Bill Platypus's
S F Paperbacks
Bowing to the demands of an importunate literary • editor, Platypus has taken up with science fiction this week. And first a familiar name, John Wyndham. Coronet have just republished The Secret People (30p), originally published in 1931. As its title and its date suggest, it has all the accoutrements of early fantasy. It is set in that year of impending doom and chaos, 1964, Mark Sunnet's airship — a technological marvel — crashes into an enormous cave. It is here that he comes across giant mushrooms, and an unkhown race of subterraneans. The adventures follow. In some ways a Clumsy narrative (I kept thinking of vast Hollywood sets), but it has pace and verve.
A rather more modern variant of the science fiction theme is Ralph Blum's The Simultaneous Man (Panther Science Fiction, 30p), There is praise from Chomsky and Margaret Mead on the cover, and Platypus suspects that this genre appeals as an easy form of social pastoral. It is easy to project pet theories, and even easier to substantiate them. This particular novel is concerned with a mind transplant, in which two men — a scientist and a prisoner — share the same brain. When one half of the tandem escapes to a foreign power, what is the other half to do, knowing that somewhere there is a man with the same memories, the same reflexes and the same knowledge? Mr Blum writes well in a , -rather staccato vein, and gives the technological intrigue a certain imaginative presence.
From Pan Science Fiction series, Day Million (35p) by Frederik Pohl. It is a collection of short stories by Mr Pohl, a writer who has gained a considerable reputation in this particular area. I find his stories a little coy, invaded by a nervous and bittersweet fantasy. These science fiction idylls are simply updated versions of any other form of romance, including Tarzan and High Noon. They are generally set in some indeterminate future, in Which astral creatures and alien worlds impinge, sting and die, Platypus prefers something with less Whimsy. And I was therefore more satisfied with the Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus (60p), edited-by Brian Aldiss. Penguins have a predictably large stake in this lucrative paperback market, and no doubt this omnibus will bring in its fair share of revenue. But with thirty-six stories, and over 600 Pages, it is worth its price. The list of authors testifies to the range and the almost classic status of this genre nowadays: Steinbeck, Clarke, Asimov, Ballard, Sheckley and others appear here. I turned to the Steinbeck tale first, and got something of a Shock, It had very little to do with anything remotely like science fiction. It is titled the ShortShort Story of Mankind, and is exactly that — a fantasised prehistory and a quick analogy with the League of Nations, I think the editor has cheated here, or science fiction is susceptible to a much Wider definition than I had supposed. Also from Penguin, Harry Harrison's Make Room! Make Room! (35p) which " is now filmed as Soylent Green." If you don't know already, it is the story of 1999 and it preys upon our conventional fears of over-population. The book is presumably welldocumented and there's even a rather portentous bibliography at the back, but Platypus persists in doubting the future which is imagined for us by novelists and politicians.
For science fiction which is definitely fiction, and not masquerading as prophecy, see Toyman by E. C. Tubb (Arrow Books, 35p). It is set in the improbably named planet Toy, and there is some predictable playing around with the implications. PupPets, games etc. It is one of these strange hybrid g (a creature which Platypus would naturally warm to) in which romantic fantasy is aligned with spaceage technology. The aliens all speak English, and their towns and implements are all given vague and Latinate names. I remember those films from the 'forties and 'fifties, when unknown ra4s talk like classical scholars run riot.
In a similar spirit, Mayflower Science Fantasy (distinct from 'fiction,' 1 wonder?) have published Michael Moorcock's The Eternal Champion (30p). It has a titillating cover, and is written in what can only be described as sub-epic diction. It is the story of Erekose, who is chosen to be Champion and free from space or time. There are lots of characters
• with splendid titles — king Rigenos, Lord Katorn and not forgetting the .qvil one, Azinobanna. PlatyPus is very gullible, butthefis not about to swallow this one. Mr Moorcock must be rather popular, since Unicorn Books have published his The Jade Man's Eyes (25p). This time the setting is the Bright Empire of Melnibone.
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