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Infinity #5
Infinity Five
New writing in speculative fiction.
Contents:
Introduction: How to Build Tomorrow by Robert Hoskins
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame by Robert Silverberg
In Between Then and Now by Arthur Byron Cover
Kelly, Fredric Michael: 1928-1987 by William F. Nolan
Nostalgia Tripping by Alan Brennert
She/Her by Robert Thurston
Trashing by Barry N. Malzberg
Hello, Walls and Fences by Russell Bates
Free at Last by Ron Goulart
Changing of the Gods by Terry Carr
Interpose by George Zebrowski
Grayworld by Dean R. Koontz
Isaac Under Pressure by Scott Edelstein
Contents:
Introduction: How to Build Tomorrow by Robert Hoskins
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame by Robert Silverberg
In Between Then and Now by Arthur Byron Cover
Kelly, Fredric Michael: 1928-1987 by William F. Nolan
Nostalgia Tripping by Alan Brennert
She/Her by Robert Thurston
Trashing by Barry N. Malzberg
Hello, Walls and Fences by Russell Bates
Free at Last by Ron Goulart
Changing of the Gods by Terry Carr
Interpose by George Zebrowski
Grayworld by Dean R. Koontz
Isaac Under Pressure by Scott Edelstein
208 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 1973
40 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 27, 2021
This is the fifth and last volume in the Infinity series of original anthologies of short science fiction pieces edited by Hoskins that Lancer brought out in the early 1970s. Hoskins went a bit overboard, in my opinion, in embracing "New Wave" styles and themes in this one. Lots of drugs and sex and almost incomprehensible narrative styles. I did enjoy the stories by Terry Carr, Ron Goulart, and Robert Silverberg (titled The Science Fiction Hall of Fame). My favorite was a novella by Dean R. Koontz, Grayworld.
February 16, 2016
This is the fifth and last (so far as I know) of the Infinity series of science fiction anthologies from Lancer Books. As mentioned in my review of Infinity Two, they’re heavy on the New Wave style of story, free to have sex scenes and rough language (but not yet skilled at their use) and experimental storytelling styles. The opening editorial mentions that SF has become a respectable genre for adults, but I’m not sure you could tell from this book.
SPOILER WARNING: I’m going to be giving away some of the endings.
“The Science Fiction Hall of Fame” by Robert Silverberg starts us off with one of the more experimental pieces, Short fragments from different stories cobbled together around the reminiscences of an avid science fiction fan who has a recurring nightmare about possible futures. It feels like Mr. Silverberg just grabbed random pages from rejected stories to fill out the length. At the end, the nightmare becomes reality, and the fear vanishes.
“In Between Then and Now” by Arthur Byron Cover is about two immortal and nigh-omnipotent beings that have been fighting since they can remember. One of them has a realization that his feelings have changed, but the other isn’t quite ready to accept this.
“Kelly, Frederic Michael: 1928-1987” by William F. Nolan is another “randomish fragments” story. Mr. Kelly is dying on an alien planet, and his mind slips back and forth.
“Nostalgia Tripping” by Alan Brennert has people listening to oldies radio, except that what precisely the oldies are, and the history that created them, keeps changing. It turns out that time travel has been invented and harnessed solely to change history to create these new “oldies” because 2003 is just that bleak. An interesting concept, but perhaps wasted on such a short story.
“She/Her” by Robert Thurston is about telepathic aliens whose planet is undergoing first contact with humans. Among the new concepts the visitors have brought with them is the significance of gender, as the humans innocently try to fit the aliens into their stereotypes. This is actually a decent story with a good try at thinking in alien mindsets.
“Trashing” by Barry N. Malzberg goes back to trippy as an assassin attempts to kill a madman who is spreading riots and disorder. Or is that really what’s happening?
“Hello, Walls and Fences” by Russell Bates is about an artist, or maybe an engineer, who’s asked to do something he finds repugnant by a wealthy man. Unfortunately, he’s got a wife to feed (this was back when most married women were expected not to have jobs) and his solo work doesn’t sell, so at the end he has to accept the rich man’s job. We never really find out what the process is or why the artist/engineer doesn’t like it.
“Free at Last” by Ron Goulart moves towards the silly. A man with a Wide Open Marriage in 1992 is cheating on it by having a secret affair with his invalid aunt’s nurse. Wide Open, of course, means no secrets. As part of this, he’s also concealing that his aunt is already dead. However, the man from the U.S. Department of Transition, which provides free funerals for all American citizens, is getting suspicious. This one has a lot of extrapolating Seventies California goofiness into the future. It’s maybe the best story in the issue.
“Changing of the Gods” by Terry Carr, on the other hand, takes a bitter approach to extrapolation. It is a future where all the mainstream religions have collapsed, to be replaced with the Ancient and Apostolic Church of Christ, Pragmatist. Yet they still have Fifties style ad agencies. Sam Luckman is a creative type for one of those agencies, which has been chosen by the Pragmatists to create an ad campaign for “family control” to battle the hideous overpopulation of the world. Luckman’s personal life is in the toilet, and his disgust with youth-oriented culture and the betrayal of his closest relatives boils over into the advertisements he creates.
Warnings for on-screen incest, pedophilia, castration, body horror. Also casual homophobia: “homosexual rapists” are said to haunt restrooms. This is all meant to shock, but just comes off as trying too hard. One begins to understand why Mr. Carr normally was restricted to editing.
“Interpose” by George Zebrowski has Jesus snatched from the Cross by cruel time travelers. Jesus is also an alien, not that it does him any good as apparently all his powers were withdrawn for the Crucifixion.
“Greyworld” by Dean R, Koontz is a full novella. An amnesiac man who is probably named Joel wakes up in a suspended animation pod in a deserted laboratory. After some wandering around, he runs into a faceless man and passes out. When Joel awakens, he’s still amnesiac, but is now in a New England country house with his hot wife and distrustful uncle-in-law. Several more layers of reality ensue. It’s similar in many ways to Keith Laumer’s Night of Delusions, which I reviewed earlier, but has a more stable (if highly implausible) ending.
“Isaac Under Pressure” by Scott Edelstein wraps up the volume with a quick joke story about unusual genie containers.
Overall, this collection has not aged well, and is only worth seeking out if you collect one of the authors whose story hasn’t been reprinted elsewhere.
SPOILER WARNING: I’m going to be giving away some of the endings.
“The Science Fiction Hall of Fame” by Robert Silverberg starts us off with one of the more experimental pieces, Short fragments from different stories cobbled together around the reminiscences of an avid science fiction fan who has a recurring nightmare about possible futures. It feels like Mr. Silverberg just grabbed random pages from rejected stories to fill out the length. At the end, the nightmare becomes reality, and the fear vanishes.
“In Between Then and Now” by Arthur Byron Cover is about two immortal and nigh-omnipotent beings that have been fighting since they can remember. One of them has a realization that his feelings have changed, but the other isn’t quite ready to accept this.
“Kelly, Frederic Michael: 1928-1987” by William F. Nolan is another “randomish fragments” story. Mr. Kelly is dying on an alien planet, and his mind slips back and forth.
“Nostalgia Tripping” by Alan Brennert has people listening to oldies radio, except that what precisely the oldies are, and the history that created them, keeps changing. It turns out that time travel has been invented and harnessed solely to change history to create these new “oldies” because 2003 is just that bleak. An interesting concept, but perhaps wasted on such a short story.
“She/Her” by Robert Thurston is about telepathic aliens whose planet is undergoing first contact with humans. Among the new concepts the visitors have brought with them is the significance of gender, as the humans innocently try to fit the aliens into their stereotypes. This is actually a decent story with a good try at thinking in alien mindsets.
“Trashing” by Barry N. Malzberg goes back to trippy as an assassin attempts to kill a madman who is spreading riots and disorder. Or is that really what’s happening?
“Hello, Walls and Fences” by Russell Bates is about an artist, or maybe an engineer, who’s asked to do something he finds repugnant by a wealthy man. Unfortunately, he’s got a wife to feed (this was back when most married women were expected not to have jobs) and his solo work doesn’t sell, so at the end he has to accept the rich man’s job. We never really find out what the process is or why the artist/engineer doesn’t like it.
“Free at Last” by Ron Goulart moves towards the silly. A man with a Wide Open Marriage in 1992 is cheating on it by having a secret affair with his invalid aunt’s nurse. Wide Open, of course, means no secrets. As part of this, he’s also concealing that his aunt is already dead. However, the man from the U.S. Department of Transition, which provides free funerals for all American citizens, is getting suspicious. This one has a lot of extrapolating Seventies California goofiness into the future. It’s maybe the best story in the issue.
“Changing of the Gods” by Terry Carr, on the other hand, takes a bitter approach to extrapolation. It is a future where all the mainstream religions have collapsed, to be replaced with the Ancient and Apostolic Church of Christ, Pragmatist. Yet they still have Fifties style ad agencies. Sam Luckman is a creative type for one of those agencies, which has been chosen by the Pragmatists to create an ad campaign for “family control” to battle the hideous overpopulation of the world. Luckman’s personal life is in the toilet, and his disgust with youth-oriented culture and the betrayal of his closest relatives boils over into the advertisements he creates.
Warnings for on-screen incest, pedophilia, castration, body horror. Also casual homophobia: “homosexual rapists” are said to haunt restrooms. This is all meant to shock, but just comes off as trying too hard. One begins to understand why Mr. Carr normally was restricted to editing.
“Interpose” by George Zebrowski has Jesus snatched from the Cross by cruel time travelers. Jesus is also an alien, not that it does him any good as apparently all his powers were withdrawn for the Crucifixion.
“Greyworld” by Dean R, Koontz is a full novella. An amnesiac man who is probably named Joel wakes up in a suspended animation pod in a deserted laboratory. After some wandering around, he runs into a faceless man and passes out. When Joel awakens, he’s still amnesiac, but is now in a New England country house with his hot wife and distrustful uncle-in-law. Several more layers of reality ensue. It’s similar in many ways to Keith Laumer’s Night of Delusions, which I reviewed earlier, but has a more stable (if highly implausible) ending.
“Isaac Under Pressure” by Scott Edelstein wraps up the volume with a quick joke story about unusual genie containers.
Overall, this collection has not aged well, and is only worth seeking out if you collect one of the authors whose story hasn’t been reprinted elsewhere.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 25, 2022
"The Science Fiction Hall of Fame" by Robert Silverberg: 9.5
- Much more a grappling with self and personal recrimination and self-hatred than any broader indictment of the genre, as it’s commonly held up to be, but fun worthwhile all the more, to see someone working out on page exactly what, I’m sure, many from-12-on sf readers have done at some point in their life.
- Much more a grappling with self and personal recrimination and self-hatred than any broader indictment of the genre, as it’s commonly held up to be, but fun worthwhile all the more, to see someone working out on page exactly what, I’m sure, many from-12-on sf readers have done at some point in their life.
April 1, 2025
Read only the story Grayworld by Dean Koontz. His earlier style of writing. Much of the story is somewhat overwrought looping with very slow progression. Eventually a huge dose of exposition. The world and situation is intriguing but not used well here. The full novelization is The Long Sleep under the pseudonym John Hill that I read previously. Also 3 out of 5 stars.
February 14, 2016
My first book of the year, and it was pretty much a waste of my time. It's a collection of 1973 experimental SF. I don't mean that in a good way, but experimental in terms of the reader's tolerance for unreasonable extrapolation of the social trends of the 1960s. Surely, by the 1990s we will all be tripping on LSD and having sex in the streets!
A few of the first stories ("The Science Fiction Hall of Fame", "Kelly, Frederic Michael 1928-1987") are composed of a strings of random paragraphs. Yes, I get it that there is a conceptual thread running through them, but not a plot.
The majority of the stories are just short pieces of little interest. However, I have to single one out. Terry Carr's "The Changing of the Gods" just continues to reach for whatever depravity can be inserted next, heedless of how they might work together. Its theme seems to be that the future will be offensive to those who can't keep up. Ugh.
Since almost half the book is made up of one novella, "Grayworld" by Dean R. Koontz, it deserves individual attention. In it, a man wakes up with amnesia in a strange artificial world, with actors attempting to deceive him about the nature of his existence. I did find this intriguing, and a puzzle to figure out the explanation behind it all. Fortunately, this is not one of those existential works with deliberately no explanation. Unfortunately, the ultimate explanation is kind of implausible. Still, the novella gets points for craft.
All in all, the rare good points do not carry the day for this book. Skip it.
A few of the first stories ("The Science Fiction Hall of Fame", "Kelly, Frederic Michael 1928-1987") are composed of a strings of random paragraphs. Yes, I get it that there is a conceptual thread running through them, but not a plot.
The majority of the stories are just short pieces of little interest. However, I have to single one out. Terry Carr's "The Changing of the Gods" just continues to reach for whatever depravity can be inserted next, heedless of how they might work together. Its theme seems to be that the future will be offensive to those who can't keep up. Ugh.
Since almost half the book is made up of one novella, "Grayworld" by Dean R. Koontz, it deserves individual attention. In it, a man wakes up with amnesia in a strange artificial world, with actors attempting to deceive him about the nature of his existence. I did find this intriguing, and a puzzle to figure out the explanation behind it all. Fortunately, this is not one of those existential works with deliberately no explanation. Unfortunately, the ultimate explanation is kind of implausible. Still, the novella gets points for craft.
All in all, the rare good points do not carry the day for this book. Skip it.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews