Nebula Science Fiction Number 14

[a:EC Tubb 17093421 EC Tubb https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] (15 October 1919 – 10 September 2010) was a British writer of science fiction, fantasy and western novels. The author of over 140 novels and 230 short stories and novellas, Tubb is best known for The Dumarest Saga (US collective title: Dumarest of Terra), an epic science-fiction saga set in the far future. [a:Michael Moorcock 16939 Michael Moorcock https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1424079041p2/16939.jpg] wrote, “His reputation for fast-moving and colourful SF writing is unmatched by anyone in Britain.”Much of Tubb's work was written under pseudonyms including Gregory Kern, Carl Maddox, Alan Guthrie, Eric Storm and George Holt. He used 58 pen names over five decades of writing, although some of these were publishers' house names also used by other writers: Volsted Gridban (along with John Russell Fearn), Gill Hunt (with John Brunner and Dennis Hughes), King Lang (with George Hay and John W Jennison), Roy Sheldon (with H. J. Campbell) and Brian Shaw. Tubb's Charles Grey alias was solely his own and acquired a big following in the early 1950s.Nebula Science FictionNebula Science Fiction was the first Scottish science fiction magazine. It was published from 1952 to 1959, and was edited by Peter Hamilton, a young Scot who was able to take advantage of spare capacity at his parents' printing company, Crownpoint, to launch the magazine. Because Hamilton could only print Nebula when Crownpoint had no other work, the schedule was initially erratic. In 1955 he moved the printing to a Dublin-based firm, and the schedule became a little more regular, with a steady monthly run beginning in 1958 that lasted into the following year. Nebula's circulation was international, with only a quarter of the sales in the United Kingdom (UK); this led to disaster when South Africa and Australia imposed import controls on foreign periodicals at the end of the 1950s. Excise duties imposed in the UK added to Hamilton's financial burdens, and he was rapidly forced to close the magazine. The last issue was dated June 1959. The magazine was popular with writers, partly because Hamilton went to great lengths to encourage new writers, and partly because he paid better rates per word than much of his competition. Initially he could not compete with the American market, but he offered a bonus for the most popular story in the issue, and was eventually able to match the leading American magazines.As for the story itself, the name derives from Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes? Who will watch the watchers? Or, literally, who will protect the people from their own protectors? ... Those who had power invariably abused it and were eventually replaced by others who inevitably followed the same path. Here we see a few of the military manning a facility on orbit that can trigger the ultimate annihilation of the “enemy”. Everyone knows pressing the launch will mean annihilation of their own side too. And the men breaking down due to stress of so much responsibility. The optimistic ending gives the reader some hope.A couple of quotes struck home:“He feels no guilt at whatever he proposes doing. It's a case of glorified buck passing. He takes orders & blames the man who issues them. The man who issues them probably salves his conscience by telling himself that he won't really be the one to fire the missiles. It's easy to kill if you don't have to pull the trigger.”“Traitor is a bad word–bad that is to those who give it. To others a ‘traitor' could well be a savior because a traitor is merely a person who does not do as others decide. No man could ever really be a traitor to himself, not if he did what he believed to be right. And no man could possibly be a traitor if by so being he was instrumental in saving his race.”Get a copy here.