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Horizons, v. 3, issue 3, whole no. 11, March 1942
Page 7
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HORIZONS ANOTHER YEAR OF UNKNOWN Some of Unknown's readers seem to prefer only those stories in which legendary and mythological fauna are brought into modern times. That sort of story is rapidly becoming worn out; after all, there are just so many creatures of superstition, and when each has been used several times in fiction it takes a superlative writer to hold interest on the theme. Bhottle Hop: 4. A beautiful title, and a very excellent story. That "Bottles With Things In Them" legend was a real inspiration. Very few Sturgeon stories fail to click, and it looks as if we shall never know whether it's a pseudonym of a famous author or not. Doubled and Redoubled: 3. There is one fatal objection to a story like this. Very early in the reading of it, you have a pretty good idea of the sort of jam the hero has gotten himself into. Then there's a tendency to rush right straight through it, partly to learn whether you guessed right, and partly because the author rarely bothers to make the incidents terrible interesting, but rather subordinates them to the main theme. This can't quite be tossed off by calling it an episode and no story -- for it's interesting -- but after you've read a few on the same sort of framework, they grow monotonous. Carillon of Skulls: 2. One of the very worst Unknown yarns of the year. Why such an excellent author and editor as Campbell is persists in occasionally dropping awful duds like this into print is something to worry about. Oscar: 2. This didn't very well click, either -- it's another story where the denouement isn't too obscure and the reader hurries to get there. It certainly gives no promise of the superb work Cartmill (and who is he, anyway?) turned out at the end of the year. The Professor's Hobby: 5. And Arthur can't seem to write for the fantastic and stf magazines as well as he does for Argosy. If Argosy pays as high word-rates as they're supposed to, doubtless he submits everything to them first, and rejects land in other magazines. That's not saying this particular thing is bad, though. The poem, "Fiction", receives a nice juicy 1. This thing has been written a thousand times before, and this particular attempt couldn't be called a good version of it by the widest stretch of imagination. The editorial has a sort of negative value in pointing out how deucedly hard it is to find detailed information on thingsthatgobumpinthenight. And we -- or rather, I -- wish the letter section were still being used. It's badly missed. [Illegible] April, 1941. Cover: No comment, as before mentioned. The Castle of Iron: 4. Quite a lot of items in Unknown are getting that figure; but then Unknown was perhaps bettered among the prozines last year by only Astounding. And of the two, we'd read Unknown first if an issue of both were awaiting perusal; Astounding, of course, being of more lasting worth. These Harold Shea stories really don't merit publication over certain things Campbell has published in the last few years -- but at that, they're probably more to be enjoyed by the general public. "The Mathematics of Magic" still seems best of the lot. The Forbidden Trail: 2, tentatively, because no impression of it remains other than a vague dislike. Jane Rice writes too much like a woman, anyway. They: 4. A bit better than the slightly and rather remotely similar "Ultimate Egoist" of last issue. Is this, by any chance, to be considered as on Heinlein's famous history of the future? If so, it's going to be pretty tiresome, reminding oneself that everything that happens in Heinlein's Astounding stories is ruled by something! Seems odd, too, that it should have been published under his own name. Slap me if I'm wrong, but this the only fiction under Heinlein's name that doesn't conform in one way or another. And stories like this one maketh one to wonder whether the compilers of the best-short-stories-of-the-year anthologies ever actually read a pulp magazine. Over the River: 4. Just a few more like this will make things monotonous, but they're still very nice and chilly. This isn't quite as successful as "It", but at least is the best vampire story in the past few years. The Haunt: 3. Not so much remains in the memory of this, either, and a good Sturgeon story stays with me for a long time. A Length of Rope: 3. Stories like this one usually appeal to me from their little prologues. One trouble is that usually the prologue has to be read at the end of the story once more, in order to understand thoroughly its meaning, for it's virtually impossible to remember everything that is said in those first few paragraphs through maybe ten thousand words. The situation is further complicated because often the material in the prologue is obscure until the story has been read, and even harder to keep
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HORIZONS ANOTHER YEAR OF UNKNOWN Some of Unknown's readers seem to prefer only those stories in which legendary and mythological fauna are brought into modern times. That sort of story is rapidly becoming worn out; after all, there are just so many creatures of superstition, and when each has been used several times in fiction it takes a superlative writer to hold interest on the theme. Bhottle Hop: 4. A beautiful title, and a very excellent story. That "Bottles With Things In Them" legend was a real inspiration. Very few Sturgeon stories fail to click, and it looks as if we shall never know whether it's a pseudonym of a famous author or not. Doubled and Redoubled: 3. There is one fatal objection to a story like this. Very early in the reading of it, you have a pretty good idea of the sort of jam the hero has gotten himself into. Then there's a tendency to rush right straight through it, partly to learn whether you guessed right, and partly because the author rarely bothers to make the incidents terrible interesting, but rather subordinates them to the main theme. This can't quite be tossed off by calling it an episode and no story -- for it's interesting -- but after you've read a few on the same sort of framework, they grow monotonous. Carillon of Skulls: 2. One of the very worst Unknown yarns of the year. Why such an excellent author and editor as Campbell is persists in occasionally dropping awful duds like this into print is something to worry about. Oscar: 2. This didn't very well click, either -- it's another story where the denouement isn't too obscure and the reader hurries to get there. It certainly gives no promise of the superb work Cartmill (and who is he, anyway?) turned out at the end of the year. The Professor's Hobby: 5. And Arthur can't seem to write for the fantastic and stf magazines as well as he does for Argosy. If Argosy pays as high word-rates as they're supposed to, doubtless he submits everything to them first, and rejects land in other magazines. That's not saying this particular thing is bad, though. The poem, "Fiction", receives a nice juicy 1. This thing has been written a thousand times before, and this particular attempt couldn't be called a good version of it by the widest stretch of imagination. The editorial has a sort of negative value in pointing out how deucedly hard it is to find detailed information on thingsthatgobumpinthenight. And we -- or rather, I -- wish the letter section were still being used. It's badly missed. [Illegible] April, 1941. Cover: No comment, as before mentioned. The Castle of Iron: 4. Quite a lot of items in Unknown are getting that figure; but then Unknown was perhaps bettered among the prozines last year by only Astounding. And of the two, we'd read Unknown first if an issue of both were awaiting perusal; Astounding, of course, being of more lasting worth. These Harold Shea stories really don't merit publication over certain things Campbell has published in the last few years -- but at that, they're probably more to be enjoyed by the general public. "The Mathematics of Magic" still seems best of the lot. The Forbidden Trail: 2, tentatively, because no impression of it remains other than a vague dislike. Jane Rice writes too much like a woman, anyway. They: 4. A bit better than the slightly and rather remotely similar "Ultimate Egoist" of last issue. Is this, by any chance, to be considered as on Heinlein's famous history of the future? If so, it's going to be pretty tiresome, reminding oneself that everything that happens in Heinlein's Astounding stories is ruled by something! Seems odd, too, that it should have been published under his own name. Slap me if I'm wrong, but this the only fiction under Heinlein's name that doesn't conform in one way or another. And stories like this one maketh one to wonder whether the compilers of the best-short-stories-of-the-year anthologies ever actually read a pulp magazine. Over the River: 4. Just a few more like this will make things monotonous, but they're still very nice and chilly. This isn't quite as successful as "It", but at least is the best vampire story in the past few years. The Haunt: 3. Not so much remains in the memory of this, either, and a good Sturgeon story stays with me for a long time. A Length of Rope: 3. Stories like this one usually appeal to me from their little prologues. One trouble is that usually the prologue has to be read at the end of the story once more, in order to understand thoroughly its meaning, for it's virtually impossible to remember everything that is said in those first few paragraphs through maybe ten thousand words. The situation is further complicated because often the material in the prologue is obscure until the story has been read, and even harder to keep
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