1961 - Year in SF&F: Reviews

THE WONDER TIMELINE: SF&F RETROSPECTIVE Read other issues here ---------------------------------------------- Estelle Frye "The Face in The Mask" © Fantastic Stories, Jun 1961 --/ second place sf story --/ wonder award --/ emotion award --/ idea award --/ style award --/ rare find This story can be potentially life-changing, if you only let it - and seriously disturbing, if you don't. The subject matter will stay with you for days, and may haunt you until the solution is found. Similar to J. G. Ballard's dystopias, this masterful tale uses the surreal and the absurd as a powerful force, aimed directly at your subconscious. Everybody who ever struggled for identity inside an urban jungle, who tasted totalitarian propaganda, or been wounded by the impossibility of escape (in its broadest sense) - will savor every word; all other readers, too, will be immensely entertained. Heads above anything published in the field in years, this tale somehow managed to languish in the total obscurity for the past 50 years... This could be hard to explain, except for the fact that it was the first and ONLY piece Estelle Frye ever wrote! Apparently she had said everything she wanted to say (in a few carefully chosen words) and then fell silent ... People in this story are trapped in an artificial, soul-killing environment (reminiscent of "The Truman Show") with all sense of identity and destiny seemingly lost to them. They go around in masks and pointlessly gaze at the painted landscapes around the city. The countryside is not much better. Soon there is only one thing left: to turn away from your own misery and start helping others, one person at a time. But then, such choice is almost always the hardest. review: 27-Dec-07 (read in 2007) ---------------------------------------------- Return to the Wonder Timeline

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