A couple of blahgs back, WILLIAM MORRISON…HALF-WAY THERE, I posted an update on my attempt to read all 79 short science fiction stories written by Morrison. At that point, I had read 43 stories and provided a bit of a review for some of them. I had read up to “The Joker” that had been published in Fantastic Adventures, December 1951. As I had noted in that previous blahg and the one before that, THE SLY BUNGERHOP ET AL, that very few of Morrison’s short science fiction stories had been published in anthologies and the only other place to read them was by tracking down the original publication, like the Fantastic Adventures from December 1951. That’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve found a few online sources to download and read the stories and this is an update on my progress to finish reading the remaining 36 stories.
The title of this blahg should explain that I’m not quite finished reading the rest of the stories. As of the writing of this blahg, I have read 69 of the 79 short science fiction stories. Here’s a list of what I’ve read in the past few weeks:
1944:
The Companions of Sirius – Captain Future, Winter 1944
1952:
The Addicts — Galaxy, January 1952
Asylum — Marvel Science Fiction, May 1952
The Luckiest Man Alive! — Science Fiction Quarterly May 1952
Shipping Clerk — Galaxy Science Fiction June 1952
New Universe — Startling Stories July 1952
Temptation — Fantastic Adventures – July 1952
Runaway — Galaxy Science Fiction November 1952
Scent Of Danger — Science Fiction Quarterly – November 1952
Dragon Army — Fantastic Adventures, November 1952
Revenge — Space Stories December 1952
1953:
Forgotten Danger — Science Fiction Adventures February 1953
The Hunters — Space Science Fiction – February 1953
The Gears Of Time — Space Stories – April 1953
The Haters — Rocket Stories, April 1953
Long Life to You, Albert! — Science Fiction Adventures July 1953
Task of Kayin — Planet Stories July 1953
The Weather on Mercury — Galaxy July 1953
The Model of a Judge — Galaxy – October 1953
1954:
Split Personality — Fantastic Story – Winter 1954
G’rilla — Beyond Fantasy Fiction January 1954
Playground — The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 1954
The Inner Worlds — The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1954
Heads You Lose — Beyond Fantasy Fiction May 1954
Messenger — Imagination July 1954
There Ought to Be a Lore — Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction – September 1954
I should note that I had missed “The Companions of Sirius” from the pulp magazine Captain Future, Winter 1944 when I had first started reading the stories. I had to loop back and read that one and that’s where I will start off. I’ll admit that I didn’t remember much of this one because it was the first of 26 stories I read this time around. The earlier stories by Morrison from the early to mid-1940s are very rough and tumble with a dash of romance thrown in for the hero. The tag line is the best description: Trapped Aboard a Spaceship by Three Ferocious Criminals, Ross Jameson and Lora Page Struggle to Balk a Sinister Scheme! By the way, Sirius is the name of the spaceship they’re all on.
Moving back to the correct chronological order, I started in with seven stories from 1952. The first of these was “The Addicts” from Galaxy, January 1952. Not a lot of humour in this one but an interesting story nonetheless of a couple on an asteroid running out of supplies with hostile creatures outside. The husband is also addicted to a drug that makes him happy and calm and the wife wants him off his addiction. The solution? Drug the beasts! Interesting story but not enough of the Morrison humour for my liking.
I won’t go through all of the stories in depth but will highlight where I can. “Asylum” from Marvel Science Fiction, May 1952 dealt with another form of addiction: Analysis. Not much meat to this one.
“The Luckiest Man Alive!” published in Science Fiction Quarterly, May 1952 is chock full of the Morrison wit. What’s the prize waiting in store for the winner of the ‘Mister Earth’ contest and is it worth what one entrant has to go through to ensure he wins? Short but very enjoyable.
“Shipping Clerk” from Galaxy Science Fiction, June 1952 is another humorous story. A homeless person who is always hungry eats something that makes him even more hungry. He’s swallowed a shipping mechanism and it plays havoc with his digestion! Of course there’s aliens behind it all. Add this to the Morrison funny stories I liked.
“New Universe” from Startling Stories, July 1952 was another short but interesting story but without the humour. If you’re a God who is bored with ruling this universe, what makes you so sure the next universe will be even better?
In “Temptation”, Fantastic Adventures, July 1952, an alien race wants to know if absolute power corrupts absolutely. One earth scientist is their experiment but sometimes the love of a good woman can ground you. Interesting story but only average on the Morrison spectrum.
“Runaway” from Galaxy Science Fiction, November 1952 is another fascinating story told from the viewpoint of a child. This had worked so well in Morrison’s 1943 story “The Great Invasion.” In “Runaway” a boy at a boarding school/orphanage dreams of going to the stars and sets out to make it happen. Does he get there? Is he even really a boy? All good questions that are answered in this gentle short story.
“Scent of Danger” published in Science Fiction Quarterly, November 1952 didn’t really work for me. A scientist with an advanced sense of smell on an alien world can sense more than danger. Weaker entry.
The next entry from 1952, “Dragon Army” from Fantastic Adventures, November 1952, was one of the longer stories that Morrison had published during his lifetime. This one clocked in at 28,000 words and took up 44 pages in the magazine. The previous long story of Morrison’s that I had read was “Two Worlds To Save” published in Startling Stories, September 1942 and it ran 70 pages in that pulp. “Dragon Army” was more interesting about a scientist trying to prevent his colleague from taking over a planet and causing catastrophe. There were no Dragons in this one but the reference is to seeds that sprout up as walking trees who do the bidding of the evil colleague. Middle of the pack type of story but at least it gets a mention on the cover:
The last story from 1952 is “Revenge” which was published in Space Stories, December 1952. This is a very dark entry. A Martian mother wants revenge on the people who killed her two sons…and gets it. No humour in this one!
William Morrison’s output in 1953 was significant in that he published one more than he did in the previous year. In 1952 there were ten published stories and Morrison published eleven in 1953. Previously, when I had been reading the Morrison stories in alphabetical order, I had read “Divinity,” “Date of Publication, 2083 A.D.,” and “Country Doctor.” I reviewed those in my previous blahg, WILLIAM MORRISON–HALF-WAY THERE. I’ll now speak about the remaining eight stories from 1953.
In “Forgotten Danger”, Science Fiction Adventures, February 1953, Morrison revisits the homeless/hobo theme he used in “Shipping Clerk” from 1952. The main character has also lost his memory. That’s another theme that occurs in Morrison stories. Aliens, tramps, and danger. Again, middle of the road.
“The Hunters,” Space Science Fiction, February 1953, is Morrison back again with his wit and charm. This time it’s aliens versus school girls. No contest…put your money on the school girls.
Next up, “The Gears Of Time,” from Space Stories, April 1953 is another lengthy story by Morrison. It is described as a “complete novel” and runs 76 pages of the Space Stories magazine. There’s a lot going in this one with different types earthlings and martians moving at different speeds. I found it overlong and overly confusing in parts. Again, however, it gets mentioned on the cover…even if the image has nothing to do with the story:
“The Haters,” Rocket Stories, April 1953 is all about criminals who are space explorers. Their hatred for everyone and everything may be the only thing that saves them in the end. Again, I rank this somewhere in the middle.
My William Morrison kick started out with the very funny story “The Sly Bungerhop.” The next story “Long Life to You, Albert!”, Science Fiction Adventures, July 1953 ranks up there as one of Morrison’s funniest and best. A woman sets out through various means to kill her husband but nothing works. He ends up invincible and immortal. Scientists study the husband to find out what causes his gifts. The wife could tell them but then she’d be admitting to her guilt! Track this one down and read it. You won’t be disappointed.
Kayin, the main character from “Task of Kayin” Planet Stories, July 1953, understands the dangers of the scientific discoveries that an earthling scientist is putting to work. After all, being an alien where these discoveries destroyed his home planet, shouldn’t he know better than anyone else? What’s an alien to do with such knowledge? A good story of a stranger in a strange land.
I didn’t really enjoy “The Weather on Mercury” from Galaxy, July 1953. It was a throwback to 1940s type adventure stories. The science and the deception were typical in some of Morrison’s stories from a decade before but I expected better from something published in 1953.
Morrison redeems himself with “The Model of a Judge” from Galaxy, October 1953. The tagline for this story is “Should a former outlaw become a judge–even if he only need pass sentence on a layer cake?” A reformed carnivore alien gets to judge a bake-off but will everyone trust his decision and will he trust his instincts? Very pleasing and comical story.
William Morrison’s published stories in 1954 reached the amazing tally of 13 stories! He would never again publish that many stories in one year. I had previously read “Battleground,” “Bedside Manner” and “No Star’s Land.” I have since read seven more stories from 1954 and have three more to read. I’ll dedicate the last part of this blahg to those seven stories I read most recently.
There’s something about psychiatry and analysis that keeps popping up in Morrison’s stories. I mentioned the analysis theme in “Asylum” from May 1952 and I believe there was another one from the 1940s as well but the title escapes me. In “Split Personality,” Fantastic Story, Winter 1954, Morrison explores the difficulty of treating the mental health of an alien with two heads and two distinct personalities. Again, the humour comes through in this one.
“G’rilla”, Beyond Fantasy Fiction, January 1954, is another Morrison story told from the viewpoint of a child. A very sweet story about a little girl and her littler brother who encounter an alien in their bathroom and no one believes them.
“Playground”, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 1954 is a cross between Lost In Space meets Land of The Giants. A family crash lands on a world of giant creatures and must fix their ship. Dad’s constantly trying to fix everything and mom’s keeping the kids entertained on an alien planet. Has the same kind of cuteness as “G’rilla” but the adults learn a thing or two in this one. For some reason, the magazine decided to add overlong introductions to its stories.
The next entry was another story published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. “The Inner Worlds” from the April 1954 edition is about a symbiotic relationship of organisms inside an alien creature on a distant planet. It had an interesting premise when humans showed up but not one of Morrison’s best. It too, received a long introduction.
Morrison was back again with another child narrated story called “Heads You Lose” in Beyond Fantasy Fiction, May 1954. Every child’s mother has always said you’d forget your head if it wasn’t screwed on or attached to your body or some other variation of that theme. What happens when a child can roam around with just his head and leaves his body behind? Another cute and funny story from a child’s viewpoint.
“Messenger” from Imagination, July 1954 features another character who has lost his memory. He’s on a mission to set something right but he can’t remember what that something is or where the somewhere is he’s supposed to be going. Enjoyable and the ending is worth the read alone.
Finally, this time around, we end up with “There Ought to Be a Lore” published in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September 1954. Another henpecked husband story who thinks he knows better than his wife what’s going on with the population on this strange world. His knowledge will ultimately get him into trouble and will his wife tell him ‘I told you so’ or will he live long enough to tell her he was right after all? Another comical story from Morrison.
That’s it for now. I have ten stories left to read from the 79 short science fiction stories by William Morrison. Let the countdown begin!
Tags: False Ducks, Science Fiction, Scott Henderson, William Morrison