Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, Vol. 83, No. 2, April 1969

by John W. Campbell Jr. (Editor), Mack Reynolds

Analog Science Fiction / Science Fact, April 1969 (Vol. LXXXIII, No. 2) edited by John W. Campbell, with cover art by Kelly Freas and interior illustrations by Kelly Freas and Leo Summers. Fiction and non-fiction contents The Five Way Secret Agent, part one of a two-part serial by Mack Reynolds; Opportunist, a short novel by Guy McCord; Cultural Interference, a novelette by Walter L. Kleine; Hey But No Presto, a short story by Jack Wodhams; They're Trying to Tell Us Something, the conclusion of a two-part science fact article by Thomas R. McDonough; and The Whole World Is Watching, an editorial by John W. Campbell. Regular features The Analytical Laboratory; In Times to Come; The Reference Library, with book reviews by P. Schuyler Miller; and Brass Tacks, with letters from the readers.

178 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1969

About the author

John Wood Campbell, Jr. was an influential figure in American science fiction. As editor of Astounding Science Fiction (later called Analog Science Fiction and Fact), from late 1937 until his death, he is generally credited with shaping the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction.

Isaac Asimov called Campbell "the most powerful force in science fiction ever, and for the first ten years of his editorship he dominated the field completely."

As a writer, Campbell published super-science space opera under his own name and moody, less pulpish stories as Don A. Stuart. He stopped writing fiction after he became editor of Astounding.

Known Pseudonyms/Alternate Names:

Don A. Stuart
Karl van Campen
John Campbell
J. W. C., Jr.
John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell

Reviews

[Kevin Phyland]

Due to the vagaries of pseudonyms, Mack Reynolds dominates most of this issue. First, with part one of “The Five-Way Secret Agent”, we see Rex Bader, private eye on Negative Income Tax, offered a job to gather intel on disaffected citizens in the Soviet Complex by a representative of a global multinational, or cosmocorps. Intent on a corporate global government, their plans leak and Rex is then offered much the same job by the Mob, two governments and anarchists! An interplanetary travel agency called Intersol uses psi to send people from one place to another, but when a few start disappearing an investigator finds a rogue outfit in “Hey But No Presto” by Jack Wodhams. The dangers of “Cultural Interference” are highlighted when a spaceship crashes on Earth and both the Russians and Americans, believing it possible to build one, start to do so, in Walter L. Kleine’s tale. Mack Reynolds fills out the rest of the issue (as Guy McCord) with the novella “Opportunist”. On the planet Caledonia, settled by Scottish immigrants who have taken on some Native American traditions like counting coup, John of the Hawks has apparently been banished by his own people to the mining colony, where a personal and social revelation takes place.