"BEST OF THE YEAR" REPRISE: EUROPE REELS

The morbid state of American SF might lead one to expect -- even to hope -- that the narcotized Amerikaners would be blindsided by an older and wiser literary tradition from the Continent. Judging by this (TERRA SF II -- THE YEARS BEST EUROPEAN SF, Richard D. Nolane, ed., DAW $2.95), it is not to be. Frankly, there are SOVIETS who can write better than this.

Three of twelve stories can be exempted from the pillory, especially Francis Carsac's "The Last Atlantean." Its misleadingly maudlin title is the work of the translator, one "Joe F. Randolph." In this collection, Mr. Randolph tackles German, French, Danish, Spanish, and Italian. Can such a polymath exist? Is the wooden prose of this collection perhaps his fault? One might hope so, but the underlying structure of these stories leads one to believe otherwise. They range from flabby Howard pastiches to wet leftist polemics, as dull as Pournelle without even his saving grace of overt violence. And are pickings so slim in Europe that the editor MUST include one of his own stories?