1943 - Year in SF&F: Reviews

THE WONDER TIMELINE: SF&F RETROSPECTIVE Read other issues here ---------------------------------------------- Fredric Brown "The Angelic Angleworm" © Unknown worlds, Feb 1943 Angels and Spaceships, 1954 --/ cool f story --/ wonder award --/ idea award: glitch in the "matrix" --/ humour award There are certainly some glitches in the world's fabric. There are also... spelling errors! Fredric Brown has written a hilarious tale of the world unraveling slowly, thread-by-thread - sort of like an experience from the "Truman Show" - because somebody in charge messed up the world's script, or admitted some spelling errors into the everyday run of things. I especially enjoyed the novella's first chapters where our poor hapless hero encounters things like an inexplicable (and highly confused) duck (as in "duck, the bird") inside a locked museum glass case, or worms that float up into the sky without going to all that trouble of turning into butterflies first. Fredric Brown's work in the weird pulps during the 1940s is highly recommended, with stories like "Come and Go Mad" or "The Geezenstacks" - and these were heavily anthologized, so will not be hard find. (review by Avi Abrams) ---------------------------------------------- Henry Kuttner "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" (as by Lewis Padgett) © Astounding, Feb 1943 The Best of Kuttner 2, 1966 --short fiction : 1971 Astounding All-Time Poll /21 --novelette : 1999 Locus All-Time Poll /28 --/ third place sf story --/ idea award --/ style award Children can deal with unknown phenomena better than adults, mostly because the world around them is still unknown and represents a mystery that they discover as they grow up. Parents should not mess with their kids imagination (trying to subvert it to something more manageable) even if for the reason that the imagined might turn out to be true. In fact, parents should NEVER barge unexpectedly into a child's bedroom... Teddy bears with ugly demeanors and bad-tempered plushy toys may suddenly get revived for no particular reason. In case of this story the mysterious objects are quite benevolent and non-threatening, other than totally re-wiring the kid's minds. These children start to see the world like Picasso saw it, or worse. Calvin might've better described it to his Hobbes, but Kuttner does a pretty good job, keeping our interest in "what is it they are REALLY seeing?" Of course the movie shows everything "loud and clear", which is only another argument to go and read the original story first. Hopefully the general public recognizes that behind pretty average production values of "The Last Mimzy" movie lies a brilliant, most fascinating storyline by the incomparable Henry Kuttner. And Kuttner's inspiration were of course the "Alice" books by Lewis Carroll. (review by Avi Abrams) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Henry Kuttner "Wet Magic" © Unknown Worlds, Feb 1943 --/ third place fantasy novella --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ style award --/ humour award --/ emotion award --/ rare find This novella proves once more that Henry Kuttner could write top-notch fantasy better than most acclaimed writers in the past, present and foreseeable future. Most of you know about his magnum fantasy opus "The Dark World", but here the narrative tone is lighter, humor is ever-present, and the suitably convoluted, inventive plot is crowned with an epic ending - which may arguably show this whimsical, playful piece to be the best Arthurian fantasy ever written. I could add here "dear reader, read it and judge for yourself" - but unless someone puts this novella online, there is little chance you'll get your hands on it. Other than its original publication in a rare pulp, it's only been reprinted once, in an obscure anthology (so perhaps it's all a conspiracy to hide the embarrassing fact of how well a "high fantasy" adventure can be written? - so that massive brain-dead volumes of modern "epic" fantasy could continue to flood bookstores, to be bought by readers who simply don't know any better) Truly, misadventures of a WWII pilot who stumbles into a Magical Kingdom (hidden inside a humble English country lake), then proceeds to mess up with Morgan Le Fay and gets his hands on the Excalibur, are amusing enough - but as the ending approaches, a reader would want this hilarious romp to continue and not turn the last page; as is often the case with Henry Kuttner's all-too-short short fiction. ---------------------------------------------- Fritz Leiber "Conjure Wife" (nv) © Unknown Worlds, Apr 1943 book: Macmillan, 1953 Dark Ladies, 1999 --all time fantasy novel : 1987 Locus All-Time Poll /28 --/ fourth place f novel --/ idea award --/ romance award --/ style award All too often Fritz Leiber gets overlooked when people talk about the geniuses of fantasy and science fiction, or even sword and sorcery, which Leiber had a huge role in developing. Leiber is a brilliant stylist, with a poetic and lyrical voice that floats off the page like music; his characters are vivid and real without becoming melodramatic, and his stories are deceptively simple, which just shows that he can do a lot with ideas that appear to be small. "Conjure Wife" is one of his best books, full of snappy details and totally real-feeling characters. Written in 1943, the plot concerns Professor Norman Saylor who discovers his wife, Tansy, is in fact a witch. Initially annoyed, he asks her to get rid of her charms and such, but then realizes that Tansy just doesn't have a hobby, and that there are other spell-casters out there not as loving or kind as his wife – witches who want Saylor and Tansy dead … or at least out of the way. As said, that sounds easy … simple, but in the hands of a master like Leiber, Conjure Wife becomes a haunting and powerful book, one that works its own form of unique and powerful magic on anyone who reads it. Conjure Wife -- in fact anything by Leiber -- is something everyone should read. Just be warned: if you do, you too will come under Leiber's wonderful spell. Review by author M. Christian ---------------------------------------------- Return to the Wonder Timeline

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