James Nicoll Reviews

1979’s Destinies Aug – Sept ​’79 is the fourth issue of the first volume of Destinies, the ​“paperback magazine of science fiction and speculative fact”¹. Destinies was edited by Jim Baen, who is credited as James Baen on the cover and James Patrick Baen within.

Honestly, I thought I would have reviewed more issues of Destinies by now.

While I usually have a good idea where and when I purchased books, this issue of Destinies stands out. I acquired it during an August 1979 trip to San Francisco, in a science fiction bookstore near the Tenderloin, not too far from the O’Farrell Theatre. To maximize return per unit area, the store-owner crammed in as many books as he could, to the point that the aisles were one person wide. I am sorry to say that the two details not engraved in my mind are the name of the store or its proprietor. I should have remembered it, because discovering it was up there with my first trip to Bakka.

Amongst the books acquired were many Ace books: Silverlock, The Adolescence of P‑1, Legacy, The End of Summer, The Web Between the Worlds², Thor’s Hammer, and of course this issue of Destinies³. It was a pretty good trip!

Destinies was a magazine in book form, a bold gambit to adapt magazines to the marketplace realities of the late 1970s. Alas, it’s run only lasted eleven issues. I don’t know if that was due to flagging sales or to the fact that Jim Baen made his move to Tor⁴ about the time Destinies folded. Later bookazine efforts from Baen had even fewer issues, so maybe bookazines are just not viable. At least Destinies outlived Baen’s previous magazine, poor doomed Galaxy.

I do have one criticism of the book, which has to do with the ads. Not that there were ads. I love reading the ads in SFF books. However, in this case the ads are in the middle of the books, as is the order form one was to use to order them. There is no way to use that form without destroying the book. Who treats paperbacks like disposable entertainment?

In any case, Destinies Volume 1, Number 4 was a joyous jumbo of vaguely right-wing hardish SF of the sort I hoovered up in 1979, which has aged just about as well as you’d expect from that description. This issue’s focus was space promotion. In retrospect there was another running theme: stories James bought several times. Ah, well. Authors have to pay the mortgage somehow.

As with previous issues, the masthead is a who’s who of SF: the publisher was Thomas Doherty, whom you may know as the founder of Tor books and a silent investor in Baen Books. Editor Jim Baen was known for his work at Galaxy, Ace, Tor, and Baen. Art director Charles Volpe was well known in his field. Susan Allison is a well-known editor. I cannot place Ed Lenk and I suspect that’s only because I am looking in the wrong places.

The art in this issue is by Alicia Austin, David Egge, Bea Font, and Stephen Fabian. The cover is by Dean Ellis. About the only artist who mashes my late 1970s/early 1980s SF magazine nostalgia as hard as Fabian — so many Galaxy illustrations! — is Janet Aulisio (who does not appear in this issue of Destinies).

Skystalk • novelette by Charles Sheffield

A terrorist plot forces the protagonist to explain orbital towers in great detail.

Previously reviewed here. At least a good four months went by between the first time I purchased this story and the second time.

How to Build a Beanstalk • essay by Charles Sheffield

A non-fiction piece on orbital towers. As I mentioned the first time I reviewed this essay and the story that preceded it, “[a]bout the same amount of exposition as the story before it and only slightly less characterization.”

Sheffield managed the trifecta of publishing a short story, an essay, and a full novel about orbital towers in August 1979. Too bad for Sheffield that Arthur C. Clarke’s The Fountains of Paradise⁵ was also focused on orbital towers and beat Sheffield to print by seven or eight months. More details when I review the books in question at some point in the future. 

Some Events at the Templar Radiant • [Berserker (Fred Saberhagen)] • novelette by Fred Saberhagen

An ambitious researcher exploits a disabled but relentlessly homicidal killing machine. What could possibly go wrong?

This story was also included in Saberhagen’s September 1979 The Ultimate Enemy, also from Ace.

The Limits to Knowledge • [New Beginnings] • essay by Jerry Pournelle

A report on that year’s American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting.

Alas, JEP often veers off into what he wishes the AAAS were discussing, rather than what they did discuss. One detail jumped out at me: he explicitly mentions the risk of CO₂-driven climate change (but also the risk of the coming ice age).

“Frogs and Scientists” • short story by Frank Herbert

A frog pundit explains human behavior to a junior.

This is comedy. Not terribly funny but also short. Mercifully, it has not inspired a dozen terrible, novel-length sequels from Herbert’s untalented son.

An Open Letter from Robert A. Heinlein • essay by Robert A. Heinlein

DO SPACE NOW, in Heinlein’s increasingly bombastic voice.

The L‑5 Review #1 • essay by Alcestis R. Oberg

Excerpts from the L‑5 Society proceedings. The L‑5 Society were space exploitation proponents, specifically of O’Neill’s space stations funded by solar power satellites.

Spider vs. the Hax of Sol III (Destinies, August-September 1979) • essay by Spider Robinson

Spider Robinson reviews Visions and Venturers by Theodore Sturgeon, Tales from Gavagan’s Bar by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, The Schimmelhorn File by Reginald Bretnor, Spacial Delivery by Gordon R. Dickson, Murder & Magic by Randall Garrett, The Best of Analog by Ben Bova, Convergent Series by Larry Niven, Other Times, Other Worlds by John D. MacDonald, The Best of All Possible Worlds by Spider Robinson, Retief’s War by Keith Laumer, Yargo by Jacqueline Susann, Tomorrow and Beyond by Ian Summers, Beauty and the Beasts: The Art of Hannes Bok by Hannes Bok, The Third Book of Virgil Finlay by Virgil Finlay, The Art of the Fantastic by Gerry de la Ree, Space Art by Ron Miller, The Magic Goes Away by Esteban Maroto and Larry Niven, Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre, The Door into Fire by Diane Duane, And Having Writ … by Donald R. Bensen, and Capitol by Orson Scott Card.

Robinson crams in more commentary than one might expect from the limited word count. I don’t always agree with his conclusions, but the only item I’d take exception to is his commentary about Yargo. It was indeed a terrible book… but he had not actually read it.

Aside from the Sturgeon, a writer whom I never much liked, and the art books, I have read most of the books mentioned, very likely because of Robinson’s review. Rereading this piece made me want to revisit some of them. I feel a bit sorry about the Robinson review I have slated for later this month, but not so sorry that I will refrain from writing and publishing it.

“Liquid Assets” • short story by Dean Ing

Who has weaponized the oceans’ cetaceans? The answer is surprising!

Also directly relevant to current headlines, which was a bit unexpected.

Vehicles for Future Wars • essay by Dean Ing 

What vehicles will populate tomorrow’s battlefields?

Ing is rather optimistic about some technologies — I never got the appeal of ground effect vehicles — and rather unexpectedly unreasonably pessimistic about others, specifically tanks.

I was less than delighted when I worked my down the stack to discover that this essay was also featured in Bretnor’s Thor’s Hammer.

“But We Try Not to Act Like It” • short story by Orson Scott Card

The nanny-state forces a bookworm to watch ineptly curated television until the poor fellow goes stark raving mad.

Darn that nanny-state! Darn it to heck! If only it had left terrible algorithms to private enterprise.

Science Fiction and Science, Part Four: The Science Fiction in Science • essay by Poul Anderson

Exactly what it says on the tin. I ate up this series, but this may be my least favorite entry.

1: The first issue of Destinies was reviewed here, the second issue here, and the third issue here.

2: I’m a little surprised that I haven’t reviewed The Web Between the Worlds by now.

3: I didn’t buy Janissaries because the first bookstore I hit that trip was a combination café-bookstore down the hill from my grandparent’s place in Sausalito and they had a copy.

4: Leaving to found Baen Books in 1983.

5: Speaking of books I expected to have reviewed by now…