A Son of the Rock

This contains a collection of Science Fiction stories written in the traditional style. Well, the book was first published in 1961.

The Trouble with Emily by James M White is one of the author’s Sector General stories set in a giant hospital where the ailments of many different types of creature are investigated and – hopefully – cured. This one entails acclimatising a brontosaurus analogue to its new environment with the aid of a telepathic alien.

The title of The Dusty Death by John Kippax is slightly misleading. Its two main characters are on a trip to survey the crater Aristarchus on the Moon when their vehicle tilts over and sinks into the dust. One of them is claustrophobic. The story shows its age by referring to their being no ‘girls’ on the Moon.

Another Word for Man by Robert Presslie is the story of H’Rola, a shape changing alien who speaks in a voice like an organ, hauled up by a fisherman working from a remote island. The local priest, Pierre St Emilion, views the alien as close to the Devil. H’Rola turns out to be a trainee doctor with unusual methods of effecting cures.

The Railways up on Cannis by Colin Kapp is a light-hearted piece. Cannis-four is a planet riddled with volcanoes which makes the building – or, rather, reconstructing since the original system has been destroyed by a war – of railways more than a little problematic. It is obviously a job for the Unorthodox Engineers.

Machine Made by J T Mcintosh is set in a library where the Machine has been put in place to answer problems. The cleaner, Rose, is supposedly dim-witted but assiduous about her job. Despite warnings against interacting with it she acquiesces to one of the Machine’s requests.

But Who Can Replace a Man? by Brian Aldiss is set among a hierarchical group of agricultural robots whose orders one day fail to turn up – because there are no humans left in the city to send them. Some of them set off in search of a new role.

The Gift of Gab by Jack Vance is set on the planet Sabria where humans are extracting minerals from the sea water. Supposedly there are no intelligent indigenous life-forms (harming whom is against the law) but creatures called dekabrachs start killing members of a work crew. They are not the villains of the piece.

The Still Waters by Lester Del Rey features the space ship Midas, the last of the ion-blaster fusion driven ships, whose owner can no longer afford its upkeep and is trying to find a use for her.

Pedant’s corner:- a missing comma before a piece of direct speech, “the air in the lock whipped out into the void” (surely a terrible waste? Air on the Moon would be a precious resource and certainly recycled back into the main body of the base rather than vented out,) “stories of fisherman being lured by the Black One” (fishermen,) “Chablis’ conclusions” (Chablis’s,) Williams’ (Williams’s,) “a fission motor” (a fusion motor. It was being contrasted with fission motors.)