Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 42 — page 148: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

. FICTION BOOKS We don’t want to give away the plot of The Humanoidy by Jack Williamson (Museum Press Science Fiction Club, 63 Old Brompton Road, London, S.W.7., 9s. 6d.) because it’s fairly good, but it’s difficult not to do so without not dealing properly with the inept handling by which the author succeeds in killing it. Basically, the story is about the conquest of Earth (and the universe) by mechan- ical monsters, invented by a long- dead scientist, controlled remotely from some far-away place. These robots gear their whole activities around the “Prime Direc- tive,” which is “To Serve and Obey, and Guard Man from Harm.” The plot revolves around the fact that it is the last of these three injunctions that is most significant in the robots’ scheme of thinking. It turns out that practically everything man does can be construed as harmful, even when he likes doing it. And the 147 robots, available in gigantic num- bers, carrying circuits that amount to high intelligence, turn the human race into a set of miserable slaves— or else inject them with a drug that makes them think and feel like euphoric children. Well, that’s an idea. It’s a good idea. It could be handled in a way that would bring out the essential relativity of things and values. It could be used to dig deep into man’s soul in search of something that had a real and enduring entity. It could be made to throw into high relief the tragic, pathetic attempts by apparently well-mean- ing people to shield the human race from harm—indeed, it could serve as a basis for exploring the concept of harm; to pin down just what this term means, right now and in the long run—if it has any meaning. But Williamson does none of these things. He uses this quite brilliant and evocative idea merely as a vehicle for carrying a some- comiclooks.corn