Review: Selected Short Fiction of F. L. Wallace

Selected Short Fiction of F. L. Wallace

a review by Rich Horton

Recently I reviewed F. L. Wallace's only novel, Address: Centauri, and I rather panned it. But as I noted, his short fiction is remembered somewhat fondly. He had two Hugo finalists in 1956, "The Accidental Self" and "End as a World", and such other stories as "Big Ancestor", "Delay in Transit", and "Student Body" were somewhat prominently anthologized. So I vowed to read through a set of his stories, and review them, in the hope of giving him a fairer evaluation.

Floyd L. Wallace (1915-2004) published a couple of dozen SF stories, and some crime fiction, between 1951 and 1961; and the one novel. His primary career was as a mechanical engineer. His main market was Galaxy under H. L. Gold, and it's notable that his career fairly closely parallels Gold's editorial reign, though he did sell to other magazines such as F&SF, Fantastic Universe, and Astounding. 

The stories I read are "Delay in Transit" (Galaxy, September 1952); "Student Body" (Galaxy, March 1953), "Tangle Hold" (Galaxy, June 1953); "The Impossible Voyage Home" (Galaxy, August 1954), "Big Ancestor" (Galaxy, November 1954), "End as a World" (Galaxy, September 1955); "The Assistant Self" (Fantastic Universe, March 1956); "Mezzerow Loves Company" (Galaxy, June 1956); and "Second Landing" (Amazing, January 1960). I also looked through "Accidental Flight" (Galaxy, April 1952), which is the first part of his one novel. I think "Accidental Flight" works considerably better by itself than in its expansion -- Wallace padded out the novella somewhat, and made some changes to fit into his plans for the second half of the book; and almost all of those changes were for the worse.

"Delay in Transit" is, with "Big Ancestor", his best-remembered story. The protagonist is named Cassal. He's working for a company that is trying to develop instantaneous radio, which will great improve Galactic travel and communications. Cassal has an implanted sort of AI assistant called Dimanche (French for "Sunday", not sure if that means anything for the story.) He's stuck on a remote planet, urgently needing to get to an even more remote planet, but star travel is uncertain. And things get worse when he's attacked, and his ticket is stolen. Cassal ends up visiting the Travelers' Aid Bureau for help, but not much is forthcoming -- though he does find the woman he talks to extremely intriguing. Things progress, and it's clear that there are forces that are more interest in the technology behind Dimanche than in instantaneous communication, and they don't care much how that affects Cassal. The story is fast paced, and implausible (a word I'll use a lot discussing Wallace's work,) as Cassal is forced to realize he has to take control of his own life ... I never quite believed any of it, but it was pretty entertaining, if full of wish-fulfillment.

"Student Body" is part of a small but significant SF subgenre -- dangerous planets. Colonists have landed on a new planet, that seems ideal. But very quickly they notice that something -- something hard to find -- is eating almost anything they leave accessible -- clothes, the crops they are trying to grow, etc. They do catch some of the culprits, but every attempt at exterminating or defending against the pests results in a new pest appearing almost immediately. They also notice a very curious part of the evolutionary history of the planet -- a certain ecological niche has been filled by a single unchanging creature for millions of years. The explanation is scientifically implausible, to say the least, but it's acceptable as a thought experiment. And the consequences are very scary indeed -- and aren't ducked. It's not my favorite Wallace story, but it might be the most rigorously developed.

"Tangle Hold" is about a criminal on Venus named Jadiver, whose specialty is altering people's faces, so that they can commit crimes unrecognized. As the story opens, he's been seriously injured by a malfunctioning autobath, and wakes up in a hospital, with a new skin. He proceeds to take a lucrative commission from a criminal gang, changing the faces of several people so they can visit a high society party and steal from the guests -- but it all goes wrong, and as a result, Jadiver is wanted by both the gang, and the police. He soon realizes that the police have used his new skin to implant a sort of transmitter in him that parallels his nervous system. For complicated reasons, his only way out is escape, and Earth, Mars, and Venus aren't options. The only thing in his favor is the new tech inside him -- and a robot which is intrigued by the possibilities of this tech. The whole thing is a bit too complicated to explain here, involving the robots, and the woman who implanted his new parallel nervous system, and certain unique possibilities that offers. It's another highly implausible but sometimes pretty fun story, though, I think, not really one of Wallace's better efforts.

"The Impossible Voyage Home" is a rather sentimental piece about an elderly couple on Mars who want to travel to Earth to see their new grandchild. The problem is that it's impossible for humans to travel in space for more than about 2 years total, because of the accumulated radiation effects. Combined with the travel time between planets, that's a pretty strict limit. The old couple don't care, and in the end steal a spaceship ... Their efforts are intertwined with a researcher trying to get around the travel time limit. The solution is kind of obvious -- the radiation effects are no good for young people who want children and don't want to die young -- but the old couple demonstrate that they can fly the spaceship, and as they are not going to have more children ... you see where that's going. All that is pretty good science for an F. L. Wallace story, though he throws in some silly stuff about Martian canalberries and a compulsion to drive the spaceships into the sun. Anyway -- minor work, really. 

"Big Ancestor" is one of Wallace's most famous stories. An alien spaceship is hosting a spectrum of humans, of various subspecies. Humans have spread throughout the Galaxy, evolving as they go. They have a story about their descent from a "big ancestor" -- a noble past. And now they have found a planet with potential answers. The buildings are huge and noble. But there is no trace of the people who built them. Perhaps this is the home of the "big ancestor". And, after much work, they find an account of why the planet is deserted, and they manage to translate it ... It's a cunning story, effectively portraying the various subspecies of humans on this ship and their rivalry, and setting them up for the shocking reveal at the end. It does work, though as often with Wallace the carefully constructed background is easy to see. Still, nice work, and a solid sort of anti-Campbellian effort. 

"End as a World", with the very different "Big Ancestor", is perhaps my favorite of Wallace's stories. It's the shortest one I've read, a brief piece following a few teenaged friends on the day in which "the world will end". Everybody knows this. But life goes on, pretty much as normal. The boys speculate what it will be like -- will it be bright? They watch TVs showing people all over the world waiting for the big event. They try to do the things they normally do -- but in the end, they wait and watch. And -- well, I don't want to give it away, but the story doesn't go where you expect. I think some readers will be annoyed, but -- hey, it pushed the right buttons for me. 

"The Assistant Self" is a bit of a wild ride, with absurd science, yet again. But if you are read to believe the science, it's pretty fun. Hal Talbot is a magically super empathic person -- and for that reason, he can't keep a job, because he always threatens his boss's position by knowing too well what is wanted, due to his empathy. After his latest lost job, another executive insists on hiring him -- because he knows this empathy is what he needs, to figure out who has been sabotaging their big project. (Which happens to involve making the "perfect rocket", which will enable NAFAL (nearly as fast as light -- a Le Guin coinage) travel to the stars. There's so much wrong with this concept I don't want to discuss it, but interestingly it does involve research into high temperature resistant nozzles, which actually IS a critical feature of advanced rocket motors. (Don't ask me how I know ...) This suggests to me what sort of mechanical engineer Wallace might have been.)

Anyway, just has he's being hired, a bomb of sorts is thrown into his new boss's office. The boss is killed, but Talbot survives. And, because of his super empathy -- he has absorbed the boss's identity nearly completely. So people assume the survivor is the boss, not Talbot. There follows some pages of intrigue, as well as a romance with the boss's secretary, despite that the boss was actually engaged to the CEO's daughter ... and a climax involving a confrontation with the actual villain (whose motives are at least interesting) and yet another wholly implausible empathic reaction.

This is a case of a story which makes almost no sense if you think about it, but which is really pretty fun and even, to an extent, exploring interesting ideas. I liked it, to be honest.

"Mezzerow Loves Company" is an overlong, overcomplicated, story about a man and his son coming to Earth to try to get the name of their planet changed. They are descendants of the discoverer of their planet, which was supposed to be named after their family, Mezzerow. Instead, it's listed as Messy Row, and they are convinced that is discouraging immigration. As they navigate the confusing and everchanging Earth looking for the right agency, they are kidnapped by women who want to marry them. It seems that women are in oversupply on Earth. They manage insted to get one woman and her sister to help them -- and finally find the agency they need. Only to, predictably, find that their planet is now called Misery. Bright side -- the women are fascinated by the prospect of an underpopulated planet where they can surely find a husband, and they have lots of friends ... OK, this one really didn't work for me, and the queasy sexism didn't help.

Finally, "Second Landing" is the one of Wallace's last stories. A couple of aliens come by Earth and realize it's in big trouble -- the warring factions are about to destroy themselves with nuclear war. And the aliens have to be somewhere else soon. But they decide to make one attempt to help the huamns, because humans look a lot them them, except for one feature ... And they are there at Christmas time. I won't tell what feature the aliens have that apparently helps them get their message across, but it's a pretty trite story.

So -- a quick look at ten of F. L. Wallace's stories. In then end, I'll say that he was often a pretty engaging storyteller. He had no real interest in accurate science. And he was a pedestrian writer of prose. He also pretty overtly constructed his scenarios to make a point. But at his best, he was fun to read. I might compare him to J. T. McIntosh in some ways, though McIntosh was much more prolific and a better novelist. Does Wallace need a major rediscovery? No. But he's a writer you might enjoy if you can ignore the artificiality, the absurd science, and the '50s-era sexism. 

I read most of these stories at Project Gutenberg. I missed any of his stories from F&SF or Astounding -- maybe I'll look them up to see if Campbell or Mills as editors made a difference.