The Evolution of Science Fiction discussion

"A Tourist Named Death" by Christopher Anvil was published in "Worlds of If Science Fiction" magazine in May 1960. I haven't read it, but I have read some of Anvil's works & think I liked them. His biography in Wikipedia made me think he's a decent example of the writing that John W. Campbell Jr. published. As you know, Campbell was one of the most influential SF editors of the 1930s-1950s.

The story is free from Gutenberg.org in multiple formats here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60947

Jim wrote: ""A Tourist Named Death" by Christopher Anvil was published in "Worlds of If Science Fiction" magazine in May 1960. I haven't read it, but I have read some of Anvil's works & think I ..."

Decent Anvil story, though far from his best. Weak 3 stars from me -- it would have done a bit better, but that ending! It just stops. Still, for 1960, not bad.
There's a whole bunch of others available online for free:
https://www.freesfonline.net/, search for "Christopher Anvil"
I recognize hardly any. OK, old archive:
Pandora's Legions (E. Flint, ed) A-, update/reassembly of Pandora’s War. Very good. Have copy.
The trouble with aliens (collection) A-, fun old stuf. Last read 4-14

I also dimly recall liking "Interstellar Patrol." Here's a free copy @ Baen Free Library. Fixup of shrts, I think. http://baencd.freedoors.org/Books/Int...
Here's a sample chapter:
https://www.baen.com/Chapters/0671318...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christo... He wrote a lot of action-adventure SF, back in the day.

I didn't care much for this story, but some of that was just because I didn't understand too much at the end. When a few more people have read it, perhaps someone can explain it to me.

The idea of the mataformer was interesting at first, but like the rest of the tech it was just too magical & overused. I expected more from Anvil, although I'm not sure why. I think it was a lot of the same stuff that Peter posted, a early staple of the SF I read.

Yeah, don't give up on Anvil! He got better, later.

Peter wrote: "Yeah, don't give up on Anvil! He got better, later."

Good news. This writing is that awkward age kind of like Doc Smith's Lensmen or Skylark. It's tech heavier ERB's Barsoom series which was pretty much a western adventure with a bit of tech to make it SF. The tech wasn't used with any real limitations as it was in so many of the New Wave. Definitely reminded me of Campbell's Morey, Wade, & Arcott series.

I liked this story a lot, probably my favorite of the dozen or so old magazine short stories I've read. It's important to read the story as science fantasy, though, not pure SF, because the mataform tech certainly qualifies as magical.

I liked the constant action, the plot, and the world-building, which was all pretty effectively done considering how short the story was.

That said, it felt like there was a bit too much crammed in, as I was left with several questions:

What is spacerot, and why do people yell it and go nuts when Dan teleports the prisoner away?

"Then Dan was outside, in an underground part of the planet where no one was supposed to be without an official permit." - It's implied he teleported here, but when/how did he plant the mataform?

What was Kielgaard referring to when he said "I don't have the heart to tell you" and why did they shoot Dan at the end? I'm guessing one of the factions wanted him dead and used the obscure assassin rules to justify it?

Well, I worked my way through this one. It reminded me of some of the early Twilight Zone stories shown on TV. An alien planet ( Truth ) where the inhabitants are identical to humans as are their cities, and they speak English.

Mr Anvil correctly predicts modern drones with his gliders, but since I like hard science fiction the mataforms left me a bit perplexed, but this is all part of the storyline I guess.

If I wanted to criticise the story I have to say the ending confused me a bit, I still do not quite understand what the punchline was, but I enjoyed the read up to that point,

My guess is that Anvil forgot to send the last page of his manuscript and the magazine published it anyway. So when he found it lying under the table a month later he was embarrassed and never spoke a word about it.

I just got around to reading it and it wasn't the type of SF I enjoy. I believe it's the first thing I've read from anvil although I may have come across other short stories in anthologies in the past. It was basically a super agent dealing with the machinations of a heinous corporation. At least I think that's what it's about. I had trouble following all his "jaunting" around with the matter transporters. I also didn't understand the system on Truth concerning assassins and the flat writing keep me from being interested enough to work it out. The writing was very flat and repetitious with no high or low points or change of view. If the plot is typical of Anvil then I probably won't be looking for anything else by him to read. The ending was a little rushed and apparently Dan had to transport out to avoid death that appeared to be based on a Truthian technicality. And even worse Dan didn't get a chance to use all those mating credits he had accumulated!!!

Leo wrote: "My guess is that Anvil forgot to send the last page of his manuscript and the magazine published it anyway. So when he found it lying under the table a month later he was embarrassed and never spok..."

I like that explanation. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who didn't get the end.