Including Venture Science FictiotJ The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth (novelet) ROGER ZELAZNY 4 Final Appeal J• H. BRENNAN 31 Low-Level Weather THEODORE L. THOMAS 39 Essentials Only JACK SHARKEY 40 Books JUDITH MERRIL 53 The End of Eternity ERNESTO GASTALDI 60 Tripsych RON SMITH 65 Illusion (verse) WALTER H. KERR 70 Better Than Ever ALEX KIRS 71 Science: Oh, East Is West and West Is East- ISAAC ASIMOV 80 Ado About Nothing BOB OTIUM, JR. 90 Uncollected Works LIN CARTER 93 Maiden Voyage (novelet) J. W. SCHUTZ 103 F&SF Marketplace 129 Cover by Ed Emsh (illustrating ttThe Doors of His Face, •••") / oseph W. Ferman, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER Isaac Asimov, SCIENCE EDITOR Ted White, ASSISTANT EDITOR Edward L. Ferman, MANAGING EDITOR Robert P. Mills, CONSULTING EDITOR The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Volume 28, No. 3, Whole No. 166, Mar, 1965. Published monthly by Mercury Press, Inc., at 50f a copy. Annual subscription $5.00; $5.50 in Canada and the Pan American Union; $6.00 in all other countries. Publi­ cation office, 10 Ferry Street, Concord, N. H. Editorial and general mail should be sent to 347 East 53rd St., New York, N.Y. 10022. Second Class postage f.aid at Concord, N.H. Printed in U.S.A. © 1965 by Mercury Press, Inc. All rights, inc uding translations into other laHguages, reserved. Submissions must be accompanied by stamped, self-addressed envelopes; the Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicit6d manuscrit>ts. Here is a good strong story with a good strong plot and good strong characters. It carries with it such a degree of conviction that we are half-persuaded that Mr. Roger Zelazny, its author, has himself been a member of the perilous profession of baitman in the perilous seas of Venus. Do not begin this story now unless you can read it right through, ignoring all interuptions. THE DOORS OF HIS FACE, THE LAMPS OF HIS MOUTH by Roger Zelazny I'M A BAITMAN. No ONE IS BORN illusion and the two middle fingers a baitman, except in a French nov­ become dozen-ringed archipelagoes el where everyone is. (In fact, I as the outers resolve into greengray think that's the title, We are All peninsulas; the thumb is too short, Bait. Pfft!) How I got that way is and curls like the embryo tail of barely worth the telling and has Cape Horn. nothing to do with neo-exes, but You suck pure oxygen, sigh pos­ the days of the beast deserve a few sibly, and begin the long topple to words, so here they are. the Lowlands. There, you are caught like an in­ The Lowlands of Venus lie be- field fly at the Lifeline landing tween the thumb and forefinger of area-so named because of its the continent known as Hand. nearness to the great delta in the When you break into Cloud Alley Eastern Bay-located between the it swings its silverblack bowling first peninsula and "thumb". For a ball toward you without a warning. minute it seems as if you're going You jump then, inside that fire- to miss Lifeline and wind up as tailed tenpin they ride you down canned seafood, but afterwards­ in, but the straps keep you from shaking off the metaphors-you making a fool of yourself. You gen- descend to scorched concrete and erally chuckle afterwards, but you present your middle-sized tele­ always jump first. phone directory of authorizations Next, you study Hand to lay its to the short, fat man in the gray 4 THE DOORS OF HIS FACE, THE LAMPS OF HIS MOUTH 5 cap. The papers show that you are and waterfront entrepreneurs not subject to mysterious inner rot­ make up the remainder of its in­ lings and etcetera. He then smiles habitants." you a short, fat, gray smile and I turned to Mike Dabis, a fel­ motions you toward the bus which low entrepreneur, and commented hauls you to the Reception Area. on the lousy state of basic re­ At the R.A. you spend three days search. proving that, indeed, you are not "Not if the mumbled truth be subject to mysterious inner rottings known." and etcetera. He paused behind his glass be­ Boredom, however, is another fore continuing the slow swallow­ rot. When your three days are up, ing process calculated to obtain you generally hit Lifelife hard, and my interest and a few oaths, be­ it returns the compliment as a fore he continued. matter of reflex. The effects of al­ "Carl," he finally observed, pok­ cohol in variant atmospheres is a er playing, "they're shaping Ten­ subject on which the connoisseurs square." have written numerous volumes, so I could have hit him. I might I will confine my remarks to noting have refilled his glass with sulfuric that a good binge is worthy of at acid and looked on with glee as his least a week's time and often war­ lips blackened and cracked. In­ rants a lifetime study. stead, I grunted a noncommital. I had been a student of excep­ "Who's fool enough to shell out tional promise (strictly under­ fifty grand a day? ANR?'' graduate) for going on two years He shook his head. when the Bri~ht Water fell "Jean Luharich," he said, •the through our marble ceiling and girl with the violet contacts and poured its people like targets into fifty or sixty perfect teeth. I under­ the city. stand her eyes are really brown." Pause. The Worlds Almanac re "Isn't she selling enough face Lifeline: " ... Port city on the east­ cream these days?" em coast of Hand. Emplovees of He shrugged. the Agency for Non-terrestrial Re­ · "Publicity makes the wheels go search comprise approximately 'round. Luharich Enterprises 85% of its 100,000 population jumped sixteen points when she (2010 Census). Its oth~r resi­ picked up the Sun Trophy. You dents are primarily personnel ever play golf on Mercury?" maintained by several industrial I had, but I overlooked it and corporations engaged in basic re­ continued to press. search. Independent marine biolo­ "So she's coming here with a gists, wealthy fishing enthusiasts, blank check and a fishhook?" 6 PANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION "Bright Water, today," he nod­ A doubting nod. ded. "Should be down by now. "Straight union rates. Triple Lots of cameras. She wants an time for extraordinary circum­ Ikky, bad." stances," he narrated. "Be at Han­ "Hmm," I hmmed. "How bad?" gar Sixteen with your gear, Friday "Sixty day contract, Tensquare. morning, five hundred hours. \Ve Indefinite extension clause. Mil­ push off Saturday, daybreak." lion and a half deposit," he re­ "You're sailing?" cited. "I'm sailing." ''You seem to know a lot about "How come?" it." "Money." "I'm Personnel Recruitment. "Ikky guano." Luharich Enterprises approached "The bar isn't doing so well and me last month. It helps to drink in baby needs new minks." the right places." "I repeat-" "Or own them," he smirked, aft­ ". And I want to get away era moment. from baby, renew my contact with I looked away, sipping my bit­ basics-fresh air, exercise, make ter brew. After awhile I swallowed cash ...." several things and asked Mike "All right, sorry I asked." what he expected to be asked, I poured him a drink, concen­ leaving myself open for his trating on H.SO., but it didn't monthly temperance lecture. transmute. Finally I got him soused "They told me to try getting and went out into the night to you," he mentioned. 'When's the walk and think things over. last time you sailed?" Around a dozen serious attempts "Month and a half ago. The to land lchthyform Leviosaurus Coming." Levianthus, generally known as "Small stuff," he snorted. "When "Ikky", had been made over the have you been under, yourself?" past five years. When Ikky was "It's been awhile." first sighted, whaling techniques "It's been o'!:er a year, hasn't it? were employed. These proved That time you got cut by the screw, either fruitless or disastrous, and a under the Dolphin?" new procedure was inaugurated. I turned to him. Tensquare was constructed by a "I was in the river last week, up wealthy sportsman named Mich­ at Angleford where the currents ael Jandt, who blew his entire roll are strong. I can still get around." on the project. "Sober," he added. After a year on the Eastern "I'd stay that way," I said, "on a Ocean, he returned to file bank­ job like this." ruptcy. Carlton Davits, a playboy THE DOORS OF HIS FACE, THE LAMPS OF HIS MOUTH 7 fishing enthusiast, then purchased I stood in the empty Square. the huge raft and laid a wake for The foggy towers of lJfeline lkky's spawning grounds. On the shared their mists. nineteenth day out he had a strike and lost one hundred and fifty Shoreline a couple eras ago, the bills' worth of untested gear, along western slope above Lifeline with one Ichthyform Levumthus. stretches as far as forty miles in­ Twelve days later, using tripled land in some places. Its angle of lines, he hooked, narcotized, and rising is not a great one, but it began to hoist the huge beast. It achieves an elevation of several awakened then, destroyed a con­ thousand feet before it meets the trol tower, killed six men, and mountain range which separates us worked general hell over five square from the Highlands. About four blocks of Tensquare. Carlton was miles inland and five hundred feet left with partial hemiplegia and a higher than Lifeline are set most bankruptcy suit of his own.