I continued reading (again) through the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 12 (1950) as I have four more science fiction tales to review that came out that year so long ago. Here they are...
THE ENCHANTED VILLAGE by A.E. van Vogt
Bill Jenner is the only surviving member of an exploratory mission to Mars, crashing into the desert about two hundred miles from the polar ice cap...a destination he needs to reach by foot to get the needed water for survival. But the desert is proving impassable, and he realizes that he will probably die there. Then he sights what looks like an abandoned "village", clearly designed for what used to be that planet's indigenous beings. But the food the automated system there provides is gross and indigestible, the shower burns his skin, and there is a very dissonant, unpleasant screeching sound pervading the area. Realizing that this village will not help him to survive, Bill descends into a deep, "final" sleep. But then there's the ending to this story, one of the greatest ever I've encountered in this genre...
ODDY AND ID by Alfred Bester
It's off in the future and Oddy, namely Oddyseus Gaul, is a seemingly normal boy except for the fact that events around him, apparently working in random fashion, always seem to come together to bring him luck. This trait of his eventually becomes known to some men of different professions and they debate what to do with this individual, since they regard him as potentially very dangerous as he gets older...or can they train him somehow to only desire what is for the general good of society? And that is where "Id", the second part of the story's title, kicks in and delivers a knockout ending...
THE SACK by William Morrison
On one of the asteroids is discovered the "Sack", a motionless-but-sentient being, almost indistinguishable from the surrounding rocks and resembling a potato sack...hence the name. The astronauts exploring there become aware of someone speaking inside their heads...and offering stunningly accurate answers to their questions. Once the Sack's existence and powers of knowledge are revealed, some devious, powerful elements in government decide that they want to control it...but the Sack has a will of its own and insists on just one man to be its nexus to the outside, a man alone among the others who it knows is honest. To that I would add "far-sighted and compassionate" as his virtues. For me at least, The Sack paints an allegorical picture of how humanity over the millennia have tended to regard and treat other life forms only by the standard of how much they themselves can benefit from them. This story points to an alternative way of seeing things...
THE SILLY SEASON by Cyril Kornbluth
Once again cynical Mr. Kornbluth comes up with another tale ripping on the society around him...this time it's about the weird stories that often get reported as news. A newspaper reporter, during a period of slow news activity, has to look for special interest stories to report on...this is called the "silly season" because, well, the stories appearing during this time tend to be just that. The Silly Season is a sci-fi adaption to the old "Boy Who Cried Wolf" children's tale...the main difference is that unlike in that old traditional story, it's the "wolf" here that's pulling all the strings. Not my favorite Kornbluth story...I much preferred The Little Black Bag, which I reviewed back on 8/7...
Next Wednesday I continue reviewing science fiction short stories from 1950...
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