Weekly Short Stories: 1949 Science Fiction, Part 4

I conclude my look back at the year 1949 in the realm of short science fiction, by means of the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 11 (1949) with three more stories.  By the way, almost all of the stories in this retrospective year-by-year series of the best in this genre were first published in monthly science fiction pulp magazines, and Astounding Science Fiction...edited by John Campbell...had dominated this field for years.  But by the end of the 1940s other publications were cutting in on Astounding, which is reflected in this book's selected stories.  Campbell, in the early 1950s, would become enamored with L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics, something that turned established writers like Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein away from him.  And now, here are my reactions to those final three tales...

DEFENSE MECHANISM by Katherine MacLean
Jake, young father, who early in his life recalls having E.S.P. before it faded away, is keenly aware that his baby boy is endowed with the same talent, greatly multiplied to the extent that little Ted is continually expressing his thoughts inside daddy's mind.  Ted also likes to mentally follow wild rabbits, and one day there's one in distress...Jake goes out to investigate and the story climaxes from there.  To me, Defense Mechanism made a big point: little children are often imbued with great potential and talents, but traumatic events in their very impressionable young lives can destroy the development of these skills to the point where they become faint memories.  This story's title says it all...

COLD WAR by Henry Kuttner
A few weeks ago I reviewed Kuttner's story Exit the Professor, which also concerned itself with a backwoods family reminiscent of the Beverly Hillbillies but who were extraordinarily talented, knowledgeable, and long-lived: the Hogbens.  They're back, this time combating the Pughs, a neighboring family bent on conquering the world through little Junior, who has the ability to hex people.  Not as good as the first story, but still good enough for a few laughs...

THE WITCHES OF KARRES by James H. Schmitz
A space trading captain...who kind of reminded me of Hans Solo...is trying to make enough money to impress his own planet's skeptical ruler to allow him to marry his daughter.  On a different planet he finds himself unwittingly rescuing three girls...all sisters...from their plight of slavery there.  They are the "witches" and each has her own special personality and talents.  As the captain tries to return them to their home world of Karres, the girls keep causing mishaps along the way...getting him further and further into trouble.  A funny, rather long story, the shenanigans here reminded me a little of another great old 1960s sit-com, this one I Dream of Jeannie, where the title character keeps "blinking" poor Major Nelson into one predicament after another...

Next week I'll start looking at science fiction short stories from 1950...