|
                                                                                       |  7
     and generally a good story); and "The Psychical Invasion", by Algernon Blackwood. |
     I liked the Blackwood a lot, although there are some very bad points to it; I     |
     really think the writing is poor. Judge for yourself.                             |
                                                                                       |
     FAMOUS SCIENCE FICTION; Summer, 1968 (#7); 50cents. 3 New Stories                 |
                                                                                       |
          This magazine is the kind of reprint magazine AMAZING ought to be -- if in   \_____
     fact it _ought_ to be a reprint magazine at all. (I think some reprint magazines
     are good. We don't need major SF zines going reprint on us like AMAZING did.) I per-
     sonally think this the best SF reprint zine there's ever been. (FAMOUS FANTASTIC
     MYSTERIES _et_ _al_ were something, but they were fantasy zines. MoH is trying to be
     somewhere like WEIRD TALES, not so much FAMOUS FANTASTIC. Marginal: I think that this
     is Lowndes' (the man who also edits _Magazine of Horror_) second best zine; MoH is older
     and editorially, a little more "polished".) FSF reprints from the Gernsback WONDER.
     Gernsback's WONDER turned out to be better than his own AMAZING (at least to me because
     WONDER used more new material). In FSF you're getting material that hasn't been seen
     since STARTLING had the Hall of Fame reprints, and then...a reprint companion.
          In review: "Men of the Dark Comet" is a novella by Festus Pragnell. It's somewhat
     effective, playing up to the "sense of wonder" more than to the story, I felt. "The
     Elixir" (Laurance Manning) is nice mood; unfortunately it trails off (it being the
     end of five part series.) It's too bad that Manning didn't steal from Olaf Staple-
     don, and written about a Starmaker....
          Those are the reprints. You get a _nice_ story by Robert Silverberg (albeit that
     this one's not as good as the one he did for DANGEROUS VISIONS); you get a middlin'
     good Philip K. Dick story -- a somewhat gross-out typething, unfortunately; and a
     trick-ending gross-type story by Gerald W. Page. The Silverberg is the "wonder" aspect
     type of story that Lowndes is looking for, I'd say.
          Another good point is the editorial. This one actually explained some of my own
     feelings about SF;and believe me, those feelintgs are very deep. I'm glad I read it.
          This is a _good_ zine. Try and get it.
     
                               MORE PROZINE REVIEWS NEXT MONTH.
          (ERRATUM: Last issue or so, we said that Lowndes' magazines had all gone bimonth-
     ly. This is a falsehood, unfortunately. Only MAGAZINE OF HORROR is bimonthly, FSF
     and STARTLING MYSTERY being quarterly (and WORLD-WIDE ADVENTURE irregular)...but the
     first three magazines _do_ take subscriptions at the rate previously mentioned (6 for $2.50.)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
             /\/\/\ \|/ 
       NEWS |/\/\/\ -*-\/\/\/| BRIEFS
                    /|\\/\/\/
     
            Here are shorts on late or crowded out news; more for sure soon.
     
     Harl Vincent (Harold Vincent Schoepflin) died May 5th. He was a   veteran writer of
     SF; he sold his first story to AMAZING in 1928. Mr. Vincent's last story appeared in
     IF, September, 1967. ... Rights have finally been granted for the reprinting of the
     rest of Robert E. Howard's "Conan" stories. Lancer will publish the rest of the Conan
     Saga in paperback by the end of the year (apparently.) ... A Conan pastiche by Lin
     Carter will appear in the first issue of the new Lester del Rey-edited (and GALAXY-
     published) zine, WORLDS OF FANTASY.... The Melbourne,Australia SF Conference was termed
     "Minicon". If worse comes to worse, Minn-Stf has the "rights"to the name; we used it
     first. Actually, there will be little problems: Melbourne's in another       country,
     and "Minicon" is a colloquialism for them -- it's the only name the Minnesota convention
     has had. ... There will be a fanzine review section next issue. ... A. E. van Vogt has
     sold Frederik Pohl "The Proxy Intelligence" for IF. This story is a sequel to the old
     classic, "Asylum". A third story, "I.Q. 10,000" will be written, published in IF, and
     put together with the other two stories to form a novel-length book. ... After ten years,
     an SF group has been formed again in Chicago. The first meeting was held April 16th.