Galaxy Science Fiction, May 1955. Cover by Mel Hunter

It’s time for another retro-review of Galaxy Science Fiction!

This issue is from May, 1955 and features cover art titled “U-Turn Takeoff” by Mel Hunter. I used to be more stressed when driving to new places and trying to follow a GPS because I didn’t want to miss an exit or end up on the wrong road. But my wife shrugs if I make a mistake and says, “Just do a U-turn. I do it all the time.” Maybe the spaceship captain needed to adjust his launch like how my wife and I adjust our routes.

“The Dreaming Wall” by Gerald Pearce — Johnny Beck works in anthropology, stationed in a fabricated structure outside an abandoned, alien city on Fallon’s planet. His predecessor, who had continuously tested well psychologically, committed suicide. When Johnny begins having nightmares of death and becomes afraid of sleeping, he calls Major Castle for military assistance, even if it’s just one person to join him. Someone who could help him avoid the same fate as his predecessor.

Major Castle himself arrives at the structure the next day due to a lack of personnel, and the two of them delve into the mystery of the suicide as well as Johnny’s nightmares… nightmares that the major soon begins to share.

The tension between Johnny and Castle balances with the foreboding dread of death and nightmares to drive the story. The city has such an eerie quality to it — making it feel genuinely alien.

Pearce was an author of multiple stories, though this story is the first one listed on The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) and may be his first publication. But then again, my own author page in ISFDB fails to list my first publication, so there you go… and how do I get that updated?

Anyway, there’s also a link from ISFDB to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), where he’s listed as a writer for a few episodes of True Adventure (late 1950s) and The Magical World of Disney (1972) as well as a made-for-TV movie titled Hamad and the Pirates (1971).

“The Aggravation of Elmer” by Robert Arthur — Bill works in a small electronics shop. A girl named Doreen visits him, and she has a device that can short-circuit electronics within a short radius. She says it was a gift from her thirteen-year-old cousin, Elmer, who’s visiting from South America. She talks about all kinds of gadgets he’s created, but his current work is on aggravation.

Bill decides to visit Elmer to find out more about the various inventions. But when he arrives, he discovers that the entire garage of Doreen’s house is gone, as though a bomb exploded. And in that moment, Bill realizes Doreen mispronounced the name of Elmer’s final project.

It’s common for Galaxy’s editor, H. L. Gold, to put a lighthearted tale after a heavier one. This story fits that pattern. I realize I likely spoiled the ending with my description, but I really liked the setup and couldn’t help myself.

“The Middle of Nowhere” by Frederik Pohl — Mars is a dangerous place for humans. The air is thinner, and as the day heats up, the sap from smoke trees turns into gaseous heat. Beyond that is the danger of the Martians themselves, who use advanced technology to incinerate people or sandcars instantly.

As news arrives of an attack on the nearest colonized village, Will and Jack join a small group of other guards to help. They’re mustered by their leader with honest words:

“I won’t try to tell you that this is safe. It isn’t. But there’s at least a chance that we’ll get through – more of a chance, say, than the twenty-six survivors in Kelcy have if we don’t try it.”

The tension is heavy as the characters attempt a rescue, finding themselves under attack. Even after the story climaxes and resolves, the tale ends with a foreboding note, hinting at more to come. The story stands on its own, but that last sentence could have led to sequels or an expanded book, and as far as I know, Pohl never wrote more in this universe. I’d be happy to be proved wrong on this, of course.

“Sam, this is You” by Murray Leinster — Sam Yoder is a technician for the phone company. While repairing a broken line, he receives a call on it from himself, ten days in the future. His future self proves who he is through sharing things only Sam knows.

And then he explains how to set up a similar phone line in his own home so they can continue to speak on a regular basis. The other Sam promises a prosperous future, but as the present Sam acts on what he’s told, he only seems to find conflict with his girlfriend, his job, and life.

I don’t know that I’ll ever get tired of a premise as simple as this. Any kind of time anomaly, and I’m in. Someone calling themselves from ten days in the future? Let’s go! This one is on the lighter side with some humor mixed in, and it’s a quick read.

“Competition” by James Causey — A crew of four head to the new colony on Epsilon to figure out why they haven’t been communicating with Earth. When they arrive, they find all one hundred colonists dead. It appears as though there’d been a deadly conflict among themselves. They need answers before more colonists can be cleared to arrive, so they work long hours trying to discover the cause. But they can’t seem to find solid answers, even when new murders begin.

This story is told through a series of journal entries, and the ending surprised me. Causey did an excellent job of hiding character motivations and intentions through the limited point of view.

“A Woman’s Place” by Mark Clifton — Sam Eade and Lieutenant Harper escort a teacher known as Miss Kitty on a space voyage back to Earth. The main ship had wrecked catastrophically, forcing them to escape in the lifeboat the two men pilot. As they near Earth, they realize that the accident with the main ship was directly related to the space warper, and it not only destroyed the ship but flung them into an adjacent universe that is similar but completely different than their own.

I didn’t expect to find a parallel universe story in the early issues of Galaxy, but here we are. This has become a staple in cinematic comic book franchises for a while now. I’m usually a bit winded with this approach, but Clifton has his own take on the matter that works (probably because there wasn’t an abundance of such plots in 1955).

The issue also includes an article by Willy Ley and a book review by Groff Conklin. If you come across this issue somewhere, it’s worth a read.

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Matthew Wuertz’s project to review every issue of Galaxy magazine in order of publication began with the January 1950 issue. See all his reviews here.