review of
A. Bertram Chandler's Beyond the Galactic Rim / The Ship from Outside
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - June 29, 2016

Don't waste your time here. Read the full review: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/459244-i-like-a-bertram-chandler-s-stories

This is an Ace Double, for those of you not familiar w/ those, they were small paperbacks that had one bk that cd be read from one direction & another that cd be read from the other by flipping the bk - an object w/ 2 fronts & no back. Beyond the Galactic Rim is a collection of 4 short stories. Short stories are pretty 'touch-'n'-go' for me, I prefer longer stories w/ more development. Nonetheless, I reckon these stories are successfully interesting w/in their brief lives.

Chandler is a series writer, a species I usually avoid, so there's always overlap from tale to tale. "Forbidden Planet", the 1st of these, starts off w/:

"She was a huge hunk of ship, was Sally Ann, too large and too imposing for the name she bore. She stood proudly in her berth at Port Forlorn, dwarfing cranes and gantries and administration buildings, towering high above Rimstar and Rimbound, both typical units of the Rim Runners' fleet. Yet, to the trained eye of a spaceman, a relationship between Sally Ann and the smaller vessels would have been obvious—all three bore the ummistakable stamp of of the Interstellar Transport Commission and all three had come down in the Universe. Sally Ann, for all her outward smartness, had come down the furthest; she had been a Beta Class liner, and now she was tramping." - p 6

Regular readers of Chandler's work will recognize "Port Forlorn" & "Rim"-this-&-the-other. The only thing that surprises me is that there's not a Rimbaut. Then there's Grimes, Chandler's main character. This story was copyrighted in 1959, that makes this the earliest Grimes appearance for me:

"Commodore Grimes, Astronautical Superintendent for Rim Runners, looked out from the window of his office towards the big ship, screwing up his eyes against the steely glare of the westering sun. His hard, pitted face softened momentarily as he said, "I'm sorry, Captain. We can't use her. She just won't fit into any of our trades."" - p 6

A brief Chandler autobiographical statement appears at the beginnings of many of his bks:

""I have always been an avid reader of science-fiction and have always wanted to write. Until in possession of my Master's Certificate, I always felt that my spare time should be devoted to study rather than writing. My first visit to New York was after the entry of the U. S. into the war. Shortly after, having passed for Master, I had no excuse for not writing, and I became a regular contributor to the magazines in the field.

""After the war I continued writing, but dropped out after promotion to Chief Officer. After my emigration to Australia, I was bullied by my second wife into taking up the pen again, and became once again a prolific writer of short stories. Finally, I felt that the time was ripe for full-length novels. I have dropped shorter pieces feeling that they gave insufficient scope for character development. I think that science-fiction and fantasy are ideal vehicles for putting over essential truths."" - p 2

Obviously, these short stories served to establish Chandler's "Rim Worlds" & most of the characters & technologies. Again, the earliest appearances that I've run across of such things so far are in this story:

"Larwood cut the reaction drive, ordered the Mannschenn Drive to be started. The song of the spinning, precessing flywheels filled all the spaces of the ship; abruptly the Galactic lens took on the appearance of a huge, luminous Klein flask fashioned by a demented glass blower. Clavering felt, as always, the uncanny sensation of deja vu, as the temporal precession fields built up, the knowledge that past, present and future were one and indivisible." - p 15

The story ends w/ a good punchline. By presenting it here w/o telling what the build-up to it is I avoid a spoiler:

"" 'A Man who comes out to the Rim to make his living,' " quoted Clavering, " 'would go to Hell for a pastime.' "" - p 28

The 2nd story, "Wet Paint", begins thusly:

"In all probability you've never heard of Kinsolving—most people, and that includes the majority of spacemen, have not. It's one of the Rim Worlds, which means that it's well off the beaten track even for the Commission's Epsilon Class tramps. It's an Earth-type planet, but not sufficiently similar to Earth to make it attractive to colonists. The gravity is a little too heavy and the air is a little too thin and a little too rich in carbon dioxide. Its sun is hot enough, but not very bright, and its light is so blue as to convey the impression of chilliness. Then, of course, there is that aching emptiness of the night sky for six months of the year without even a moon to take the curse off it.

"Kinsolving, then, is just a name in the Survey Commission's files—just a name and a few lines of relevant data. Discovered and charted by Commodore Pearson of the Survey Ship Magellan, named after his second-in-command." - p 29

I think that's a good description but what makes it especially interesting to me is that "Magellan" is just referred to as having been named after the "second-in-command" & there's no mention made of the original explorer that's, obviously, the most important influence on the name. In the time of the writing of this story, 1959, the reference would've been taken for granted as one not needing explication - but how much longer will that be the case? It's not 2016, 57 yrs later, & what's considered to be the basic body of knowledge for people has changed considerably.

These days, a search for "Magellan" online yields links to a travel accessories store & a health-care provide before an entry for the explorer appears:

"Born into a wealthy Portuguese family in around 1480," [Ferdinand] "Magellan became a skilled sailor and naval officer and was eventually selected by King Charles I of Spain to search for a westward route to the Maluku Islands (the "Spice Islands"). Commanding a fleet of five vessels, he headed south through the Atlantic Ocean to Patagonia, passing through the Strait of Magellan into a body of water he named the "peaceful sea" (the modern Pacific Ocean). Despite a series of storms and mutinies, the expedition reached the Spice Islands in 1521 and returned home via the Indian Ocean to complete the first circuit of the globe. Magellan did not complete the entire voyage, as he was killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines in 1521." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan

How long will it be before such an entry gets pushed even further away from the top by sponsored ads & the like?

"" 'Captain,' he said, 'we've found the paintings!'

"" 'Good,' I replied. 'Did you get photographs?'

"He ignored my question.

"" 'Captain!' he almost shouted, 'the paint is wet![' ]"" - p 33

Nice. Imagine finding wet cave paintings that otherwise have the appearance of ancientness. This story features an "Esper", the implied etymology of the word being "person having Extra Sensory Perception". The etymology's a bit wonky since ESP doesn't include the following but, hey!, it's ok, right?:

"She took a cigarette from Jones' case with the slender fingers of her right hand, put it to her lips. She ignored Jones' lighter. The end of the little cylinder glowed suddenly into incandescence." - p 38

The Rim is a place of uncertainty, a place where the Laws of Nature aren't necessarily written in stone, or even gas:

""You get this way out on the Rim," said the Captain, sensing our bewilderment. "If you didn't, you'd be round the bend in next to no time. If I'd been Captain Spence I shouldn't have considered a spot of wet paint anything worth writing home about."

""But is was odd," I said.

""Everything out here is odd. I have my own private theory, and that is that Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle is the only law of nature that's valid in these parts."" - pp 43-44

The next story, "The Man Who Could Not Stop", revolves around how a penal system might work in a region that, in a sense, welcomes the criminal from the rest of the universe w/o any extradition possible:

"He had known for a long time, as do all who live on the wrong side of the Law, that there is no extradition from the Rim Worlds. It was on Van Diemen's Planet that he made his decision. A friendly police officer had warned him, for a consideration, that Terran agents would be arriving on the next in-bound liner, and the tramp freighter Jolly Swagman owned by the Faraway Line and homeward bound, was almost ready to blast off from Port Tasman. Her captain was ready and willing to supplement his salary by arranging a passage at very short notice." - p 56

The name "Jolly Swagman" is one of Chandler's many references to Australian slang & to the song "Waltzing Matilda". For Warren Burt's explication of this song go here: https://youtu.be/TiCY1cBm5nM?t=1h58m7s .

In between using recurring material to establish the serial ties, Chandler does come up w/ interesting fresh material too:

""Thing to 'member," Fredericks had said, "is this. All our robots have brains. But not human brains. Not anything like. Take Mark IV. Same I.Q. as domestic fowl . . . Funny thing—bunch of us talking 'bout it, 'membered 'bout hypnotizin' chickens. Fantastic. Works on Mark IV too . . ."

""And how do you hypnotize a chicken?" Clavering had asked.

""Easy. Draw line on floor. Hold her beak down to it."

""But the Mark IV hasn't got a beak . . ."

""Special paper, hold up to scanner. Shows, in infra-red, very straight, very dark line . . ."" - 76

I've always wanted to incorporate that hypnotizing-a-chicken thing into a music video to the song "Chicken in Black".

The last story is entitled "The Key". It starts off in Port Forlorn, another one of Chandler's recurring elements:

"But we are Men, close cousins to the monkeys, and we did leave the surface of the Earth, and that is how I came to be drinking in Susie's Bar and Grill in Port Forlorn, on Lorn, most dismal of the Rim Worlds, that night, and that is how Halvorsen came to find me there." - p 84

Chandler's characters are often realistically depicted as having emotional conflicts & other human conditions:

""So, I need a Master Astronaut. I'm willing to pay handsomely for your services."

""Listen," I said, "I've had Space. I've had Space in a big way. I'm sick of tank-grown food and recirculated air and water. When I paid off the Rimbird I swore that I'd never set foot in a spaceship again , and I meant it."" - p 86

Grimes, Chandler's main recurring character, only makes a cameo appearance:

""You can call me Admiral," I said, "with pay and uniform to match, and I'll still not be interested. Take my tip and go to see old Grimes, the Astronautical Superintendent of Rim Runners. He may be able to loan you an officer."" - p 87

I usually like it in a bk if a reference is made that prompts me to do a little research:

"["]It was Hoyle, a Twentieth Century astronomer, who first stumbled onto it, who put forward the theory that there was a continual influx of new hydrogen atoms into the Universe from . . . from somewhere.["]" - p 93

"Sir Fred Hoyle was an English astronomer and cosmologist, primarily remembered today for his contribution to the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis, and his often controversial stance on other cosmological and scientific matters, such as his rejection of the Big Bang theory in favour of a steady state universe and the panspermia theory of the origin of life on earth. He is considered one of the most creative and provocative astrophysicists of the second half of the 20th Century."

[..]

"In 1949, Hoyle began a popular and often repeated series of BBC radio broadcasts on astronomy, with versions being broadcast in the United States as well as in a book “The Nature of the Universe”. It was in the last of these radio lectures that Hoyle coined the phrase "Big Bang" for the creation of the universe, although many people believe he actually intended it as a scornful description of a theory which he did not himself accept. In 1957, he published “The Black Cloud”, the first of many science fiction novels." - http://www.physicsoftheuniverse.com/scientists_hoyle.html

SO, there's the Hoyle that Chandler mentions. It would be fun to make Chandler a character in a SF novel too, maybe a novel by Hoyle.

There's a fair amt of hetero-romance in Chandler's novels, most of it not quite as stereotyping as the following:

""Miss Wayne," I heard myself saying, "If I said anything to upset you, I apologize . . ."

""It's not what you've said, you stupid brute!" she wailed. "It's what you've done. This was such a nice, clean, tidy ship before you came here. And now . . ."

"Somehow, I was holding her, and she was sniffling damply between my neck and my shoulder." - p 100

Lardy.

One of the things I like most about Chandler's stories is the way he transplants earth(l)y banalities into extra-terrestrial situations:

"He told of his humble youth as a plumber, of the invention of the first really satisfactory Free Fall toilet that had brought him fame—and to have one's name spread throughout the Galaxy in every ship is fame—and fortune. he talked of the intricacies of finance, of the problems of manufacture." - p 104

&, finally, there's another one of those poking-fun-at-one's-own-profession sort of things:

""Interdimensional travel is impossible," I said. "Like Time Travel, it's just something that science fiction writers play with."" - p 108

The bk on the flipside, The Ship from Outside, is a novel, rather than another collection of short stories. However, it starts off related to the last of the short stories in its mate:

"It was on Stree that Calver, Master of the startramp Rimfire, received the news. He was in his day cabin at the time and he and Jane Calver, who was both his wife and his Catering Officer, were trying the large, not unhandsome lizard who acted as Rim Runners' local agent." - p 5

I mention above that "Chandler's characters are often realistically depicted as having emotional conflicts" & this bk went so far in that direction that it was beginning to seem a bit too far for me until it was somewhat justified by the more SF elements of the plot. Characters that I'd met in a different bk, The Rim of Space ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1486040.Secret_Agent_of_Terra_The_Rim_of_Spa... ), reappear here in a sequelesque type way. I've read so many of Chandler's bks recently that they're all 'running together' in my mind somewhat.

"There was Calver, tall and gangling, and there was Jane Calver who, as "Calamity Jane" Arlen, had been Catering Officer of the lost Lorn Lady." - p 8

The "Ship from Outside" is the spaceship that Calver & co are in quest of. There's speculation:

""Just suppose . . ." murmured Calver. "Just suppose . . . Just suppose that there's a big ship hanging out there, somewhere . . . A ship that made the crossing . . . Just suppose that her crew discovered intelligent life on the Rim Worlds—but discovered that life in the anti-matter systems. . . . Or, perhaps, our systems are anti-matter to them. . . . Just suppose that they've assumed that our entire galaxy is composed of anti-matter. . . ."" - p 23

One of the things I like about The Ship from Outside is that it's not so simple as someone(s) having the vision to pursue a quest & getting down to it. Instead, voting goes on & the quest gets vetoed again & again as impractical & financially unviable. Now there's life for you!

"["]It was mainly a rehash of all the old legends about the Outsiders and it contained the statement , alleged to have been made by Maudsley, which I'll quote: 'Put Macbeth and Kinsolvings' Sun in line, and keep them so. That's the way that we came back. Fifty light years, and all hands choking on the stink of frying oil from the Mannscheen Drive . . .'

""It's a lead."

""Is it?" queried Jane. "And, if so, to what? But tell me, why didn't Grimes follow it when he made the last survey voyage in Faraway Quest?"

""Because Grimes, as I shouldn't have to tell you, is apt to be pigheaded. he's made up his mind that there's nothing—and I mean nothing—Outside.["]" - p 29

There's a spy &, yes, she has sexual wiles that Chandler, in his Ian Fleming kindof a way, isn't likely to not present. She, too, was in The Rim of Space & Calver's one-night-stand w/ her is a major factor in the emotional deterioration that runs thru this plot:

""For what?" he countered.

"He thought, She hasn't changed. Except that she's died her platinum hair green. But she's still damned attractive. Too attractive.

"She shrugged. "Well, the last two times we met were rather disastrous weren't they? The first time was on Faraway, wasn't it? And your girlfriend turned the local cops on to me. And the second time was on Grollor, and there was that most unfortunate clash between the Federation Survey Service, Intelligence branch, and the Rim Worlds Naval Reserve. . . ."

"Calver got up and joined the girl at her table.

""Still playing Olga Popovsky, the Beautiful Spy?" he asked." - p 34

A one-night-stand can lead to jealousy can lead to serious mental collapse can lead to interruptions to the quest. Now that's realism.

"Calver kept to his own quarters, seeing nobody unless required to do so on ship's business. He was thinking too much and he was drinking too much. He hoped that the drinking would inhibit his thought processes, but it did not. He was thinking too much and he was remembering too much, harking back to the old days before the skein of his life became so hopelessly tangled. He could not blame Jane for this, but neither could he blame Sonya. he tried to blame himself, but even this he found difficult. He had acted as he had acted because he was himself, Derek Calver, his personality the result of years of experience both in deep space and on various planetary surfaces. He had reacted to external stimuli as surely as the dogs—still famous after how many centuries?—which had been the subjects of the experiments made by the ancient Russian Pavlov.

"Old Doc Malone came to see him.

""Derek," said the ship's physician, his usually jovial face grave, "we have to land Jane."" - p 74

I was a bit surprised by how much Chandler forefronted the subtle self-servingness of his characters:

""Jane is Jane," agreed Calver, "and I wouldn't want her changed."

""Wouldn't you now?"

""H'm. I suppose I could suggest a few improvements. . . . If she were a little less possessive, for example. I'm inclined to think that her possessiveness has been the real cause of most of thee trouble,"" - p 77

""But it's all so . . . so callous," objected Calver.

""I suppose it is. But remember this—in all the millenia of man's recorded history it's been the sentimentalists, the nobly self-sacrificing types , who've done the most damage. Sonya's selfish and honest about it, but she's done far less damage to this ship and this enterprise than you have done."" - p 78 ( )