Some Thoughts on the 1945 Retro Hugo Winners

The winners of the 1945 Retro Hugos have been announced as well as the winners of the 2020 Sir Julius Vogel Awards. The indefatigable Nicholas Whyte also shares some additional information about the Retro Hugos as well as the full voting and nominations breakdown. Also check out the comments at File 770, where there is a lively discussion going on.
So let's take a look at the individual categories:

 

Best Novel

 

Shadow Over Mars a.k.a. The Nemesis from Terra by Leigh Brackett wins Best Novel. I'm really happy about this, because Leigh Brackett is one of the greats of our genre and was never recognised by the Hugos in her lifetime, though she did win a posthumous Best Dramatic Presentation Hugo for The Empire Strikes Back.

That said, I had expected that Sirius by Olaf Stapledon would win, because it is better known. But I guess Stapledon is too Marmite to win. I'm a bit surprised that The Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater finished in last place, because it is a charming story - unlike the tedious Winged Man.

 

Best Novella

 

"Killdozer" by Theodore Sturgeon wins Best Novella. This isn't a big surprise, because "Killdozer" is the best known story nominated, though it's not the best story, because "The Jewel of Bas" by Leigh Brackett and "A God Named Kroo" by Henry Kuttner were both better. However, the Retro Hugos are still often determined by name recognition and nostalgia and the efforts of myself and others to change this have only met with mixed success.

That said, it's a pity that "A God Named Kroo" only barely beat "No Award", coming in fifth after the unreadable "Trog" and the Van Vogt novella I didn't get around to reviewing, because I can only tolerate so much Van Vogt.

 

Best Novelette

 

The 1945 Retro Hugo for Best Novelette goes to "City" by Clifford D. Simak. This isn't a huge surprise, because the City cycle is well regarded, still in print and Clifford D. Simak was one of the best writers of the Golden Age. "City" is a pretty good story, too, though not the best City story of 1944 or even the best City novelette, because "Census", which didn't make the ballot, is better.

That said, this was not the category I wanted to see Simak win. In fact, I was hoping that C.L. Moore, either with or without Henry Kuttner, would win Best Novelette, because both "No Woman Born" (which finished second) and "The Children's Hour" (which finished unfairly in sixth place) are great stories.

Though I'm glad that "Arena" by Fredric Brown with its "Genocide is good" message didn't win, because I feared that it might.

Best Short Story

 

The winner of the 1945 Retro Hugo for Best Short Story is "I, Rocket" by Ray Bradbury. I have to confess that this win surprised me, because not only was "I, Rocket" not the best story on the ballot - it's a fine story, but "Desertion" by Clifford D. Simak is much better - it's not even the best Ray Bradbury story of 1944, because both "The Lake" (which is a classic that has been reprinted lots of times) and the vastly underrated "Morgue Ship" are better. I also have no idea why Retro Hugo voters nominated "I, Rocket" over "The Lake", though I have no illusions that anybody except me nominated "Morgue Ship". I'm a bit surprised that "Far Centaurus" by A.E. van Vogt finished in last place, because this is the one van Vogt story on the ballot that's actually good.

 

Best Series

 

The Retro Hugo for Best Series goes to the Cthulhu Mythos by H.P. Lovecraft, August Derleth (via whose stories the mythos qualified seven years after Lovecraft's death) and many, many others.

There were some complaints about the renown racist H.P. Lovecraft winning a Retro Hugo in 2020. And while I didn't put the Cthulhu Mythos in first or even second place - my number one was Captain Future who was one of my entry drugs into science fiction - I'm not surprised that it won. Because of all the nominated series, the Cthulhu Mythos is the only one which is still going strong - 83 years after the death of the original author. Also, I don't view this solely as a win for H.P. Lovecraft, but for everybody who ever wrote a story in the world he created. And this includes authors as diverse as Victor LaValle, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Ruthanna Emrys, Matt Ruff, Neil Gaiman, Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber and many, many others, some of whom would have horrified Lovecraft.

So while Lovecraft was undoubtedly a racist, he also created a universe in which many writers have played over the years, often subverting Lovecraft's ideas. So I think we should view this as a vote for the universe and everybody who ever wrote in it in the past ninety year. Cthulhu is an icon - more than the Shadow or Doc Savage, who are damned iconic in themselves - and has his own plush toy, so doesn't he deserve a Hugo?

 

Best Related Work

 

The winner of the 1945 Retro Hugo for Best Related Work is "The Science-Fiction Field" by Leigh Brackett. I'm happy that the Retro Hugos have recognised Leigh Brackett not once but twice this year, but I'm still surprised that it won, because "The Science Fiction Field" is probably the most elusive Retro Hugo finalist of 1945.

The essay was originally published in Writer's Digest and isn't available online anywhere. The best way to get it is via Windy City Pulp Stories No. 13, which reprinted it a few years ago. I suspect that the publisher of Windy City Pulp Stories was very surprised about the sudden uptick in interest in his magazine.

That said, it is an interesting essay that offers insight both into Leigh Brackett's writing process and the SFF field as it was in 1944. Who would have guessed that Planet Stories was considered one of the more scientifically accurate publications? There's also a nice jab against John W. Campbell, whom Brackett famously didn't get along with, as well as another jab against Weird Tales and their infamously bad payment practice.

 

Best Graphic Story or Comic

 

The winner of the 1945 Retro Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story is the Superman comic “The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk” by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

This is one case where I have no idea what the Retro Hugo voters were thinking. Yes, Superman is an iconic character beloved by many and even Mr. Mxyztplk is apparently a popular character, but have the voters looked at the actual comic? For while it's not as bad as the racist Wonder Woman comic which won last year (and if you voted for that one, don't complain about Campbell and Cthulhu?) it's no more than competent.

My first choice was Flash Gordon, because Alex Raymond was probably the best artist working during the Golden Age and this would have been our last chance to honour him. Instead, the to Flash Gordon strips finished last, even lower than Buck Rogers, which was really, really bad.

Looking at the nominations, it seems as if us Mandrake fans need to settle on one story and we might lift Mandrake and Lothar (who was the first black comic hero 30 years before Black Panther) on the ballot next time. And if the Phantom fans would like to rally to the cause as well, we might still get the full Defenders of the Earth on the ballot.

 

Best Dramatic Presentation Short

 

We have two winners in the Best Dramatic Presentation category, The Curse of the Cat People and The Canterville Ghost. Both are fine winners and were my number one and two choices in this category. The Canterville Ghost is only the only Retro Hugo finalist, where someone involved with the production is still alive, namely former child actress Margaret O'Brien, then seven years old. The actress who played the little girl in The Curse of the Cat People unfortunately passed away a few years ago.

 

Best Editor

 

The winner of the 1945 Retro Hugo for Best Editor is John W. Campbell, which is not exactly a surprise, even though it did cause some wailing and gnashing of teeth, how people can still vote for Campbell after his name was removed from the Not-a-Hugo for Best New Writer, which is now known as the Astounding Award?

But while I agree that it's not a good idea to name an award for the best new writer of 2020 after a (very problematic) man who died almost fifty years ago, Campbell was the leading figure in the field in the 1940s. And Astounding Science Fiction is still considered the best magazine of the era, even though I for one found that other magazines offered more consistent quality than Astounding, which when it was good, was very good indeed, but which was also truly dreadful, when it was bad.

And indeed, I ranked Dorothy McIlwraith of Weird Tales, W. Scott Peacock of Planet Stories and Raymond Palmer of Amazing Stories above Campbell. Nonetheless, for better or worse, Campbell was one of the most influential figures of our genre, which is why people keep voting for him.

I also suspect that the wins for the Cthulhu Mythos and Campbell prompted the slightly cringeworthy intro by the CoNZealand chairs, in which they talk about how these are works of their time, which may be reactionary today.

 

Best Professional Artist

 

The winner of the 1945 Retro Hugo for Best Professional Artist is Margaret Brundage. Now this is one win I'm thrilled about, because Margaret Brundage was not just one of the very few woman artists working during the Golden Age, but also created some absolutely iconic covers for Weird Tales. Margaret Brundage was the first person to picture Conan and Jirel of Joiry (who wears armour rather than lingerie in the story) and who gave us Puritan executions in haute couture gowns (not actually a Solomon Kane cover, though I always assumed it was) as well as the highest selling Weird Tales cover ever. She was also a political radical, taught black children and she was very likely LGBTQ. It's long overdue that the Hugos recognise her work.

 

Best Fanzine

 

The 1945 Retro Hugo winner for Best Fanzine is Voice of the Imagi-Nation, edited by Forrest J. Ackerman and Myrtle R. Douglas. This win prompted another round of wailing and gnashing of teeth, because Forrest J. Ackerman was a sexual harrasser. I didn't vote for it either - not just because I prefer to vote for people who are not sexual harrassers, but also because I don't find Voice of the Imagi-Nation very good. There were definitely better fanzines out there in 1944, which were not edited by sexual harrassers.

However, people should also note that Ackerman wasn't even on the ballot for Best Fan Writer this year, a category he used to dominate at the Retro Hugos.

Which brings us to...

 

Best Fan Writer

 

The 1945 Best Fan Writer Hugo goes to Fritz Leiber for his contributions to the Lovecraft fanzine The Acolyte. This is the one win where I really think that my Retro Hugo Recommendation Spreadsheet made a difference. Because if I hadn't found a Fritz Leiber short story, an critical essay about Lovecraft and a poem about the Gray Mouser in The Acolyte, following a trail from ISFDB, and had put his name on the spreadsheet, I doubt that many people would have been aware that Leiber was even eligible.

If we take a look at the full nomination data, I see a couple of other places where the spreadsheet and Retro Reviews had an impact. Would Allison V. Harding have made the novelette longlist with two stories, if I hadn't enjoyed "Ride the EL to Doom" so much and shouted about it to the world?

Which brings me to the wailing and gnashing of teeth, which is really just focussed on three winners - Campbell, Cthulhu and Ackerman. And yes, I'm not happy with those wins either.

However, after a few years of complaining about bad Retro Hugo finalists and winners, I decided to do something about it. And so I created the spreadsheet and started Retro Reviews to make it easier for voters/nominators to make informed choices and point them at good works that might otherwise be overlooked. I had a lot of fun, too, and discovered stories I might never have read otherwise. It wasn’t just me either. N helped to track down elusive dramatic presentation and related work finalists. Steve J. Wright, Paul Fraser, Don Briago and others reviewed lots of stories, novels and whole magazines.

So in short, several of us got together to put the information out there about what is eligible (obviously not Dave Langford nine years before he was born), what is worth checking out and shared our thoughts on the finalists. And yes, I wish more people would have looked at our work before voting/nominating, because if you look at the nomination data, you'll see lots of examples of nominations for people and works, which are flat out ineligible. If the voters and nominators don’t pay attention to this in sufficient numbers, there’s little we can do about it.

As for the people complaining about Retro Hugos for Campbell, Cthulhu and Forrest J. Ackerman, did you nominate and vote? Did you point out better choices? Did you point people to unjustly forgotten authors/editors/fan writers? If not, then don’t complain.

Guest Review: "The Wind on the Moon" by Eric Linklater, reviewed by Don Briago

Today, I'm happy to bring you another guest review. This time around, the subject is The Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater, illustrated by Nicolas Bentley, a finalist for the 1945 Retro Hugo Award in the Best Novel category. So I hand over to Don Briago to share his thoughts on The Mad Scientist.

***

When I was a boy there were two types of children's books, the ones that grown-ups insisted were good for us, and the ones we actually enjoyed. The first group were written by old fuddy-duddies who had completely forgotten what it was like to be a kid, and usually delivered a moral such as "Respect your elders." The second group were written by irreverent, irresponsible scalawags who whispered into our ears, “Aren't grown-ups stupid and boring? All they do is talk about dull junk like income tax and real estate and never do anything cool, such as hopping around like a kangaroo. They hate fun!"  In this way Roald Dahl (for example) convinced millions of kids that he was One Of Us, much to his profit. 

Eric Linklater’s The Wind on the Moon falls pretty neatly into that amoral, Lewis Carroll tradition of English nonsense. The Alice-like protagonists are the sisters Dinah and Dorinda, who live in the village Midmeddlecum. They are neither malicious or mischievous but in their quest for fun they admit that “when we think we are behaving well, some grown-up person says we are really quite bad. It’s difficult to tell which is which.” When their father announces that he’s going away for a year they promise to be good; needless to say, they get into all kinds of trouble. One of their hijinks leads to a ridiculous trial in which the judge sentences the jury to prison, the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time. 

The story proper begins when Dinah’s invisible friend Mrs. Grimble offers to transform the girls into any animal they want with a magic potion. Their decision to become kangaroos is an accurate example of pragmatic kid-logic. The girls reason that kangaroos, in addition to being fun, are the most practical animals, since they have built-in handbags - their pouches. After an ecstatic session of leaping around the village, they’re lassoed and thrown into the cages of the local zoo. There the girls befriend the other animals, all of them wonderfully silly. 

Everyone we meet is silly. With unflagging invention, whimsical characters keep popping up, maintaining the novel’s cosy atmosphere. Even the villain, Count Hulagu Bloot, an infantile sadist who shares Dorinda’s addiction to peppermint creams, is too absurd to be scary. Although he locks their father in a Ruritanian dungeon and finds the wailing of his prisoners as soothing as a lullaby, the reader never worries much about the safety of our heroines. It’s not that kind of story. 

It’s also not perfect. Here and there Linklater tries to tug our heart strings and, worse, point up a moral. He doesn’t come close to saying “Respect your elders” but in weaker moments he threatens to turn homiletic. And I was disappointed that he didn’t devote more space to my favorite character, a dim-witted giraffe at the zoo who fancies himself a Sherlock Holmes. But maybe that would have been too much of a good thing. 

Cover of the Dutch edition from 1957

The Wind on the Moon was a very pleasant surprise for me. I went into it completely blind, knowing nothing about the author or the novel. I have since learned that Linklater was a quite popular Scottish novelist and historian in his day, though mostly unread now. Of the many volumes he published, only three were children's books. I will definitely be sampling more of Linklater’s bibliography. I’m not sure Wind has a chance of winning a Retro Hugo, but I’m grateful to the voters for putting this gem on the ballot.

***

Many thanks to Don Briago for this great review of The Wind on the Moon, which was a truly pleasant surprise on the Retro Hugo ballot.

Reminder: Hugo and Retro Hugo Voting Closes July 22

Voting for the Hugos and the Retro Hugos opened in mid July. Because of the delays, the voting deadline has been extended until Wednesday, July 22, 23:59 Pacific Daylight Time/Thursday, 23 July, 18:59 New Zealand time. If you're an attending or supporting member of CoNZealand, you can log into the members' area to vote online. The Hugo Voter Packet can also be downloaded there as well.

This post is just a short PSA that if you're a CoNZealand member, please vote and make your voice heard. You don't have to vote in every category - it's perfectly all right to leave categories blank.

Also please don't ignore the fan categories (Fanzine, Fan Writer, Fancast, Fan Artist), because the fan categories are full of great finalists who do amazing work for little to no money, all for the love of the genre. And no, I'm not just saying this, because I'm one of them, though I'd of course be thrilled if you were to vote for me. You can also still download my Hugo Voter Packet here, if you want to see what I wrote in 2019.

Camestros Felapton has been doing spotlights of all six Best Fan Writer finalists. Mine is here, but check out all of them, cause we have an amazing line-up of Fan Writer finalists this year.

My fellow Best Fan Writer finalist Alasdair Stuart has also sent out a special edition of his weekly newsletter The Full Lid (which you should absolutely check out), highlighting all of the 2020 Best Fan Writer finalists.

Constanze Hofmann offers an overview over the 2020 Fan Artist finalists and their amazing work here. At the Best Fanzine finalist nerds of a feather, Andrea Johnson is also interviewing this year's Best Fan Artist finalists and offering samples of their work.

Finally, please don't ignore the Retro Hugos either (though if you're here, I assume you have an interest in the Retro Hugos). I've repeatedly aired my frustrations that the Retro Hugos so often seem to go to the most famous name rather than the best work. That's why I started the crowdsourced 1945 Retro Hugo Recommendation Spreadsheet as well as this blog, where I reviewed many eligible stories and most of the finalists in the fiction categories (still missing two (bad) novellas and a novel) to allow Retro Hugo nominators and voters to make more informed choices.

I'll also post my panel schedule for the now virtual CoNZealand in the next few days, so you know where to find me. I'm looking forward to seeing many of you there.

Retro Review Links for July 17, 2020

Welcome to the latest edition of Retro Review Links, where I link to reviews of the 1945 Retro Hugo finalists by other bloggers:

Magazine reviews:

• Paul Fraser reviews the Winter 1944 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories.
  

Novel reviews:

• Kelly Lasiter reviews the 1944 planetary romance novel Shadow Over Mars a.k.a. The Nemesis from Terra by Leigh Brackett.
• Sandy Ferber reviews the 1944 science fiction novel Sirius by Olaf Stapledon.
• Kelly Lasiter reviews the 1944 mythological novel The Golden Fleece by Robert Graves.  

Novella reviews:

• M. Porcius reviews the 1944 fantasy novella "A God Named Kroo" by Henry Kuttner.
• M. Porcius reviews the 1944 science fiction novella "The Changeling" by A.E. van Vogt. 
• Adventures Fantastic reviews the 1944 post-apocalyptic novella "Trog" by Murray Leinster. 
• Bill Capossere and Tadiana Jones review the finalists for the 1945 Best Novella Retro Hugo.
  

Novelette reviews: 

• Adventures Fantastic reviews the 1944 science fiction novelette "No Woman Born" by C.L. Moore.
• Adventures Fantastic reviews the 1944 Foundation novelette "The Big and the Little" by Isaac Asimov.
• Adventures Fantastic shares their thoughts on the finalists for the 1945 Retro Hugo for Best Novelette.
  

Short story reviews:

• Adventures Fantastic reviews the 1944 science fiction short story "I, Rocket" by Ray Bradbury. 
• Adventures Fantastic reviews the 1944 science fiction short story "And the Gods Laughed" by Fredric Brown.
• Adventures Fantastic reviews the 1944 Foundation short story "The Wedge" by Isaac Asimov.
• Bill Capossere, Tadiana Jones and Kat Hooper review the 1945 Retro Hugo finalists in the Best Short Story and Best Novelette categories.
  

Series reviews: 

• Steve J. Wright shares his thoughts on the finalists for the 1945 Best Series Retro Hugo and explains why they don't work for him. 
  

Related work reviews:

• Steve J. Wright reviews the 1944 essay "The Science Fiction Field" by Leigh Brackett.
• Steve J. Wright reviews the 1944 essay "The Works of H.P. Lovecraft: Suggestions for a Critical Appraisal" by Fritz Leiber
• Steve J. Wright reviews the 1944 popular science book Rockets: The Future of Travel Beyond the Stratosphere by Willy Ley.
• Steve J. Wright reviews the 1944 popular science book Mr. Tompkins Explores the Atom by George Gamow.
• Steve J. Wright reviews the 1944 fandom encyclopedia Fancyclopedia by Jack Speer.
• Steve J. Wright reviews the 1944 non-fiction book ’42 to ’44: A Contemporary Memoir Upon Human Behaviour During the Crisis of the World Revolution by H.G. Wells 

Graphic story reviews: 

• Steve J. Wright reviews the 1944 Flash Gordon comics "Battle for Tropica" and "Triumph in Tropica" by Alex Raymond and Don Moore.
• Steve J. Wright reviews the 1944 Buck Rogers comic "Hollow Planetoid".
• Steve J. Wright reviews the 1944 The Spirit comic "For the Love of Clara DeFoe" by Manly Wade Wellman, Lou Fine and Don Komisarov.
• Steve J. Wright reviews the 1944 Superman comic "The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk" by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
• Steve J. Wright reviews the 1944 Donald Duck comic "The Mad Chemist" by Carl Barks.
  

Dramatic presentation reviews: 

• Steve J. Wright reviews the 1944 fantasy movie It Happened Tomorrow, directed by Rene Clair.
  

Best editor reviews:

• Steve J. Wright shares his thoughts on the 1945 Retro Hugo finalists for Best Editor 
  

Best professional artist reviews:

• Steve J. Wright shares his thoughts on the 1945 Retro Hugo finalists for Best Professional Artist. 
  

Fan category reviews: 

• Steve J. Wright shares his thoughts on the 1945 Retro Hugo finalists for Best Fanzine.
• Steve J. Wright shares his thoughts on the 1945 Retro Hugo finalists for Best Fan Writer.
  

Retro Review: "Intruders from the Stars" by Ross Rocklynne

"Intruders from the Stars" is a novella by Ross Rocklynne. It was first published in the January 1944 issue of Amazing Stories and is finalist for the 1945 Retro Hugos. The magazine version may be found online here.

Warning: Spoilers beyond this point!

"Intruders from the Stars" opens on a far off planet, where a decisive battle is taking place. It's the battle for the fate of an empire, with insurgent forces led by the unnamed prime minister about to vanquish the forces loyal to the Empress, a former slave girl named Bess-Istra. Her forces beaten, Bess-Istra and her surviving soldiers retreat to their citadel, where an escape ship is being readied.

The reader quickly realises that Bess-Istra, though beautiful, is a nasty piece of work, a typical pulp fiction femme fatale. Her reign was bloody, the revolution necessary to depose a tyrant. The prime minister, who is in love with Bess-Istra, even offers her to rule by his side and rebuilt the planet together. However, Bess-Istra will have none of that. She even knocks out her own general Bandro, when he urges her to negotiate to save his own neck.

Bess-Istra and her surviving forces, including the unconscious Bandro, board the escape ship. Her plan is to leave her homeworld and head to a neighbouring solar system and conquer a planet there. The journey is supposed to take thirteen years, which all aboard will spend in suspended animation courtesy of sleep gas.

However, the inhabitants of the neighbouring planet spot Bess-Istra's ship in time and deflect it away from their world. So Bess-Istra and her loyal troops float through space until they happen to land on Earth.

The scene now shifts to Mozambique in the middle of World War II, where American war correspondent Bill van Astor Smythe encounters two missionaries, the Reverend John Stevens and his assistant Thomas Reynolds, while both parties are hiding from the Japanese, who have invaded Mozambique. The young Reverend and his assistant are on their way to a village, for the locals have abandoned Christianity for a new god and also stolen the Reverend's altar candles. Bill is on the run, for the squadron of British soldiers he was embedded with has been wiped out by the Japanese.

Now there never was any Japanese military activity in Africa during World War II – the only axis countries fighting in Africa were Italy and Nazi Germany and they had largely been driven out by 1944. Furthermore, Mozambique was a Portuguese colony and Portugal remained neutral during World War II, so what a squadron of British soldiers was doing there is anybody's guess. It's interesting that Ross Rocklynne messes up something as basic as World War II frontlines. Though the summary of events he gives is correct up to the point where the British take over Mozambique and the Japanese invade Madagascar and Mozambique. Was this a scenario that was considered plausible at some point, since it seems extremely far-fetched to me? I have no idea.

Bill, the Reverend and his assistant make their way to the village, where they find Bess-Istra's spaceship. It turns out that the new god the locals are worshipping is none other than the sleeping Bess-Istra herself, who is conveniently visible (and conveniently half naked) through a porthole of the spaceship.

The Reverend is deeply upset that his converts have abandoned Christianity to worship scantily clad women. He is even more upset, when Bill points out that the sleeping woman is not from Earth, for the existence of extraterrestrial life is not compatible with his faith. Bill, the Reverend and Reynolds are still arguing what to do, when Bill spots a plunger and pushes it downward, because messing with an alien spaceship is obviously such a brilliant idea. As a result, the sleep gas is vented outside the ship, knocking out Bill, the Reverend and his assistant. Bess-Istra awakes.

The three men are taken prisoner and come to aboard the ship. They are subjected first to an interrogation machine and then taken to see Bess-Istra herself. The Reverend immediately accuses Bess-Istra and her people of planning to conquer the Earth. Bill tries to calm him down, but the Reverend has another fit when Bess-Istra mentions gods – in plural – and informs her that there is only one true god. If Bess-Istra had shot him at this point, I certainly would have understood.

However, Bess-Istra has a different plan. Instead of revealing her intentions outright, she tells Bill and the two missionaries that she has scanned their brains and thus learned not only English, but also much about the Earth, including that the world is at war and that the Allies are losing, which is certainly an interesting interpretation of the situation in early 1944, when the battle of Stalingrad (which is generally considered the turning point for Nazi Germany) was already over, even if the Normandy landings were still several months in the future. However, Bess-Istra can help. She and her people will end the war and bring peace to Earth, using their superior alien weapons.

Bess-Istra's offer quickly convinces the Reverend that she is not evil after all, even though he would prefer world peace to be achieved without bloodshed. I have to commend him for this, especially considering the genocidal tendencies we've seen elsewhere on the ballot ("Arena", cough).

Bill is a little bit more sceptical, probably because he spares the occasional glance for General Bandro and Bess-Istra's subordinates who are having a hard time keeping a straight face at Bess-Istra's sudden commitment to world peace. Furthermore, Bess-Istra is also a little too dominant for Bill's taste, though he quickly becomes as besotted with her as everybody else. Bess-Istra, meanwhile, asks Bill and the Reverend (Thomas Reynolds has wandered out of the story and returned to the mission by now) where her forces shall begin their mission to bring peace to Earth. Bill and the Reverend both suggest liberating beleaguered Mozambique and Madagascar from the Japanese. And so they set off in Bess-Istra's ship to disable the Japanese supply fleet, leaving it floating aimlessly in the Indian ocean. Cut off from supplies, the Japanese will be forced to retreat and surrender.

Next, Bess-Istra directs her spaceship to New York City and lands on the roof of the offices of the newspaper syndicate Bill works for, so he can deliver his report in person and will also be believed.

The next target of the campaign for world peace is Italy. Now by early 1944, the Allies had already invaded Italy and Mussolini had been deposed, arrested and subsequently freed by the German army and installed as a sort of puppet ruler in those parts of Italy that were still under Axis control. Nonetheless, the situation did not look particularly desperate for the Allies in Italy in the real world, though the battle of Monte Cassino happened in the winter of 1943/1944. And even though it's never named in the novella itself, it's clearly this battle that Bess-Istra's forces interrupt by knocking out the Italian and German forces with a gas ray, causing Mussolini to flee to Germany.

The Russian front and the western front are next. Bess-Istra's gas ray and another weapon which causes amnesia take out the German forces and the Allies converge on Berlin, where a revolution breaks out (which would coincide nicely with the group around Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and their ultimately failed plot to assassinate Hitler) and Hitler is deposed.

Once World War II has been ended in Europe – and with less bloodshed than in the real world, though we might have ended up with Stauffenberg and his fellow reactionaries in charge, which would likely have been worse for Germany in the long run – the next aim is ending the war in Asia and the Pacific. This time around, Bess-Istra's forces deploy contracting fire rings around Japanese occupied cities in Asia. These fire rings destroy all sulphur and render gunpowder and therefore all firearms useless, leaving the Japanese soldiers at the mercy of the locals. In his review of the story, Steve J. Wright points out that even with alien super science, this scenario would not have worked, because modern armies including the Japanese forces had abandoned blackpowder by World War II.

As a coup de grace, Bess-Istra also teleports Hitler, Goebbels, Göring (at any rate, I assume that the fat, cruel man is supposed to be Göring, since it's unlikely to be Churchill), Mussolini, Admiral Tojo, Emperor Hirohito and other Axis leaders aboard her spaceship as prisoners. Quisling, head of the Norwegian Nazi puppet government, commits suicide.

Bill finds himself falling hard for Bess-Istra, even though he knows it's a bad idea. Meanwhile, Reverend Stevens tries to convert her – not entirely without success, for Bess-Istra is quite fascinated by the idea of a god who is not in favour of power and cruelty. And of course, the Reverend falls for Bess-Istra, too, because every man in this story eventually falls for Bess-Istra. Bill, however, still has sense enough to wonder just what exactly Bess-Istra's motive is in all this.

During a broadcast to the entire world, Bess-Istra declares herself ruler of the Earth. Bill launches himself at her, only to be shot down by her stun gun. He and the Reverend are thrown into a cell aboard her ship.

Meanwhile, Bess-Istra has been busy. She has set up a world court to try the Axis leaders and other war criminals, has ordered all warships and warplanes scrapped, has redrawn the world map and set up new states, has introduced a world currency, set up a climate control system and overhauled the global transportation system to use the same technology her spaceship uses. In short, she's been remarkably efficient and also hasn't proven herself a cruel tyrant so far, because apparently she has been listening to Reverend Stevens extolling the virtues of Christianity to her and was convinced.

Bess-Istra frees Bill and the Reverend and makes Bill her personal press agent to make her look good, since someone from her own camp is feeding negative stories about her less than glorious past to the press. Bess-Istra refuses to suppress these stories, because she now believes in the freedom of the press. Bill, on the other hand, is still not convinced that Bess-Istra really has the world's best interests at heart, even though she has only done good so far. By now, he's also completely in love with her, even though he hates himself for it. Bess-Istra is also falling for Bill, though she hates the idea almost as much as he does.

Bess-Istra's benevolent dictatorship is interrupted, when her former general Bandro, now head of the international world police, and chief scientist Sab-Hallo revolt against her, because they have had enough of Bess-Istra's sudden desire for peace and democracy. They take Bill and Bess-Istra prisoner and end the trial of the Axis leaders by summarily executing them, turning Hitler into an oily stain on the courtroom floor. Bill and Bess-Istra are about to be executed as well, when Reverend Stevens crashes a power glider into Bess-Istra's headquarters, takes out the rebelling soldiers with the gas ray and rescues Bill and Bess-Istra.

The Reverend explains that a convert among Bess-Istra's soldiers tipped him off about the plot. Together, they head for the Reverend's old mission in the jungle of Mozambique (which is still a Portuguese colony, Bess-Istra not having gotten around to eliminating the evil of colonialism yet), Bandro's forces hot in pursuit. Bandro's forces sweep the jungle with the green ray, a devastating weapon, but luckily Bess-Istra has an energy shield which can protect them – but only one, so they have to huddle together. They make it to the mission, where they find Thomas Reynolds and several of the converted locals dead, killed by the green ray. I honestly wonder why Thomas Reynolds is in this story at all, since his character serves no real purpose, disappears from the story about a third in and only reappears to be killed off.

Bill, the Reverend and Bess-Istra hole up in the mission house, where tension quickly comes to a head. Bill accuses Bess-Istra of not being sincere in her newfound conversion to Christianity and tells her point blank that deep inside, she still worships the terrible goddess Stuz, even though the priests of Stuz abused her and turned Bess-Istra into the warped person she has become. Bess-Istra hotly denies this and declares that she must kill Bill for his presumption, whereupon he hits her repeatedly, even though he normally does not strike woman.

This is one of my least favourite tropes in older works, where the masculine hero hits an "uppity woman" to make her more pliable and she goes along with it instead of kicking the bastard to the curb. This trope usually occurs within the framework of an "I hate you, I hate you, I love" relationship, which is of course what is happened between Bill and Bess-Istra. The "man hits woman" trope that's extremely common in old Hollywood movies and also shows up in genre fiction, though it is not all that common in SFF, probably because golden age SFF is not particularly interested in interpersonal relationships. "I hate you, I hate you, I love you" relationships are somewhat more common. Examples include the relationship between Jirel of Joiry and Guillaume in "Black God's Kiss" by C.L. Moore or the relationship between Eric John Stark and Ciaran in "Black Amazon of Mars" by Leigh Brackett or the relationship between Matthew Carse and Ywain of Sark in "Sea-Kings of Mars" a.k.a. "The Sword of Rhiannon", also by Leigh Brackett.

However, in all three examples attempting to use physical violence against the woman they definitely are not in love with does not end well for the men in question. Guillaume gets magically slain and has his soul banished into hell (Jirel eventually frees him, once she realises that she loves him after all), while Eric John Stark and Matthew Carse get whipped for their trouble and Eric John Stark gets decked by Ciaran, too (they both eventually get the woman after many exciting adventures). And while I suspect that Jirel, Ciaran and Ywain would get along just fine with Bess-Istra, none of them would allow a man to hit them and get away with it. I guess the difference here is that those stories were written by female authors, while "Intruders from the Stars" was written by a man.

And so Bess-Istra does not make Bill suffer, but instead starts crying, while her features becomes softer and less cruel, after Bill hits her. Her conversion to Christianity is also a lot more sincere now. However, Bill is still not happy, because Bess-Istra does start to become a bit too affectionate towards the Reverend John Stevens.

While Bill, Bess-Istra and the Reverend are busy with their own interpersonal drama, Bandro hasn't been idle either. He executes all captured war criminals and completely destroys Berlin and Tokyo. Bill is not at all happy with the former – he believes in trials and due process – but does find some justification for the latter. After all, the Japanese and the Nazis considered themselves superior to others, which apparently excuses killing civilians who may not even have agreed with their respective regimes. It's one of those slap in the face moments I occasionally experience when reading/watching Retro Hugo finalists – the realisation that as far as some long dead author is concerned, I'm not really a human being and deserve to be killed just because of my nationality. The worst examples usually occur in the dramatic presentation and graphic story categories, though I have also seen a few examples in the fiction categories. It's not even limited to the Retro Hugos – there are alternate history novels written in this century that openly fantasize about how wonderful it would be, if the Allies had nuked Germany.

To be fair to Ross Rocklynne, Bess-Istra immediately tells Bill that there won't be any cities destroyed and civilians murdered on her watch, because they are better than that. And indeed, it is also possible to view this scene as a commentary on the large-scale bombing of cities and other civilian targets in which the US and UK were engaged at the time. After all, our heroes have always attempted to deal with their enemies via non-lethal means and with a minimum of bloodshed throughout the novel and also only aimed their operations at military and not civilian targets. The Reverend even feels ill, when he is forced to shoot some of Bandro's soldiers.

Bandro also has temples dedicated to the cruel Goddess Stuz built and all other religions banned. Furthermore, he orders that all power gliders be equipped with a device that allows his police forces to take control of the vehicle, making it impossible to use the power gliders against him. And since Bess-Istra had all other vehicles scrapped in an attempt to make global transport faster and more energy-efficient, Bandro's order effectively makes any resistance against him impossible.

However, Bill, Bess-Istra and the Reverend still have a power glider that Bandro's forces cannot control. And so they embark on a desperate mission to sneak aboard the spaceship that brought Bess-Istra and her people to Earth and take out Bandro and Sab-Hallo.

The plan works, too. The three of them evade Bandro's patrols, sneak aboard the spaceship, while it is en route to San Francisco, make their way to the control room, where they kill Sab-Hallo. Bess-Istra then floods the rest of the ship with sleep gas to render Bandro and his forces unconscious. However, Bandro has managed to make his way into the control room just in time and holds the trio at gunpoint, planning to kill them.

However, the Reverend won't let himself be shot quite so easily. He commands Bandro to stop and drop his weapons in the name of the Lord. Bandro is not impressed by the Reverend's religious fervour, but caught off balance long enough that Bill can jump him. In the resulting struggle, the Reverend is shot, Bill breaks Bandro's neck and the spaceship is about the crash into the San Francisco Bay.

Once the dust settles and Bess-Istra gets the ship back under control, only she and Bill are left standing. Bill tries to comfort the grieving Bess-Istra and says that he knows how much she loved the Reverend. Bess-Istra replies that she of course loved the Reverend – after all, he was a truly good man. However, she only loved the Reverend as a brother. In turn, Bill assures Bess-Istra that it does not matter what she did on another planet millions of years ago, for on Earth she did good. They kiss, finally admitting their feelings for each other.

"Intruders from the Stars" is the first story by Ross Rocklynne I ever read and I have to admit, I wasn't expecting much. I fully expected to read a weak story that would end up at the bottom of my Retro Hugo ballot, either below or just barely above "No Award". And indeed, the only reason I read it before the remaining two novella finalists is because I found "Trog" unreadable and just couldn't face another A.E. van Vogt story after struggling through "The Winged Man".

However, I was pleasantly surprised, because "Intruders from the Stars" is not a bad story at all. True, it's not a timeless classic either and probably wouldn't have made the ballot at all, if 1944 hadn't been a weak year for novellas. However, "Intruders from the Stars" was thoroughly entertaining and genuinely clever in parts in spite of its flaws.

I particularly like that after the alien mass slaughter in the prologue, "Intruders from the Stars" consistently goes for non-lethal solutions and seeks to solve the problems thrown at the characters – including ending World War II – with a minimum of bloodshed. After the "genocide is good" message in stories like "Arena", the fact that "Intruders from the Stars" privileges non-lethal solutions and actually condemns large-scale slaughter was a breath of fresh air. Also, what happens after World War II is ended early by superior alien technology not only partly mirrors what happened in the real world, e.g. war crimes tribunals rather than summary executions, but also tries to envision a more peaceful postwar world. Interestingly, the picture drawn up of Bess-Istra's new world order does mirror some quasi-utopian essays about how science fiction can contribute to a better world after the war that you can find in fanzines of the period.

Another thing I enjoyed was that a character who is introduced as an unambiguous villainess in the prologue and who has bad intentions for at least half of the story nonetheless ends up doing a whole lot of good. It's also interesting that Bess-Istra (and likely Bandro and Sab-Hallo as well) are presented not as intrinsically bad, but as the products of a bad environment. Bess-Istra is a classic example of an abuse victim who becomes an abuser. Except that she changes, once she finds herself in a better environment and meets better people.

Bess-Istra starts out as a 1940s femme fatale, a stereotype that was extremely common at the time, but eventually grows into a character of her own, though I don't like the taming part at all. Nonetheless, Bess-Istra is one of the more interesting female characters I've come across in the course of the Retro Reviews project.

Bill van Astor-Smythe and the Reverend John Stevens similarly start out as stereotypes. The Reverend is a true believer and a pompous fire and brimstone preacher, while Bill is a standard dashing reporter hero – another 1940s stereotype – and speaks in irritating period slang. Like Bess-Istra, both of them eventually grow into more rounded characters and become a lot more interesting. Too bad that the love triangle between the three of them and the "I hate you, I hate you, I love you" relationship between Bill and Bess-Istra never grows beyond cliché.

Those who know me are probably aware that I'm not a fan of religious content in science fiction. Thankfully, golden age science fiction usually doesn't pose much of a problem in that regard, because if religion plays a role at all, it's more likely to be a scam like the fake religion from the early Foundation stories or the equally fake and vastly more oppressive religion from Gather Darkness by Fritz Leiber. "Intruders from the Stars" in unusual, for religion not only plays an important role in the story, but even serves as an agent of character development, because it is the encounter with Reverend Stevens and his brand of Christianity that causes Bess-Istra to change. Nonetheless, the religious content in "Intruders from the Stars" does not bother me beyond some eye-rolling moments, probably because religion is also used as a shorthand for how the prevailing culture of a society influences character. After all, Rocklynne makes it clear that the cult of the goddess Stuz is the reason why Bess-Istra and presumably Bandro and Sab-Hallo are the sort of people they are. Once Bess-Istra comes into contact with a less violent culture and religion, she changes and becomes a better person.

Considering how prolific Ross Rocklynne was during the golden age and how long his career lasted (long enough that he embraced the New Wave and even had a story in Again, Dangerous Visions), surprisingly little is known about him. According to the Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction, "Rocklynne had one of the most interesting, if florid, imaginations of the Pulp-magazine writers of his time, and wrote very much better than most." The first bit certainly applies to "Intruders from the Stars". As for the second, I didn't find "Intruders from the Stars" badly written, in spite of some clunky passages,  and dated slang (which is a common problem with older pulp fiction in general). However, I didn't find it exceptionally well written either, compared to the likes of Clifford D. Simak or Ray Bradbury or C.L. Moore.

Rocklynne debuted in Astounding during the F. Orlin Tremaine era and published several of his early stories there, but by the 1940s, his fiction was more likely to appear in other venues like Amazing Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories or Fantastic Adventures. Was Rocklynne one of those science fiction writers of the golden age who just didn't get along with John W. Campbell? Based on "Intruders from the Stars" at any rate, Rocklynne's fiction wasn't particularly Campbellian (the aliens triumph, religion saves the day, genocide is bad and non-bloody solutions are preferred), but then much of what Campbell published in Astounding wasn't particularly Campbellian either. Given the role religion plays in "Intruders from the Stars", I also wonder whether Rocklynne was a religious man. Does anybody who has read more of his work know whether Christianity appears frequently in his work?

That said, "Intruders from the Stars" does have its share of flaws. I've already pointed out some of them above. And while calling Joseph Stalin of all people gallant might be excusable in 1944, when the Soviet Union and the US were allies in World War II and little was known about the system of gulags and general regime of terror in the USSR, it has not aged well at all. Calling Winston Churchill gallant has not aged well either, even though people in the US and UK are only now getting around to recognising the many problematic aspects of the man. Still, it's a known risk of contemporary set stories – and I'm surprised how many SFF stories I've read for the Retro Reviews project that are either directly or indirectly about World War II – that some things will age badly.

Another flaw that the story shares with Henry Kuttner's "A God Named Kroo" and many other stories with non-western settings from the period is that it is full of dated racial and ethnic stereotypes, which can make a modern reader cringe, even though you have to give props to Rocklynne, Kuttner and others for at least remembering that the world does not solely consist of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Americans and maybe the occasional Irish stereotype. Rocklynne also remembers that World War II was a truly global war and mentions Chinese and Senegalese soldiers along with various westerners.

In the end, the flaws of the story are too many to make "Intruders from the Stars" a true classic and viable Retro Hugo contender, especially considering that "The Jewel of Bas", "Killdozer" and "A God Named Kroo" are all better. Nonetheless, this novella was a lot more entertaining and enjoyable than I expected and takes an anti-genocide stand, which is more than can be said for many other stories of the period. That said, it does feel like a throwback to an earlier era of science fiction, namely the super science stories of the so-called radium era of the 1930s.