Continuing along with my brief reviews of science fiction short stories from way back in time, I'm getting near the end of the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 1 (1939). I read four more tales...next week I'll conclude this book...
HEAVY PLANET by Milton A. Rothman
The genre of science fiction is often divided by fans between stories of a "hard" nature...trying to stick with science, often getting a little bit technical in the process...and "soft" sci-fi, which often gets more into metaphysics and fantasy. This particular story is of the former type as the author, himself a physicist, speculated what kind of life could live on a planet much more massive than ours, where beings whose matter is very dense could rip through thick metallic spaceship wall as if it were paper. An Earth ship has crashed on this planet and the mad dash is on between warring camps to retrieve a secret that may help them discover how to finally escape the prison of their world's intense gravity. A very intriguing tale, and quite educational...
LIFE-LINE by Robert Heinlein
A man claims that he can pinpoint to the day when anyone will die and is heckled by an antagonistic body of scientists assembled to hear him. He skirts the necessary scientific principle of revealing his process so that others can independently test his theory and instead makes a business out of his discovery...in the process making an enemy out of the life insurance industry as his believers and customers grow. The ending seems to present a moral of sorts...maybe we aren't meant to know when it will all end for each of us...
ETHER BREATHER by Theodore Sturgeon
A humorous story, Ether Breather speculates on the possibility of higher-frequency life in the context of the then-budding technology of color broadcasting. It seems that some practical joker out there is taking the signals and distorting them into parodies, outraging the people on the receiving end of the broadcasts. It's all a mystery to everyone...until the end, when the protagonist does something amazingly foolish...
PILGRIMAGE by Nelson Bond
It is 3478 A.D. and humanity...at least in what used to be the United States...has regressed to numerous tribes led by women. Men are either running around in the wild or being confined and used only for reproduction...and their numbers have dwindled to the point of threatening the species' survival. Young Meg of the Jinnia tribe, upon reaching womanhood, tells the Mother...that group's leader...that she doesn't want to be assigned to the specialized roles in that society, but rather wants to eventually succeed her as the Mother. This is agreed to, and Meg's education commences. The culmination is a long pilgrimage, by Meg alone, to the four gods they worship. The Mother promises her great revelation when she reaches them. But all is not as it seems, and Meg learns a great deal about their past...men played a much greater role after all. This story seems the most dated of the four, and gender stereotypes, while examined, are also being reinforced...but we are talking about something written back in 1939. I could see from early on where the story was going...glad it was short!
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