Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 47 — page 114: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION anthology that was reprinted from the magazines in which the stories appeared. So many reprintings should testify to the stories’ worth. They are worthy. Each of the ten stories in this volume without doubt deserves the permanent form which has been conferred upon them. Another high recommendation for this one. Thirdly, from S & J we have HOLE IN HEAVEN (9s. 6d.), by F. Dubrez Fawcett. This book is most disappointing. The publishers have tried the ex- periment of getting established authors in other fields to turn their hands to science fiction, and HOLE IN HEAVEN is the first in the series. It is not science fiction. It is not a good story. It is not well written. This is unfortunate because it might predispose the reader against the rest of the series, and they might be good. Angus Wilson, who is edit- ing this series, says in his Note that science fiction in general exhibits a dearth of real characters and that one of the aims of this series is to produce science fiction with real charac- ters. Reading the book, one feels that the author has been given a brief, a blue-print that he valiantly strives to trans- mogrify into a story—and 113 lamentably fails. Every charac- ter in the book is stock, made of cardboard, reached down off the selves of ready-mades that form part of the hack writer’s equipment. Fawcett is not a hack writer, of course. In trying to meet the conditions laid down for his story, he has tried so hard that he has over- reached into the hack-writer’s domain. The plot is a badly formulated pseudo-fantasy that harks back to the pulp weird formulas. It is developed dully and tritely. Maybe the whole idea of the series is ill- conceived. However, the author cannot be excused for the incredible mistakes in his description of life in a Cottage Hospital and the medical fraternity generally. Regret- fully, not recommended. BEACHEADS IN SPACE is & collection of stories edited by August Derleth and published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson (7 Cork Street, London, W.1) at 9s. 6d. It contains seven stories, by five American and two British authors. The quality is somewhat mixed, as is often the case with Derleth collections. On the whole, however, the lowest quality stories are still good enough to just deserve preservation between boards. The best comiclooolks.conn =