Weekly Short Stories: 1960 Science Fiction, Part 3

Here I conclude my look at science fiction short stories from 1960 as they appeared in the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 22 (1960).  Two were very brief and two were pretty long...I preferred the former although the longer ones did each make me reflect a little on the nature of our reality.  Here are my reactions to these four stories...

CHIEF by Henry Slesar
In this very short tale, a party of "whites" following a nuclear war land on a isolated, primitive society's shores, hopeful that here they can escape the dire effects of the holocaust...as well as impress the native population with their "superiority", as expressed by the strange machine they display that emits many clicking sounds when held up to themselves. (but not the natives).  You just know this tactic is going to backfire, but the last sentence makes it all worth reading anyway...

MIND PARTNER by Christopher Anvil
This is one of those stories that play with the reader's sense of what is real and what isn't...at its conclusion I still wasn't clear.  There is a new drug floating around that gives makes its users strongly dependent...but the addiction isn't for new heightened experiences but rather to forget them.  Intrigued?  A man is hired to infiltrate the gang pushing the drug from their mansion...and right off the bat the illusions ensue.  Hold onto your hat with this story: it's quite a ride...

THE HANDLER by Damon Knight
The Handler is also very short, but like Chief its message packs a big punch...and in today's world of shallow, narcissistic celebrities and politicians that millions idolize it is also very relevant.  One of those shallow celebrities has just finished a performance and is backstage congratulating the various people responsible for propping him up...and everyone around thinks he is the greatest.  Then he mentions his Handler...and the absurdity begins.  The message here is that even when people know someone is a complete phony, they'll still uncritically hinge on every word he or she says: you don't have to look very far on the news or Twitter to see this...

THE VOICES OF TIME by J.G. Ballard
Powers is a research neurologist in the not-too-distant future...life is running down, with terminal sleeping comas increasingly affecting the population: his own waking hours are dwindling down as the days rush by and he tries to finish his business before the end.  An associate leads him to the underlying reason for the sped-up entropy pervading the world: the entire universe is dying, and much quickly than ever thought.  In a story where there's not much to be done, instead the author lays it out differently, creating a mood piece that accentuates the hopelessness and resignation.  It makes reading it more challenging, and I'm not sure it couldn't have been just as effective if written in a more plain style...but that's just my opinion for what it's worth...

Next week I begin my look back at the year 1961 in short science fiction...