This book has some special meaning for me because I remember that my
brother-in-law (who introduced me to science fiction) had a copy of it when he
and my sister lived down the street from us in the early Seventies. I borrowed
it from him and read the title story, but I don’t think I ever got around to
the others. The stories in THE VORTEX BLASTERS were pulled from another
anthology edited by Sam Moskowitz, MODERN MASTERPIECES OF SCIENCE FICTION,
published by World Publishing Company in 1965. “Masterpieces” might be going a
little too far, but there are some good stories in here.
“The Vortex Blasters” (originally published in COMET, July 1941 under the title
“The Vortex Blaster”) was my introduction to the work of Edward E. “Doc” Smith,
PhD. (Gotta add the PhD after his name.) It’s set in the same universe as his
magnum opus, the Lensman series, and is sometimes counted as part of that
series although the only Lensman in the story is a supporting character. The
protagonist is an atomic scientist named Neal “Storm” Cloud. Earth has atomic
power, but it’s not very stable and will sometimes generate out-of-control
vortices, which are basically atomic tornadoes. One of those vortices kills
Cloud’s wife and children, and in his obsession for vengeance he comes up with
a way to destroy these violent forces of nature.
I enjoy Doc Smith’s work, but I’m not a huge fan. His prose is pretty stiff and
his dialogue usually sounds like nothing that ever came out of a human mouth.
But his ideas are always big and interesting and the stories move along well.
His stodgy heroes kind of grow on me, too. I enjoyed “The Vortex Blasters” when
I read it 40-some-odd years ago, and I enjoyed it when I reread it now, too.
That same long-ago summer, my brother-in-law and I both read Smith’s Skylark of
Space series. That was enough Doc Smith to last me for a good long while. He
had a huge influence on science fiction for decades, though.
Edmond Hamilton’s “Requiem”, from the April 1962 issue of AMAZING STORIES, is a
far-future tale about an expedition sent to explore a planet about to be
consumed by an expanding star and then observe its extinction. That planet, of
course, is Earth, the birthplace of the by now far-flung galactic empire. I
loved Hamilton’s pulp space opera stories, but late in his career he was
writing thoughtful, poignant stories like this that are even better. I liked
this one a lot.
Eric Frank Russell is almost totally forgotten these days (although I’ll bet
many of you reading this remember his work), but I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve
read by him. Good ideas and a nice undercurrent of humor running through all
his stories. “The Witness” (OTHER WORLDS SCIENCE STORIES, September 1951) is a
first contact story of sorts, with an alien visitor being put on trial for
possibly being a spy for a race that wants to invade and conquer Earth. Russell
has a lot of fun with the legal system. This is another good one.
Lester del Rey’s “Kindness”, from the October 1944 issue of ASTOUNDING SCIENCE
FICTION, is also a far-future story in which a new, super-smart mutation of
humanity, homo intelligens, has
replaced good old homo sapiens . . .
except for one guy. His fate has a bittersweet taste to it that echoes
Hamilton’s “Requiem”. I’ve never been a big fan of del Rey’s work and this
story is maybe a little too predictable, but it still has some nice touches to
it.
“—We Also Walk Dogs” (ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION, July 1941, under the pseudonym Anson McDonald) is part of Robert
A. Heinlein’s Future History series. It’s the story of a company that hires out
to do any sort of legal job, no matter how seemingly impossible, and how they
manage to set up a diplomatic conference for various alien races and in the
process come up with an unexpected bonus. I’ve read a lot of Heinlein’s work
over the years (he was my brother-in-law’s favorite SF author) but don’t recall
ever reading this story before. The prose is as smooth as always and I love the
premise, but I don’t think Heinlein did as much with it as he could have. Still
a good story.
Fritz Leiber is another author I usually like, but his story “Coming
Attraction”, originally published in the November 1950 issue of GALAXY SCIENCE
FICTION, was kind of a miss for me. Set in New York City after it’s been
semi-devastated by a limited nuclear war, it’s mainly about how women have
started wearing masks over their faces as a fashion trend, inspired by
anti-radiation garb after the war. I’m not sure why it didn’t work very well
for me, but it didn’t. A little too much of a kitchen sink story, maybe, with
lots of changes in society but no real point to any of them. Or maybe I’m just
dense.
Then we come to the final story in this volume, Henry Kuttner’s “We Guard the
Black Planet!” (SUPER SCIENCE STORIES, November 1942). Now this is the real
deal! A hardboiled Norwegian spacer throws in with a couple of shady characters
to track down the origin of the Valkyrie myth on Earth. Seems he’s got this
golden armband with the directions to a legendary invisible planet engraved on
it, and the inhabitants of that planet are supposed to be beautiful winged women
who visited Earth in the far distant past and gave rise to the stories of
Valkyries bearing fallen warriors off to Valhalla. This is by far my favorite
story in this anthology. Kuttner’s prose is colorful, imaginative, and very
fast-moving, and the story has some decent scientific background to boot. I
really enjoyed it. My kind of SF.
So all in all, THE VORTEX BLASTERS is a pretty strong anthology, with a couple
of excellent stories (“We Guard the Black Planet!” and “Requiem”), several very
good ones, and only one that I didn’t care for—and it wasn’t terrible. I’m glad
I finally got around to reading the whole thing after so many years.
