a pilot of judgement or consciousness, causing him to die because he would be unable to turn on the oxygen.  What's more, the mechanism required to render its operation automatic wouldn't be too difficult even for 1920's technology, and this story is set 600 years in the future of the 1920's.

Part of the plot hinges on the impossiblity of Trenton either getting out of his space-car or freeing his waldoes.  This means that he is not wearing a space-suit, nor is his waldo array ejectable by means of explosive bolts or some equivalent mechanism.  While both are possible, the first strikes me as more than a little dangerous for all space operations, especially since by the 2500's one would imagine that space-suits would be advanced and reasonably comfortable garments, and real-world exploratory craft often have emergency releases for protruding arrays for just this reason.  This is a good example of how the primitive aeronautical technology of the early 20th century, projected into a spacefaring era, would have made the astronautical arts far more dangerous than they are in reality today.

Conclusion

"The Death's Head Meteor" is a solid but somewhat wooden story, which imaginatively explores the possibilities of a spacefaring civilization, with some technical flaws which may be traced to the primitive state of actual aerospace engineering c. 1930.  As a first effort, and for its time, it was nothing of which Jones should have been ashamed, and it is still readable today, especially as an example of its era.

Reprint - "The Death's Head Meteor" (1930) by Neil R. Jones

"The Death's Head Meteor" (c) 1930 by Neil R. Jones High up, on the top floor of a hundred-story building sat a man at a desk. Before him was an array of dials, a system of switches and intricate electrical appliances. Several hundred glass bulbs of various sizes flashed on and off intermittently in the wall over his desk. Fitting over the top of his head and around his ears was a shining, silver cap with a wire leading from the top to the apparatus before him. He was one of the world’s interplanetary radio operators of the twenty-sixth century, sending and receiving daily messages between Mars and the Earth. One of the largest glass bulbs suddenly shot into brilliance, and with a fierce crackling, an electric spark closed the gap between two metal cylinders, which paralleled one another about a foot apart. At the same time, the operator leaned forward, and with practiced hand, quickly manipulated several of the dials to various points, after which he threw one of the switches into place. A low droning sound filled the room, and a large cylinder upon which was rolled a continuous sheet of thin aluminum began to slowly revolve. As the brilliant blue-white flare in the glass bulb died away, the droning noise turned to a high keyed whine which broke off abruptly. The cylinder stopped while the multitude of tiny glass bulbs again glowed separately at intervals, as they had been doing just before the message had come in. The operator shoved a lever at his side, and a small roller cut across the large cylinder, releasing a sheet of the thin aluminum which fell on to the desk before him. Cut through its thin metal texture was the message from Mars in the three universal languages of the Earth. The radio operator now turned his attention to a smooth plate which rested in the shape of a semi-circle about two feet long and half as wide. On the flat side of the thick composition plate, a black screen arose several feet in a vertical plane at a right angle to the plate, so that the screen faced the operator. Placing the aluminum sheet upon the plate, the operator threw another switch, simultaneously pressing a button marked “Meteorological Bureau." The screen suddenly glowed, throwing an series of orange-hued rays on a slant down upon the plate bearing the narrow sheet of aluminum which grew indistinct, finally fading, until it disappeared from sight. The radio man threw back the switch once more and the screen grew black again. The plate was now as empty and bare as before he had laid the message upon its surface. In the Meteorological Bureau, two thousand miles away, the officials read the message from the aluminum sheet which had been transmitted by radio. One of them, an elderly man, walked over to the end of the room, the wall of which was bordered into a squared shape by panels. The color of the wall inside the dark panelling was a dull gray. He advanced to a round, metal, inlaid section of the floor. As soon as his feet came in contact with the metal, a picture suddenly flashed upon the surface of the wall, and the sounds of exclamations and loud laughter broke in upon his cars. The elderly scientist was looking into a comfortable room fitted up with lounges and easy chairs. Four young men were the sole occupants, being engaged in a game at one of the tables in the room. The game ceased as the four came to sudden attention, facing their superior who now spoke. "Jan Trenton." "Here, sir." "Get your ship ready for instant duty. I have a message from the Martian observatory at Fomar which states that several large meteors are approaching from the region of Jupiter and the asteroid group. It states that they will pass close to Mars tonight at 23:43, Earth time, two hundred thousand miles above its South Pole. From past experience, you know what is required of you. Bring back samples for the Bureau to analyze as well as any precious stones or metals you may discover." The scientist turned towards his companions once more, and as his feet left the metal section of the floor, the picture immediately disappeared and the television screen was once more replaced by the somber, gray color. At the space ship base, in the same huge city which held the Meteorological Bureau, Jan Trenton prepared for his trip. Getting into a private elevator, he propelled himself at a dizzy speed up through the interior of the tall building to the roof. The last five stories were open-air landing bases for the aircraft and space flyers. The first level was for the air flyers which plied among the ports of the Earth; the second was reserved for space ship freight carriers going to and from Mars; the third housed the freight ships which worked between Venus and the Earth; while the fourth was left to passenger service between the Earth and the two planets. The top landing level was used for miscellaneous purposes, the Meteorological Bureau controlling a section of it for their use. Off Into Space As Jan gained the roof, he found everything hustle and bustle, with space flyers and terrestrial aircraft coming and going. He went to the hangar of the Meteorological Bureau and entered. A long line of small space flyers stood side by side. Like the larger space ships, they used the same means of power, that supplied by atomic energy. A terrific speed could be obtained in outer space, and the fantastic speed of the Earth and the other cosmic wanderers of space might well be likened to the space flyers as the speed of a turtle is compared to that of a jackrabbit. The young astronaut approached his tiny space flyer. It was shaped like an egg, except that it was more elongated, and the two ends tapered down to blunt points instead of being rounded. It was mounted upon four revolving metal spheres set into its keel instead of wheels as landing gear. It was especially adapted for the use of exploring meteors, for all sides were studded with grapples and jointed drills as well as claw-like iron rods. These latter, which were also jointed, were capable of acting in the capacity of fingers in grasping material and placing it into the receptacles which lined the sides of the little space car. All of the exterior apparatus was manipulated by mechanical control from within. Jan inspected his oxygen tanks and fuel supply, and tested out the mechanism of the craft which he found to be working perfectly. He called an attendant, and together they wheeled the craft out upon the roof level which was bathed in the warm sunshine of a June morning. The young astronaut entered the space flyer, closed the door, and was alone in the air-tight compartment just large enough to accommodate him. On the instrument board before him were dials, levers, gauges, buttons and queer apparatus which controlled and operated the various features of the craft. He turned on his oxygen supply and his air rejuvenator so that the air could be used more than once, after which he shoved his starting lever forward. The craft raced suddenly off the roof and into the cloudless sky above the vast city of the twenty-sixth century. Up and up he arose, until those upon the roof lost sight of his flyer as it disappeared, a minute speck against the deep blue of the sky. Below him, the city could be seen as an indistinct, white blur upon a background of green. Farther and farther he rose until he was in the rarefied atmosphere of the upper air currents. It grew intensely cold, and the young astronaut found it necessary to tum on the heating system. He now increased his speed from an even 300 miles an hour gradually to 1,000 miles an hour until he should find himself beyond the friction of the Earth's atmosphere. At this speed, it was but a short time before the tiny space flyer found itself in the vacuum of outer space. The little craft had six windows of a thick glass-like substance which was colored a deep transparent brown to nullify the blinding glare of the sun. The windows pointed in six different directions, and it was from these that Jan noticed the daylight ebbing, to be replaced by the utter blackness of night, except where the blazing ball of the sun shone through the brown glass windows. Through one window, he could see the curved contour of the Earth which he was so rapidly leaving, while from each of the other five windows the dazzling brilliance of the clustered stars shone with an iridescent gleam never seen upon Earth. Jan did not notice the beauties and wonders of outer space, for he had seen them many times before, and so he watched his instrument board, increasing his speed until he hurtled through space in the direction of Mars at the rate of two thousand miles per second, eating up the distance at more than seven million miles per hour. While he was in the vicinity of the Earth, a steady stream of small meteorites beat a tattoo upon the space ship, but as he left the Earth farther behind, the meteorites with which he came in contact were few. Many of them were large, and traveling at the rate of ten to twenty miles per second could have damaged his flyer. But an instrument recorded the approach of the large ones, and when one came within a distance of ten thousand miles, a small bell inside the craft started ringing, while a small arrow in a glass case pointed out its direction. The young astronaut sped on through the ether void for the equivalent of an Earth day. Through space it was eternal night, with a sun shining from out of the blackness. Immeasurable distances off in all directions were millions of suns and worlds. On ahead of him Mars was growing from a dull red point of fire, to a rose-colored sphere, appearing as large as the moon does from the Earth. The rotating sphere grew larger, in proportion to the speed of his approach, its two twinkling satellites becoming visible, one just below, and the other to one side, of the planet. Behind him, he saw the Earth as a large, green star of the first magnitude, and on looking sharper, he saw an accompanying point of light beside it. Jan would have liked very much to have landed on Mars so that he could have stretched his limbs, but he dared not, for the chronometer at his side told him that if he were to intercept the meteor train the other side of Mars, he would need all of his time. He rapidly neared the red planet which now appeared as a huge ball, filling all three of the nearest windows. Jan made a circuit around the planet, passing by the darkened half which lay sleeping under the repose of Martian night, and continued on towards Jupiter. He sighted the South Pole on Mars, and kept his ship some two hundred thousand miles above it on a direct line towards the great planet Jupiter. He watched a dial which recorded the approach of giant meteors within a distance of a hundred thousand miles, for soon he expected the group of cosmic wanderers to come sweeping along on their aimless journey. If he missed them, it would be necessary to land on Mars and get new bearings at the observatory before he continued the chase, but he disliked doing this for it would take more time and be a reflection upon his efficiency. And Jan was working for a promotion to the passenger limited between Venus and Mars. The Meteor Train The bell tinkled! He looked at the dial and saw that the needle pointed straight ahead of him upon the course he was pursuing, The company of meteors were rushing toward him head on. He turned his flyer on a slant, and slackened his speed continuously for hours until finally it was down to twenty miles per second. He was rushing off at an acute angle so that he would avoid a possible collision. He watched the needle and saw that the train of meteors would soon be opposite him. He was careful to place himself on the sunward side of their approach, for had he been on the opposite side, they would have passed within a few feet of his flyer and he would have been unaware of it, except that his dials would have announced their proximity. He now watched the dial which recorded the smaller number of miles, and saw that the meteors were a thousand miles distant. Turning his flyer back in the direction from which he had come, he ran parallel to the course the celestial bodies would pursue, slackening his speed down to ten miles per second. The distance, as his dial informed him, was rapidly being decreased by the oncoming meteor train. It was now within five hundred miles of him, uncomfortably close, considering the fact that he was not entirely certain of its speed. The astronaut was traveling ten miles per second in the same direction as the meteors' course, and the cluster comprising the meteor train was bearing down upon him, so he figured that it must be traveling at approximately fifteen miles per second. He tested it by speeding up his space flyer to the same rate; it gained on him slightly. The young astronaut decided to allow it to pass him, and than come up from behind; so continuing at fifteen miles per second, he awaited its passing, five miles from its course . He saw it only as a sudden indistinct flicker, for it passed at a speed greater by three thousand miles per hour than his own. Increasing his speed, he began to creep up behind the meteor cluster, preparing for his hazardous work of running alongside one of the meteors at the same exact speed, and hooking on with his grapples. It required nerve, precision and dexterity, and many an astronaut had met his death trying to ride a meteor in the seas of space. He soon came within sight of the cosmic wanderers and whisked by them. It was hard work attuning his speed exactly to that of the meteor group, and as he slackened his speed, the meteors flashed past him once more, reflecting the sunlight which struck them. It was the delicate control of the little space craft which finally enabled the astronaut to ride even with the meteor train only a hundred yards away. From this distance he surveyed it. The head was composed of three huge meteors better than two hundred feet thick with rough, jagged sides, resembling miniature mountains careening through space. In the wake of the first three came smaller ones with fragments intermingled with dust. The young astronaut singled out the nearest of the large meteors and sent his space ship in on a narrow slant which would gradually converge with the course of the meteor, bringing the two together. One hand was ready on the switch operating the grapples, while his other hand rested on the steering controls. All immediate danger would be over when he grappled on to the celestial body, but it was perilous work, requiring experience, skill and steady nerves in order to close successfully upon the giant meteor. The sun beat its blinding light upon the rugged, uneven side of the huge meteor, throwing into sharp relief every detail. The sunlit portions lay scattered over its face, relieved by numerous shadows due to the fact that the irregular surface did not allow the sunlight to strike all of the meteor's side which faced the sun. These shadows, because the great rock lacked a surrounding atmosphere, lay etched in bold relief, so that the sunlit side of the meteor presented a series of shadows and illuminated crags to the young astronaut. Probably the remains of an old comet, thought Jan, gazing thoughtfully at the meteor he was nearing slowly but surely. It was odd how queer it was shaped, bulging at the top, and narrowing at the bottom. Somehow, it was an unpleasant reminder of something he had seen but could not place at the moment. He was within a hundred feet of the great piece of rock, and gradually the distance narrowed as they raced along through space together at the rate of sixteen miles a second. Suddenly, an uncomfortable discovery forced itself upon the mind of the young astronaut. As he neared the meteor, he recognized what it resembled, and why it had stirred his memory so strangely. From a short distance away, it bore the perfect likeness of a death's head! There was the white, bulging forehead, the sloping jaws, and two huge, round shadows, with a third midway below it, for the sunken eyeholes and the nose. Most horrible of all was the mouth, bearing the fixed grin of death! The death's head glared at him malevolently, as if issuing an ominous warning! Jan Trenton was not superstitious. Superstition had died out completely from the Earth hundreds of years ago. But the abruptness of the discovery, and its gruesome appearance startled the young astronaut and, for the first time in his career as a lone space flyer, he felt himself weighed down with an overwhelming sense of loneliness. Out in this vast depth of endless space he was millions of miles from friends and all manifestations of life with this grinning effigy, one of the freakish coincidences of the Universe, as a solitary companion. From whence had this meteor come? Probably from the region of the asteroids adjacent to Jupiter, possibly from outside the solar system, from some other system of worlds, having traveled to this destiny perhaps for the last billion years or more. He had half a mind to swerve off from his prospective landing on the huge meteor, and couple on to one of the other two, but he laughed at himself and his unreasonable timidity. He dispelled by ridiculing himself the morbid imaginings, which had been stimulated through sight of the death's head. He prepared to go through with his original plans, despite the fact that the task was strangely distasteful. The young astronaut was now very close, so close that the meteor towered above the little space ship. Jan stood ready at the grapple controls, waiting for the supreme moment of contact. It came with a terrific jar which threw him out of his seat against the side of the flyer, bruising him severely, just as he shoved over the grappling controls. He must have made a slight mistake in his calculations of angles, thought Jam, for he had not been prepared for the shock of the contact which greeted him. The grapples had taken hold, anyway, and he was safe for the present, at least. He feared, however, that part of his outside apparatus had been damaged in the contact, but if there was enough of it left with which to work on the meteor, he did not care, for he could have it repaired when he got back to Earth, or he might even stop at one of the Martian stations, for that matter. Caught! He tested the grapple controls, the rock drills and the iron fingers, finding that over half the number on the flyer next the meteor were either broken or jammed out of shape. With the remaining exterior apparatus, he took samples of the meteor’s substance, drilling out small chunks and depositing them into the receptacles along the side. The next procedure was to ascertain whether or not the meteor contained valuable metals, unknown substances or precious stones. Before him, at the top of his instrument board were three dials ranged in a row. The central dial was a huge affair, while its two companions, one on each side, were a great deal smaller. Each of the two small dials was equipped with a small manipulator which moved the needle around the face. The dial on the left represented the means by which the young astronaut discovered whether or not a meteor held diamonds, sapphires or other valuable stones. At various intervals around the face of the dial, the names of all precious stones known to science were marked off. By slowly moving the arrow around the dial, and pointing to the name of each individual jewel, it was possible to find out the presence of one or more of the stones. Above the dial was an small light which flashed on whenever the arrow pointed at a type of stone which was present in the meteor’s mass. The small dial on the extreme right operated on the same principle except that it was for finding various metals. Around the rim of the large dial in the middle, was listed all of the elements composing the Universe. Opposite the name of each element was a small indicator which swung away from it, pointing towards the center of the dial; outside, rested a series of small buttons, each button communicating with one of the elements listed within the dial. A button depressed would cause the tiny indicator to swing out of neutral and point to the element, providing that element was present in the meteor's composition. In this manner, a great many combinations not listed on the two smaller dials could be formed to ascertain their possible existence within the meteor. Jan tested the meteor for the various stones. It was entirely devoid of gems. Had he discovered a supply within the wanderer of space, the astronaut would have drilled them out, providing they were near the surface, for the little space flyer was equipped with the facility for pointing out the definite location of the stones as well as recording their proximity. In case of their being too deep for the surface drills, he would chart the course of the meteor. and if the deposit of jewels or metals proved valuable enough, a wrecking crew would be sent out a few days later to overtake the meteor and extract its treasures. He now turned his attention to the right hand dial, his hand upon the manipulator which sent the arrow around the face in short, periodic jerks. As he expected, the light above the dial flashed on when the arrow pointed to "iron." He found that the bulky mass also contained nickel, and a small amount of platinum whose scarcity did not warrant the trouble of its extraction. The central dial proved the fact that the meteor's main constituents consisted of iron and aside from the nickel and platinum deposits was entirely devoid of all other minerals. Having finished with the death's head meteor, Jan decided to cast loose and explore the other two celestial wanderers which comprised the meteor train. The astronaut loosened the grapples, and threw in his controls which would send him away from the meteor. To his surprise, the space flyer refused to move. He turned on more power, and still his flyer did not budge, though he knew that his atomic energy machine was functioning perfectly, for his instrument board told him that. Evidently the force of his contact with the meteor had been so great that the little space car had become wedged in the side of the meteor, or else the twisted parts of the broken grapples and the other exterior apparatus which had been damaged in the collision had become jammed into the meteor when the two came together. It was certain that he was stuck fast, and that he must search for some means which would effect his release from the predicament in which he found himself. He wished now that he had heeded the grave premonitions the sight of the gruesome meteor had awakened in his mind, and avoided contact with it. But then, it was likely to happen to any space flyer engaged in the same hazardous pursuit as his. He worked vainly at the controls of the damaged grapples and the jointed, exterior appliances, but the attempt was useless for they remained as immovable as if cast in a mold of steel. He was a prisoner, a prey to the death's head meteor which carried him farther away with it every moment, traveling at sixteen miles a second. They would soon pass by Mars, continue upon a route midway between the Earth and that planet, and eventually on out of the solar system towards the distant stars. What would be his fate? Would he starve, or his oxygen supply give out? Jan did not for a moment contemplate such thoughts. The Meteorological Bureau, seeing that he did not return within a reasonable time, would radio Mars, and the observatories of both worlds would train their giant telescopes upon the meteor train and discover his plight. No doubt, they were watching him now, the largest telescopes revealing his space ship as a small bright speck upon one of the three larger spots. It would be only a question of time, then, before help would be sent him, and his release obtained. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a crashing jolt which once more threw him out of his seat at the instrument board just as it had done when his car had landed upon the meteor. What had happened? The meteor must have struck something, and it could be nothing more than one of its two companions for there was nothing else in this vast void for it to strike. It might have been another flock of meteors, and had it been so, his instrument board would have announced their approach long before this. Jan’s logical reasoning, and his cool headedness in the face of the alarming situation, led him to the following solution. When his space car had landed upon the meteor, the force of the contact had been great enough to push the celestial wanderer off its course slightly, and all of the time it had slowly but surely converged its plane of direction with that of its nearer companion, so that they had come together at an acute angle, producing the shock he had just felt. If this was so, thought the young astronaut, than the course of the meteor upon which his space ship was imprisoned must have veered again, following the second contact, slightly changing its course once more. He examined his instrument board and peered out of the brown glass window into the black, cosmic void. The sight which greeted his eyes appalled him with its terrifying significance fraught with sinister menace! Below him was the planet Mars, and the meteor on its changed course was rushing at it full speed!  The red planet appeared as a half circle of light, new contours appearing upon its face from out of the darkened half. The face of the young astronaut was drawn into tense lines, as he turned about towards his instrument board to find that the distance between himself and the planet Mars was a little better than a hundred thousand miles. He rapidly figured that unless he could release the space flyer from the giant meteor, he had but two hours in which to live! The death’s head meteor, which was originally charted to pass by the planet Mars was now, through two slight collisions with the space flyer and the other meteor, plunging head on towards Mars! Jan visualized his end. The wanderer of space with its prisoner, traveling sixteen miles a second, would hurl itself into the Martian atmosphere which, though thinner than that of the Earth, would offer a great enough friction to create out of the meteor a blazing ball of fire, screaming through the air like a juggernaut to bury itself beneath the surface of Mars with a terrible detonation! A Desperate Hope While the meteor was miles above Mars in the upper reaches of the rarefied atmosphere, the young astronaut would die of the intense heat from the friction of the air. Under the terrific heat, the space flyer would explode and burn up to a cinder within the space of a fleet second, to leave the death's head meteor mass continuing on its wild flight to destruction! Jan Trenton quickly snapped himself out of the channel of gloomy, terrorizing thoughts which assailed his mind, holding it paralyzed for a brief moment. He had nearly two hours by Earth time before the meteor reached Mars, and he would die like a man, fighting for his life to the very last minute. He gazed out of the window on the side towards the meteor to note his position, and find out in what manner he was caught. A chill crept over him at the irony of fate! The little space car was jammed up against that dark rift of shadow which was likened to the mouth of the death's head! From a short distance, it would appear as if the grinning skull held the space flyer in its teeth, carrying it rapidly to oblivion! If he could only have torn the imprisoned grapples free. But this was impossible in view of the fact that they were on the outside where he could not gain access to them. He released his atomic energy in all directions, trying to work his way loose, but the flyer was as immovable as a part of the meteor itself. He placed a terrific power behind him, capable of sending him racing through space at top speed had he been free. It was well that the staunch little craft had no weak spot or it would have torn itself to pieces. But the space car was strongly made and the effect of its great, atomic energy release was not to free the space ship or divert the course of the meteor, but to cause a surprising result. The meteor began to rotate on its axis, slowly turning in the direction opposite to that of the power release. The planet Mars flashed past the window at short intervals, its semi-circle of light glowing a dull red. As Jan peered from the window during several complete rotations of the big meteor, he saw that the rest of the meteor train had vanished, no doubt pursuing their original, airless course past Mars. The young astronaut had one last plan, and he lost no time in proceeding to put it into operation. He would attempt to drill his way out with the exterior drills on the little craft towards the side which was held by the meteor. It was a question whether or not the drills could free him before the meteor crashed into Mars. He reached quickly for the controls which operated the drills to find that there were only three drills on that side of the flyer towards the meteor which had not been damaged. The others had either been broken off or else lay twisted amid the wreckage of the exterior apparatus which imbedded itself in the meteor. Jan set them going, directing their sharp ends into the rock around the point at which the little space craft clung to the meteor. Tiny showers of dust rattled against the sides of the flyer as the drills bit into the huge meteor rotating slowly, as it ate up the distance to the great world upon which it was destined to crash. The young astronaut watched the three drills work, operating them from inside the flyer, while at frequent intervals he would steal glances at his chronometer, and than at the Martian planet which was gradually filling his field of vision. A feeling of sickly despair tugged at his heart, and hope grow dim as he saw that he had less than three quarters of an hour left. He had drilled a series of holes in the meteor all the way around the imprisoned grapples, at a distance of several inches apart. With the steel fingers on the jointed rods outside his car, he had torn away what rock had been loosened, and still the flyer clung to the face of the whirling meteor rushing towards Mars at a frightful speed, diminishing the distance at nearly a thousand miles a minute. Still he worked doggedly at his controls, and a cold sweat broke out upon him an he watched the minute hand crawl slowly around the chronometer. Glancing at his three drills, he saw that one of them needed changing, and proceeded to place it in a new position. His spirits were at low ebb, but as long as life existed in his body, the young astronaut would continue the attempt to free his imprisoned fIyer, and extricate himself. Jan felt that in his perilous calling he had cheated death too long, and that this time the grim reaper held the winning cards. The hands on the chronometer had now stolen to a position which indicated that less than fifteen minutes were left him. The vibration of the drills could still be felt within the space flyer, and a steady swish of meteoric debris against the side of the craft made itself heard. Jan gazed dully out of the window away from the meteor whose rotation gave him a round-trip view of the entire sky. He was now so close to Mars that he could clearly discern some of the mountain ranges and flat, red deserts as the planet swung past his eyes. He gazed longingly at the brilliant green star, his home, which turned upon its orbit far off in space. He had left it for the last time. The scintillating stars gleamed brilliantly in the blackness and from the incandescent mass of the sun leaped great columns of flame. Once more the meteor had completed its day of little more than a minute, and the certainty of doom grow more ominous. As the last minute crept around on the chronometer, Jan Trenton prepared for his end. Setting the three drills working at their maximum speed, he turned on the entire power of the craft as it sailed down into the Martian atmosphere with the meteor on its terrific flight. A glare of light flitted quickly through the windows, and a weird whistling arose to a wailing scream. Just before he lost consciousness, the young astronaut was aware of a great wave of heat which swept over him like a blast from a furnace. The meteor struck upon the darkened side of Mars at an hour closely preceding dawn. Martians who saw it, afterward described it as a great ball of fire which rushed out of the sky like a comet, setting the heavens aglow with its glare. While still high in the air, it exploded with a loud concussion which was heard for hundreds of miles, the masses of scattered fragments catapulting themselves into the quivering ground, throwing up a cascade of dirt and rocks, flattening trees, and tearing great craters. It appeared to burst into two large central nucleii with smaller pieces surrounding them. Those near its landing place reported a tremendous wave of suffocating heat which swept the vicinity when the meteor landed. Deliverance AAs Jan came to himself, his first sensation was a dizzy feeling in his head, and the oppressive warmth within the space flyer. He gathered his scattered wits together. Hadn't the crash come yet? It couldn't be possible that the meteor had missed the great planet for which it had been headed so squarely. He looked about him in a confused manner, not quite brought to his entire senses. His brain was still hazy. and he felt greatly exhausted as his wandering eyes fell upon the dial board. It was registering top speed! With great effort, he painfully drew himself towards the brown glass window and looked out—into the intense darkness of space in which were set myriads of scintillating stars. He looked on the other side for the death's head meteor, but it was gone. All that remained of it was a chunk about three feet thick and as long, around which the wreckage of the twisted grapples lay entwined. Above the meteoric fragment, the three drills still churned, one of them broken in half. Jan looked behind him, and out of the window he could discern a small red blot, Mars, far to the rear, and growing smaller. For a moment he could not understand the miracle which had occurred. Then gradually it dawned upon him that he had been grasped from the jaws of death just in time. The presence of the meteor's chunk and the oppressive heat within the space car gave testimony of his deliverance before entering the atmosphere of Mars. The space car containing the unconscious young astronaut had whirled off through the outer layer of Martian atmosphere and into the coldness of space once more. This accounted for the suffocating heat inside the flyer where the intense friction from the thin, rarefied air had heated the space ship. He must have penetrated it at a terrible speed on his outward flight. He had been unconscious for a bare five minutes, and already he was nearly fifty thousand miles from Mars. He started the air rejuvenator to clear the hot, stuffy interior of the craft, after which he turned the flyer and headed back for Mars. In the radio receiving station on the Earth, the big glass bulb set in the wall above the operator's head suddenly flashed, and an electric spark snapped and crackled as it closed the gap between two metal cylinders. The operator mechanically adjusted the dial and switches. and the cylinder containing the aluminum sheet began turning, filling the room with its droning noise. As the bulb grew dark once more, and the roller came to a stop, the aluminum sheet cleaved from off the roller and fell to the desk before the operator. Before placing it upon the transmitter plate and pressing the button marked "Meteorological Bureau," the silver-capped operator reviewed the message curiously. It was the report of one of the astronauts employed by the government Bureau of Meteorology, Jan Trenton by name. It seemed that he was stopping over at Mars while his ship underwent certain repairs, and that he would report for further duty the next day. Such is the life of an astronaut. THE END

Retro Review - Novel - Advise and Consent (1959) by Allen Drury

"Retro Review - Novel -

Advise and Consent (1959)

by Alan Drury"

(c) 2012

by

Jordan S. Bassior

Introduction

Many will no doubt protest that Advise and Consent, begun sometime in 1951, finished in 1958 and published in 1959, does not really qualify as "science fiction."  Yet it takes place in the future from the point of writing, examines and makes predictions regarding the development of both society and technology, and a major element of its plot hinges upon these developments.  What makes it unusual is that its author was a Congressional journalist, and hence the aspect of the future he examined was the future of politics.

Synopsis

Around 1967, a Democratic (1) President nominates Robert Leffingwell, a prominent liberal, to be his new Secretary of State.  Leffingwell favors a soft approach to the Soviets, and many conservatives fear that he will attempt a disastrous policy of appeasement.  This is especially worrisome as America has been falling behind in the Cold War:  in particular the Soviets may be about to make the first manned Lunar landing, demonstrating their technological superiority to the United States of America.

A popular movement begins to coalesce around Leffingwell, assisted by a press corps all too willing to think the best of him.  Leffingwell is not yet Secretary of State, however, because in the American Constitutional system, the US Senate must first "advise and consent" to the nomination.

The main Senatorial support for Leffingwell comes from Robert Munson, the Senate Majority Leader from Michigan, a decent man who has his doubts about Leffingwell but is willing to stick by the President.  The main opposition comes from Seabright Cooley, the septugenarian senior Senator from South Carolina; and Brigham Anderson of Utah, a rising star in the Senate.  Both sides manever to bring about or block the nomination.

A minor bureaucrat, Gelman, comes before the committee and claims that Leffingwell was a Communist (2):  Gelman belonged to his cell decades ago, along with two other people, one of whom is now dead.  Leffingwell and his supporters -- particularly the unscrupulous Senator Fred Van Ackerman of Wyoming, a leftist demagogue -- attack the credibility of Gelman, who is in fact mentally-unstable and has spent time in a psychiatric institution.  The counterattack proves successful and it looks as if Leffingwell will indeed be nominated.

Then, Senator Cooley discovers Morton, the third survivor of the cell, and pressures him into contacting Brigham Anderson, the Senator who is openly leading the movement to block Leffingwell.  Senator Anderson meets with the President and warns him that he now has proof positive of Leffingwell's Communist past.  Anderson urges the President to withdraw the nomination.  The President promises to do so and asks for time to consider alternative candidates.

But Brigham Anderson also has a secret in his past.  While serving in the Pacific during World War II, Anderson had a homosexual affair (3).  And proof of this affair has fallen into the hands of Senator Van Ackerman, who is quite willing to use it to bring Anderson down -- unless Anderson allows the nomination of Leffingwell.

However, Senator Anderson has now become completely convinced that Leffingwell's policies would bring ruin to America.  He refuses to back down.  Van Ackerman prepares to release the information to the public -- and Anderson commits suicide.

Senator Anderson's death -- and the general knowledge among the Senators of Van Ackerman's responsibility for it -- turn the Senate against Van Ackerman and Leffingwell.  Senator Munson leads a unanimous vote of censure against Van Ackerman, and Leffingwell's nomination is defeated.  The President nominates the popular Senator Orrin Knox of Illinois for Secretary of State, and Knox is confirmed.

The Soviets land on Luna and claim the whole Moon for themselves.  America calls their bluff and launches her own Moon mission.  The President dies of a heart attack, and his Vice-President, Harley Hudson, succeeds to the office.  President Hudson leaves for Switzerland for an international conference to determine, among other things, the status of the Moon.

Analysis

The main plot is purely political and the main speculations purely political.  Drury argues here that the old American political system, intended to allow a free people to rule itself freely in relative isolation, has been put under serious stress by the demands of defending a global confederation against global threats to freedom, and that much depends on whether or not we can endure the strain. 

What would normally have been a mere political squabble is elevated to tragic proportions by the threat of international Communism both within (Leffingwell's seduction by Marxism) and without (the reason why it's so important that Leffingwell not be Secretary of State is the Soviet menace).  Leffingwell's nomination would not have meant merely a defeat for the conservative Democrats, but also a risk of war brought about by appeasement -- and remember that Drury's audience, in 1959, was mostly made of people who all too well remembered what had happened in Europe a mere two decades previously.

We also see that under this strain the former civility of our legislative institutions is breaking down.  Senator Fred Van Ackerman, a demagogue leading mass rallies against American interests (because doing the right thing is harder and more frightening than simply engaging in wishful thinking) uses not only irrational group-think in public but also outright blackmail in private to attain his ends.  He is depicted as an obvious sociopath, but his followers fail to notice this because they are willing to forgive him the most dastardly conduct in the pursuit of what they imagine to be the right ends.  (Indeed, they believe that only a Leffingwell nomination can avert the very same war which Anderson and Cooley believe it is likely to cause).

There is a theme in the novel of the young, rising, cocksure and dangerously wrong Young Turks against the wiser but weakening Old Guard here.  Seabright Cooley is a veteran of the whole prior 20th century, and it is actually his maneuvering that saves America, but he's also 75 years old -- he obviously won't be able to serve in the Senate very much longer.  Fred Van Ackerman has been defeated -- for now (4) -- but both the man and the movement he represents is rising.

This indeed is one of the most strongly-predictive elements of Advise and Consent.  In the appearance of members of America's own poltiical elite willing to subvert and destroy the American Constitutional system in their own pursuit of personal power, justifying their actions as "progressive," Drury basically predicted what would happen to the Democratic Party in the 1960's.  Leffingwell was of course modeled on real traitors such as Alger Hiss (5); Van Ackerman seems to have been conceived as a left-wing Joseph McCarthy turned (later) Vidkun Quisling, but all too many real ones emerged in the mid-1960's to mid-1970's, the most obvious being Ted Kennedy.

By contrast with this "if this goes on" speculation about the growth of disloyalty among a significant element of our own leadership, and its appeal to wishful thinking amongst the larger loyal populace, the overtly science-fictional element of Advise and Consent -- the Lunar Crisis -- is a peripheral plot element, and in many respects appears tacked on as an afterthought.  In particular, there are no characters who are directly involved with either the American or Soviet space programs (though Drury would later write a whole novel, The Throne of Saturn, about the political aspects of a manned Mars landing project).

This puzzled me -- even for a mostly-political novelist this lack of focus on the very event which sharpens the conflict between America and the Soviets which is why the Leffingwell nomination is so important is odd.  Then I read that Drury had been creating this novel since 1951 and that it was finished in 1958, and the reason became obvious.

Drury had conceived of the novel as almost purely internal to the US Senate, with the cause of the specific crisis with the Soviets purely a MacGuffin into which any conflict might be plugged.  In the early 1950's, this might have been a widening of the Korean War; in the mid-1950's, perhaps a shooting war threatening to break out over revolts in the Warsaw Pact.  But by the late 1950's, the issue on the minds of any Americans who took the Soviet threat seriously was the Soviet lead in the space program (6), and so Drury simply postulated that the Soviets maintained this lead and achieved the first manned lunar landing.  However, because the space race element came into the story so late, there was no way to integrate it into the main plot of this book -- Drury's thoughts on the matter probably became elements of The Throne of Saturn.

But Is This Really "Science Fiction?"

I would say "yes," though it is a very unusual sort of science fiction, and specifically along the line of "political thrillers" (which I would argue are often also science fiction).

My reason for classifying the main Druryverse (Advise and Consent, A Shade of Difference, Capable of Honor, Preserve and Protect, Come Nineveh Come Tyre, and The Promise of Joy being the five books unarguably in the series) as "science fiction" is that it is very much an alternate history -- not merely from the perspective of 2012 but even from the perspective of the times in which it was written.  Not only that, it incorporates an alternate history into its own plot structure -- Come Nineveh Come Tyre shows what happens if Ted Jason succeeds Harley Hudson, and The Promise of Joy if Orrin Knox does instead.

All fiction is to some extent speculative and "alternate history," because it contains elements which are untrue in reality.  For instance, if I claim that a character named Jeff Marlstein lived in Apartment 1H at 3726 Sedgwick Ave in the Bronx in the year 1985, I am postulating a divergence from reality:  did such an apartment actually exist in 1985?  If so, did not some other person live there?  This is a minor divergence because we cannot readily perceive how such a difference might affect the larger world.

Political fiction, however, is about the lives and fortunes of prominent people, and as such the more prominent the person the greater the divergence from reality.  If I postulate that in the year 1988 my fictitious Jeff Marlstein won the Presidency of the United States of America, serving the term which in Our Time Line was served by George H. W. Bush, then this is obviously going to have effects on history.

Did President Marlstein cut or raise taxes?  Did he end the Cold War and if so on what terms?  How did he deal with Saddam Hussein?  All these questions are ones strongly dependent upon Marlstein's personality, political beliefs, and personal and political allegiences, and we cannot simply assume that he would have done everything exactly the same way as did George H. W. Bush. 

If he made different decisions, then our alternate history science fiction explores the effects of these diffefrent decisions.  Maybe in this timeline by 1992 America has gone to war with the Soviet Union, or perhaps we let the Russians join NATO.  Maybe Saddam Hussein was overthrown, maybe he now dominates the whole Gulf region.  The world President Marlstein sees in 1992 will probably not be identical to that which President Bush saw that same year in OTL.

This is even more the case when one is writing in what was originally the "future," which is the case in MANY political novels.  The implicit backstory of Advise and Consent is that the unnamed President ran for and won the White House in 1960:  in other words, Drury predicted a Democratic Presidential victory in 1960 (which is exactly what happened).  But the President of Advise and Consent is not John F. Kennedy, he was not assassinated in 1963 but instead won a second term in 1964, and he dies of a heart attack in 1967 to be succeeded not by Lyndon Baines Johnson but by Harley Hudson.  There also does not seem to have been a large-scale Vietnam War.

This actually goes a long way to explain why the society depicted in Advise and Consent's 1967 seems not to have experienced the birth of a Counterculture.  Historically, the murder of JFK shocked the teenagers who would become the Counterculture, and the fear of being drafted to fight in Vietnam gave them a strong impetus to rebel against The Establishment (because they felt psychologically better seeing themselves as Noble Rebels rather than Trembling Cowards).  With greater political and cultural continuity, the birth of the Counterculture would have been a slower and gentler thing.

One should also be aware that almost every character depicted in the novel comes from the American political elite.  This is also true of the few young people.  This means that their view on the world and on society is that of a privileged mniorty, not that of the people as a whole.  (Though note that most of the Senators probably didn't come from great wealth at birth:  Seabright Cooley, for instance, was born into a fairly normal middle-class rural South Carolina family).

One should further be aware that the Counterculture even in Our Time Line did not sweep across the country and instantly transform everyone's perceptions.  In the real world of 1967 there were plenty of well-brought-up young women who, like Crystal Danta Knox, would have been proud of the fact that they had waited to have sex until their wedding nights, for instance.  Heck, there are still many who feel that way today, just not as many as in 1957 or even 1967.

Regarding the social point I'm sure everyone would be most focused upon today, there was very little social tolerance for homosexuals in Our Time Line's 1967; there might be less in the more sedate 1967 of Advise and Consent.  The Stonewall Riots didn't take place until 1969, and even then the general reaction was disgust at the misbehaving homosexuals.  It was not until well into the 1980's and 1990's that the popular mood shifted toward acceptance of homosexuality. 

Brigham Anderson really would have felt alone and damned, and been consumed with self-loathing in addition to the practical-political aspects of the situation.  And, ironically, Anderson wasn't even all that much of a homosexual.

Happily (?) (7), Drury's major technological speculation did not come to pass.  American aerospace technology pulled ahead of that of the Soviets, and the Soviets never even got close to launching manned Lunar missions.  America carried out the first manned Lunar landing in 1969.

Conclusion

Advise and Consent is a rare and well-executed form of science fiction:  the predictive political science fiction novel.  It is unusually successful at prediction for this genre, and -- unlike most of its kind -- it is not a military technothiller.

It is also notable as the last book to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction (awarded 1960) and also be the top bestseller of the same year.  After this, "literary" fiction would wander off into its own strange little world, too pure and rarefied to concern itself with trivialities such as "audience."

It is both great mainstream and great science fiction, and deserves attention as both.

Notes
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(1) - Drury refuses to directly identify the party affiliations of his characters:  he gets away with this by calling the parties "Majority" and "Minority" (which of course refers simply to their strength in the Senate).  However, Seabright Cooley, the senior Senator from South Carolina, is "majority" and would have to be a Democrat to have spent so long in the Senate from a Southern state; Munson is of the same party as Cooley, and of the same party as the President.  Therefore, the Democrats hold the White House.

(2) - Though he doesn't seem to have been a very serious one:  he belonged to some sort of tiny splinter cell  decades ago (the Soviets don't have him in their files of Communist Party membership) and it is far from obvious that he has any loyalty to the Soviet Union).  On the other hand, he does lie about his previous affiliation, and from the little he says specifically about his proposed foreign policy, it would indeed have constituted disastrous appeasement, probably leading to future wars.

(3) - It is perhaps difficult to explain to a modern audience just how much this would ruin Anderson's career, even though it was only a brief affair and Anderson is rather obviously at most weakly bisexual:  he is strongly attracted to women and has a wife and daughter.  It says something for Drury's own tolerance (by 1950's standards) that the sympathetic characters in the novel do not condemn Anderson for this, at most being a bit squicked.  (Senator Cooley doesn't want to hear the details, but then again he has his own secret Great Regret, discussed in his backstory).

(4) - In Come Nineveh, Come Tyre (1973)-- the darker of the two Alternate Histories springing from the cliffhanger-ending of Preserve and Protect, Fred Van Ackerman is one of the main architects of the Soviet-backed coup-from-above that leads to the effective covert conquest of the United States by the Soviet Union.  One of the glories of a free society is that the losers live to fight another day:  the same fact is also one of the weaknesses.

(5) - Hiss, of course, was an active and knowing agent of the Soviet Union, and hence much more of a traitor than the fictitious Leffingwell, who honestly believed that he was trying to bring about world peace and thus protect his country.  But Drury made an important point here, which bears repetition:  the active traitor may actually be less of a threat than the smug appeaser, because the traitor once revealed is de-fanged, while the appeaser is more likely to arouse sympathy.

(6) - Not just a matter of short-term prestige gains either:  there was also the military applications of superior rocket technology in the design of nuclear missiles, and the long-term implications of dominating the future colonization of the Solar System.

(7) - One could make a major case that the scope of the American victory in the Lunar race was bad for humanity as a whole, and even for America in the long run.  Because the Soviets never even managed to land anyone on the Moon, we faced no challenge and ultimately abandoned manned Lunar exploration.  Furthermore, Soviet sympathizers in the Western media then spun Lunar landings as an irrelevant achievement, in an obvious example of Sour Grapes.  It has only been in the last couple of decades that we have seriously returned to planning Lunar missions, and we are still far from launching a renewed manned Lunar program.

Spirit Animal Helpers to the Heroines in Western Animation

Has anyone ever noticed the prevalance of what might be termed "spirit animals" as helpers to the heroines in Western animation?

The "spirit animal helper" is easily recognized.  It attaches itself inexplicably to the heroine, either before the story or at some crucial moment of choice.  It may look normal or strange for its kind:  sometimes it looks normal but doesn't really belong in the area in which it is encountered.  It displays unusual intelligence, will subtly (or not so subtly) influence its mistress to make the right choice at a moment of indecision; and has exceptional abilities to notice and often combat spiritual threats (such as demons summoned by the main villain).  The heroine generally treats it as a pet or even best friend, though she may or may not be consciously aware of its nature and capabilities.

This is in addition to any Friend to All Living Things qualities which the heroine may display.  The heroine may be loved by animals, but this usually takes the form of normally-wild animals acting tame and friendly toward her.  If a particular animal (wild or tame) hangs around with her almost constantly and (even more) if it acts directly to foil the villain's schemes, it is a Spirit Animal Helper.

The earliest example of this that I can think of from a full-length Western animated movie are the mice from Disney's Cindarella, who make the first version of her ball gown.  The most exceptionally perfect cases of Spirit Animal Helpers in such movies which I can name are Pooka, the dog from Don Bluth's Anastasia, and Pascal, the chameleon from Disney's Tangled.

Pooka deserves a paragraph of his own.  He shows up apparently from nowhere at the precise moment that Anastasia is trying to decide whether to go to St. Petersburg (which never was and never will be called anything repulsive like "Leningrad"), and makes up her mind for her.  He perceives Anastasia's dream about the ball at the Winter Palace.  He is the first one to be aware of all three of Rasputin's attacks.  Oh, and the word "pooka" refers to a sapient animal spirit, and we know from the other movie that's part of Bluth's Russian canon (Bartok the Magnificent) that in that universe there are powerful supernatural forces taking an interest in the fortunes of the Russian royals.

Bartok is much more obviously a Spirit Animal because Rasputin can talk to him.  He seems to have been assigned as Rasputin's familiar, which given his history and personality implies that Rasputin was originally meant to be a heroic priest, but was corrupted by the forces of darkness.  (This is actually not too far from the historic Rasputin, who may at first have meant well but soon yielded to the temptations of power).  It's notable that throughout the movie, Bartok is horrified at Rasputin's plans to kill Anastasia, and keeps trying to get him to renounce evil in favor of harmless pleasures.  You could even summarize much of the movie as "Anastasia listens to her Spirit Animal Helper.  Rasputin doesn't."

Pascal is a chameleon in a vaguely-Iberian realm of fantasy counterpart Europe, which means that he's outside of his normal habitat.  Nobody knows how he got there, and Mother Gothel doesn't seem to notice his existence.  By providing company to Rapunzel, Pascal foils the witch's plan to make the magical girl totally dependent on her approval, and he repeatedly communicates via pantomime with both Rapunzel and Flynn.

Disney's Aladdin universe is chock-full of Spirit Animal Helpers, which is appropriate because so was the Thousand and One Nights itself.  Heroine, hero and villain are issued one apiece, though by the second movie Aladdin and Jasmine are an unbreakable team and Jafar's former familiar attaches himself to the winners.  Aladdin gets Apu the monkey (who is, oddly, a New World rather than Old World monkey), Jasmine gets Rajah, an Indian tiger (a bit more geographically plausible) and Jafar has Iago, who is some sort of South American macaw (again, New World, but then there are many modes of travel in Arabian myth).  All have greater-than-normal intelligence for their kinds, and Iago can talk (in complete syntactically-correct sentences).

In Balto II:  Wolf Quest, we get to see mostly-realistic animals interacting with Spirit Animals.  During the whole middle of the story, Balto and his daughter Aleu -- who are only slightly smarter-than-plausible wolf-dog hybrids (if we assume the same sort of Translation Conventions that apply to Happy Feet or A Deepness in the Sky are in operations) are led on a journey to save a wolf pack from starvation by a whole menagerie of their own Animal Totems (my wife, who is much into the concept of Animal Totems, thinks it's really trippy to see what essentially are animals with their OWN Animal Totems, especially when one stops to consider that Balto himself is the son of the White She-Wolf who is herself an Animal Totem, making both Balto and Aleu special for the same reason as were the greater Greek Heroes).

Disney's version of Pocahontas, being not only a Disney (literal) Princess (the daughter of the Powhatan, who is a native king) but also a (literal) Magical Native American (she's a shamaness who can manifest serious real-world powers), gets two Spirit Animal Helpers (Meeko the raccoon and Flit the hummingbird), a Spirit Mentor (Grandmother Willow) and to top it off seduces away Ratcliffe's pet dog Percy.  This may count as a sort of spirit overload and is conducive to parody, but in the movie it sure works.

Why it is that Spirit Animal Helpers are more attached to heroines than heroes in the Western animation tradition is not obvious, though it may reflect some sort of idea that women (especially maidens) are at one and the same time more spiritual (the Victorian concept of Exalted Womanhood or the pre-Christian concept of the Maiden as aspect of the Goddess) and more fundamental to life (women bear and raise babies) than men (who can rarely attain the purity of the Maiden or the Natural importance of the Mother.

It is interesting that it is more often villainesses than villains who get Spirit Animal Helpers.  This connects to the tradition of Evil Witchcraft, and before that to the concepts of the Fates and the Goddess in her aspect as the Crone.  Now, neither the Fates nor the Crone are inherently evil, but -- especially from the POV of the modern West, which is centered both on individual freedom (defying Fate) and youth (defying Age), these concepts of feminity are frightening (for that matter, they even frightened the ancients), so it is understandable that they would be seen as villainous in popular culture.