2 minor stories

Both are online via scans of Astounding, July 1950.

1. [ss] Ford McCormack's "Skin Deep" (B): A human party, aided by a member of an elder alien race, are investigating another alien race. So they kidnap a local for examination in lab, only the local was a beauty queen about to give a major stage performance. So the kidnapping became a major issue.
2. [novelette] Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Heir Apparent" (as by Lawrence O'Donnell) (B): This one has a rather complex plot.
   
   Computers used to solve problems of this solar system spanning humanity are so complex they need a minimum of 7 humans ("Integration Team") to operate them. A team that interacts with computer & other team members via special equipment that lets the personality of the team merge - to yield something far smarter than any ordinary
   human.
   
   When a member of a team was dismissed for not being fit, he joined Venusian rebels that want to split from earth. And for them, he put together another, very unusual,
   Integration Team.
   
   Hero will foil this rebel Integration Team.

"Astounding Science Fiction", July 1950 (ed John W Campbell, Jr) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review

Link on author fetches more fiction by author. Where I have a separate post on a story, link on story title goes there. For stories I've read, my rating appears in brackets.

I've not read Heinlein's non-fiction piece, "Destination Moon", noted on cover.

Table of contents (best first).

1. [ss] Eric Frank Russell's "Exposure" (A): Bad luck dooms alien invasion of earth.
2. [novelette] C M Kornbluth's "The Little Black Bag" (A): A bum finds purpose in life...
   
   Collected in SF Hall of Fame, #1. 
3. [ss] James E Gunn's "Private Enterprise" (as by Edwin James) (A): Taking charge of a country by overtaking its economy...
4. [ss] Ford McCormack's "Skin Deep" (B): A human party, aided by a member of an elder alien race, are investigating another alien race. So they kidnap a local for examination in lab, only the local was a beauty queen about to give a major stage performance. So the kidnapping became a major issue. 
5. [novelette] Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Heir Apparent" (as by Lawrence O'Donnell) (B): Hero helps contain a political rebellion plot. It's a complex story with elements of cyborgs, swarm intelligence & waves that can make an island invisible!

Fact sheet.

Labeled: Vol XLV, No 5.
Download scans as a cbr file. [via David T @pulpscans]
Related: Stories from Astounding/Analog, only issues edited by John Campbell, only whole issues; old "pulps"; 1950s.

The origins of Barry N Malzberg's pseudonym "K M O'Donnell"

Rich Horton tells us at rasfw that "it's a tribute to Kuttner, Moore, and one of their best known pseudonyms, Lawrence O'Donnell."

Related: Stories of Barry N Malzberg.

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The Children's Hour" (as by Lawrence O'Donnell) (novelette, love story, free): Earth as playpen for kids of super-aliens!

This is supposed to be one of the better known stories of authors, though I cannot see why. It's not a bad read, but the best works of these authors tend to be superlative.

Story summery.

A job qualification requirement made Sergeant James Lessing undergo psychoanalysis. And the good doctor, Lieutenant Dyke, discovers a major block in his mind - something that his unconscious keeps suppressing.

Slow work over many sessions with unravel what the unconscious doesn't want to see. His courtship of Clarissa - a very unusual girl, with an even more unusual "aunt"...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, March 1944.
Download full text.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John W Campbell, Jr.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore (as by Lawrence O'Donnell); Fiction from 1940s.

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "This is the House" (as by Lawrence O'Donnell) (novelette, haunted house, free)

There are a lot of familiar themes here - I'm not sure which of them this story originated, & which it just used. But a very good read. Sort of ... spooky version of authors' "The Twonky" (download).

This also must be among the earliest stories about nano-tech.

Story summary.

Bob Melton, his wife Michaela, & his brother-in-law Phil, have recently moved into a new house. Only, they've been having weird experiences:

1. "Red ice" in the refrigerator.
2. Coal furnace in the basement that burns without consuming coals!
3. Weird noises barely registering with consciousness.
4. Occasional feeling of complete disorientation; when normalcy returns, a lot of time seems to have passed.
5. Windows that sometimes refuse to open; other times yield easily.
6. Door bell that Bob doesn't hear, but Michaela can feel (though not hear)!
7. ... it goes on & on.

As the story unfolds, we will learn that the previous owner, John French, was probably not human at all. And he seems to have done some "renovating" inside the house for his own comfort, without affecting the house's exterior...

Quotes.

1. "The previous tenant probably rewired the house."
   
   "Who was he? Einstein? Or a Martian?"
2. "Machines can be so simple they're unrecognizable."
3. "Machines in the walls".
   
   "Very simple and very complicated. And unrecognizable. Paint is just paint, but you can do a Mona Lisa with it."
   
   "So French coated the inside walls with paint that acts like a machine?"
   
   "Invisible and intangible—how should I know? As for those noises at night—"
   
   "Well?"
   
   "I think the house is just recharging itself".
4. "Eventually the world of the future—I think—won't be burdened with immense, complicated gadgets. Everything will be so simple—or seem so simple—that a man from the twentieth century might find it quite homelike, except for the results."
5. Psychiatrist: "Half of my patients are slightly nuts, and, as long as they don't know it, they get along fine."
6. On effect of environment on human psyche: "Lock a kid up in a dark closet, and he's apt to be afraid of the dark ever after."
7. "If you had to move into a Ubangi hut and stay there. You wouldn't have anything in common with the natives, would you?"
   
   "What would you do?"
   
   "Change the huts a bit. Especially if I wanted to pretend I was a Ubangi, too. I wouldn't alter it outside, but I'd fix it up a bit inside, for my own convenience, and I wouldn't let anybody else come in. Chairs instead of grass mats. I wonder how French had this place furnished."
   
   ...
   
   "Why would a white man live in a Ubangi village? To study ethnology or entomology, perhaps. Or for the climate. Or simply to rest—to hibernate."

See also.

1. Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains" (download): One of the best known stories featuring an automated live house that keeps on serving long after the original tenants are gone.
2. Clifford D Simak's "The Big Front Yard": Well known story where the aliens quietly renovate the house, no need to ask permission of its human owner... And the resulting house becoming something else altogether!
3. Larry Niven's "Wait It Out": A hibernating man - alive but time seems to be moving rather slowly...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, February 1946.
Download full text.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John W Campbell, Jr.

Related.

1. Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore (as by Lawrence O'Donnell).
2. Tuesday Classics;
3. Fiction from 1940s.

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Clash by Night and Other Stories" (ed Peter Pinto) (collection): Annotated table of contents & review

Of the 5 included stories - 2 novella length, 2 novelette length, & 1 short story - one is outstanding, another descent enough. Rest, while not crappy, aren't A-grade either.

Three of the stories are variants of their other well known stories - one a good variant, others so-so. One of the stories is online.

My ratings are in brackets.

Table of contents (5 stories, best first).

1. [novella] "Vintage Season" (as by Lawrence O'Donnell) (A); Astounding Science Fiction, September 1946; time travel, doomsday:Uncaring future time travelers visit our time on vacation to enjoy a major disaster!
2. [novelette] "The Ego Machine" (A); Space Science Fiction, May 1952; humor: A variation on "The Proud Robot". A movie script writer in Hollywood has been conned into signing a very unprofitable contact, & is seeking contract release. He gets help from unexpected quarters.
3. [novella] "Clash by Night" (B); read online (no download); Astounding Science Fiction, March 1943; war: Description of a war in a society where countries don't keep militaries, but hire the services of independent military companies for both attack & defense! Set on Venus.
4. [ss] "Juke-Box" (B); Thrilling Wonder Stories, February 1947; mysterious gadget: A variation on "The Twonky". A jukebox in a bar is a very competent spying machine of alien origin!
5. [novelette] "When the Bough Breaks" (B); Astounding Science Fiction, November 1944; generation gap: A variation on "Mimsy Were the Borogoves", with some darker shades of "Absalom" mixed in. A baby is a superman - the first of the new race "homo superior", causing much anguish & heartburn in his parents.

Fact sheet.

First published: 1980.
Related: All stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore, Lawrence O'Donnell (their joint pseudonym).

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Vintage Season" (as by Lawrence O'Donnell) (novella, science fiction): On a dark side of human nature

Note the author is a pseudonym of Henry Kuttner & C L Moore couple.

Amazing thing about this story is it makes such a light read while addressing a very dark subject. All the dark issues are brought up near end; most of the story simply builds anticipation & develops characters.

Story is set at a time that is 1,000 years after "Charlemagne's coronation at St Peter's on Christmas Day". I've no idea of what date that would be.

Story summary.

Oliver Wilson owns a "time-worn old house" that he has leased out for a month to holidayers. In May. Month seems to have a significance - but I didn't quite get it apart from "there never was a May like it in civilized times". The house also has servants who go home after serving dinner (I wonder if that says something about the period in which the story is set).

After he signed lease documents, he received a very very lucrative offer for sale - provided he sells before May end. Buyer is not interested in buying afterwards. His fiancee, Sue Johnson, has been nagging him to accept the offer, but he cannot find a way out of earlier lease.

On appointed day, the original tenants arrive. Sanciscos, three of them - a man named Omerie, & two women named Klia, & Kleph. They want him to get out of the place during lease period; he refuses - planning to make a nuisance of himself to force them out. He won't succeed.

Through the story, there is a certain mystery associated with the visitors. They refuse to tell where they come from, but they have amazing gadgets.

During climax, we will learn that they are time travelers from far future - where you have ample leisure. They are on an year long vacation - at different places & times, "a tour of a year's seasons. Vintage seasons."

A few days before the end of may, we see the other bidder try some underhand tricks to kick the current tenants out - without success. On the final day of the climax - we are not told if this is last day of May - the tenants receive a lot of guests. Turns out there are a lot of time travelers enjoying this May here.

Sometime in the night, the disaster hits. A meteor has hit somewhere close by, pretty much leveling the city. Everything is in chaos. But this house is left untouched.

Turns out, these visitors from future came to watch the spectacle! They not only knew about the disaster (& that this house will survive), but could have prevented it. But they are looking at people so far back in time, they don't feel any bond; visitors are we, locals are they. And besides, may be the intervention here will affect their cozy future - though no one has attempted to even find out.

In between, we also have a short romance between Oliver & Kleph. While most time travelers will promptly leave after watching the spectacle, one future artist - Cenbe - will remain. He will watch the aftermath; then go back to his time & present his composition to great applause.

In a final sad thread, Oliver makes a written note about the incident for any future time travelers that might have some pity. He has not yet figured out how to deliver it to them, when local administration will dynamite his home - along with his note & presumably him - "part of the futile attempt to halt the relentless spread of the Blue Death." "Blue Death" is apparently a deadly disease triggered by this meteor impact.

Notes.

Among the many gadgets that the story talks of, 2 have remained with me:

1. A tiny machine that produces "subsonics" that drives human listeners crazy. This idea also appears in another Kuttner/Moore story, "The Proud Robot".
2. Tea cups that heat their contents as necessary.

See also.

1. Rahul Jaisheel's "21 Minutes" is a less drastic variant of this story.
   
2. According to IMDB, 1992 movie "Timescape", directed by David Twohy, is an adaptation of this story.

Collected in.

1. Ben Bova (Ed)'s "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two A".
2. "The Best of C L Moore".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding Science Fiction, September 1946.
Rating: A
Listed among the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore, as by Lawrence O'Donnell.