Avc;vsr TURN OFF THE SKY by Ray Nelson ROBERT A. HEINLEIN ISAAC ASIMOV Including Venture Science Fiction Turn Off The Sky ( novelet) RAY NELSON 5 Fred CALVIN W. DEMMON 44 Ferdinand Feghoot: LXIV GRENDEL BRIARTON 45 Science: T-Formation . ISAAC ASIMOV 46 Ubi Sunt? (verse) R. H. and KATHLEEN P. REIS 56 Glory Road (2nd of 3 parts) ROBERT A. HEINLEIN 57 Books AVRAM DAVIDSON 110 The Censors: A Sad Allegory TP CARAVAN 114 Sweets to the Sweet PAUL JAY ROBBINS 115 Letters 127 In this issue ••• Coming soon 4 F&SF Marketplace 129 Cover by Emsh (illustrating "Turn Off The Sky") Joseph W. Ferman, PUBUSHER Avram Davidson, EXECUTIVE EDITOR Isaac Asimov, SCIENCE EDITOR Edward L. Ferman, MANAGING EDITOR Tlui Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Vol-e 25, No. 2, Whole No. 141, Aug. 1963. Published monthly by Mereu~ Press, ltte., at .,111 a cot>y. An11ual subscrit>tion $4.50; $5.00 i11 Ca11ada a~~d tlui Paa A111erica• Ullioa; 15.50 ia all othn couatries. Publi· cation of/ice, 10 Fe~ Street, Concord, N. H. Editorial a11d general mail should be sent to 341 East 53rd St., Nr..u York 22, N. Y. Secoad Closs ~tag11 ~id at COtteord, N.H. Priatetl i• U. S. A. © 1963 by Mercury Press, Inc. All nglst.r, itteluding translations into ot~ languages, restlriJed. Submissions must be accomt>tmitld by .rtamt>ed, self4ddressed envelat>11s; the Publisher assumes no rest>onsibility for return of un.rolicittld manuscriPts. In this issue . is the second part of ROBERT A. HEINLEIN's three-part novel, GLORY ROAD: in which Oscar, his Lady, and his Squire face the infinite danger of the Never-Born in their quest for that puissant and precious article called the Egg of the Phoenix. Sharing the plupart of this issue with the l\laster is RAY NELSON, who enters, however, not as Apprentice but as a clearly accomplished Fellow of the Craft, in a short novel quite unlike anything we have published before. Also making a first appearance is our experimental LETTERS COLUMN-shall it appear again? What say you? TP CARAVAN offers a short, funny piece; CALVIN W. DEMMON returns with another fancy; and the roster of fictions is completed with the story of this number's second newcomer, PAUL JAY ROB· BINS, about the dangers of nigromantic metamorphoses. Coming soon ... is our first exemplum of modern Austrian SF-Dr. HERBERT FRANKE's The Man Who Feared Robots. For the many who like stories about things found in dusty old shops, we have such a one by TERRY CARR; do not expect, however, anything quaint or cute or fey from Touchstone. And, Your Servant To Command, after some absence, returns to the story pages of his favorite Magazine with Faed-Out, a tale of old and new Hollywood. Be sure to watch for our October All Star issue. ALFRED BESTER and ZENNA HENDERSON will be on hand, both with new novelets. 4 Introduction to Ray Nelson's TURN OFF THE SKY This story came to our attention four years ago and we have been waiting for the chance to print it. It is the author's first sale and we are as proud of it as he is. Asked to supply some information about himself, Ray Nelson says, "I know the kind of thing they have in blurbs. •Ray Nelson has been a • • : and there foUows a list of occupations as long as your arm. demonstrating the author's breadth of experience and inability to hold a steady fob. I could write one of those, aU right, because I, too, have never been able to hold a steady fob for long. I have been a silk screen printer, sign writer, cartoonist, IBM machine programmer and operator, Oreat Books salesman, fork-lift truck operator, beatnik poet (one slender book of Poems published, entitled, Perdita: songs of love, sex, and self-pity), movie extra, Abstract Expressionist, interior decorator (with a paint mixing stick in one hand and a bottle of Jack Daniels in the other), Dixieland banfo player, folknik guitar player and singer, bum, and etc. As to education, I have a BA in liberal arts from the ·university of Chicago and an Operation and Wiring Certificate for IBM machines from th£ Automation Insti­ tute of Chicago, I have also attended briefly the Art Institute of Chicago, and The Sorbonne; and have lived in or visited aU the states in the original48, plus Canada, Mexico, England, and aU th£ nations of free Europe. I am married to a [beautiful-Ed.] Nor­ wegian girl named Kirsten, whom I met while living in Paris and writing TURN OFF THE SKY. Wehaveafour-yearoldsonnamed Walter and live peacefuUy on unemployment· checks in El Cerrito, California. I was born Oct. 31, 1931, in New York, have brown hair and eyes, am a little overweight but planning to fast a week or so to get back to normal (have been overindulging myself in the Good Things of Life, like my wife's Norwegian cooking). Also I don't get much exercise these days, sitting in front of the type­ writer all day long staring at a blank sheet of paper trying to think of something clever." If Mr. Nelson's lust-completed novel of beatnik life in Chicago is anything like his story here, his last phrase is much too modest. The story is quite unlike anything you have ever read, and-but, then, you haven't read it yet, have you? Do so immediately. s TVBN OFF THE SKY lty Hay Nelson As usuAL, ABELARD RosENBURG ''I'm sorry, honey, but I don't came to the party stark naked ex­ know that word. What's an an­ cept for a briefcase full of left­ archist?" she asked. wing propaganda and two coats of "It is someone who is opposed paint below. The paint was a to the state." beautiful ice blue, forming a "How can you be opposed to the striking contrast to his black skin state? If there wasn't any state to and still blacker beard. He stood give us food, how could we eat? If in the doorway of the little book­ there wasn't any state to build store a moment, silhouetted against houses, where would we live? Gee, the blazing artificial aurora borea­ honey, you can't be serious." She lis in the sky; then when a few turned her round vacant eves on people had dutifully greeted him, him and stuck out her lmver lip. he entered and opened his brief­ "I define the state as an armed case. body of men," he said, "distin­ "Share my burden?" he asked a guished from other organizations young ballet ·dancer, handing her by its four particular functions: a thick fistful of printed and mim­ cops, courts, jails and taxes. Soci­ eographed sheets; ety does not need to rely on coer­ "Thank you just the same," said cion to function. All man's needs the dancer, "but I don't read that are supplied by cybernetic ma­ sort of thing. I'm sure. it's all very chines which function perfectly nice and all, but I am sort of anti­ well without any human inter­ political." vention, let alone government "So am I," said Abelard. "No­ supervision." body could be more anti-political "\Veil, perhaps that is true," than me." she said, "but if there were no gov­ "Do you belong to the Anti­ ernment, what would keep people Political Party?" from murdering each other and 'Worse than that. I am an stealing each other's property?" anarchist." He raised a finger skyward. The ballet dancer shook her "The need to steal and murder no head, purple pony tail swinging longer exists. There is more than behind her. enough of everything for everyone. 6 TUR~ OFF THE SKY 7 Nobody needs to take from some­ party without good old Abelard. one else." Why would anyone bate you?" she · She frowned, trying her best to asked, amazed. think. "First of all, I am a Negro." "Well, that's true enough of "So what?" some things, like food and cloth­ "Second, I am a Jew," ing and housing, but let's say I "You actually still go to church have a certain painting, a Boris and all that stuff?" Lee original, and someone else "No, as a matter of fact, I am an wants it," she postulated brightly. atheist." "You could work out an ar­ 'What's that?" rangement with that person to "It means I don't believe in lend the painting part time, or God." better yet, if you both liked the "Oh." She frowned again and painting that much, you'd have rubbed her nose with her purple enough in common to live to­ fingernail. gether." "And being an anarchist alone "Live together? What about might at one time have gotten me that, now?" she considered, "\Vhat thrown in jail." about crimes of passion?" She She crossed her arms on her rolled the word "passion" off the chest and thrust out her chin. tip of her tongue like a delicious "So what's the point?" she said. drop of old French wine. "Just this .•. all these pow­ "That's the job of education. erful fonns of passion ••• hate, Passion is just an excuse the prejudice, religious and political square gives to his conscience for intolerance, have been destroyed enjoying the sexual pleasures he by education. Sexual passion is wants even though his religion next to go." tells him it is wrong." His grin "Somehow," said the little was all teeth.