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Counter Foil
A short story by George O. Smith
29 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 1964
1 person want to read
About the author
George O. Smith
214 books11 followersGeorge Oliver Smith (April 9, 1911 - May 27, 1981) (also known as Wesley Long) was an American science fiction author. He is not to be confused with George H. Smith, another American science fiction author.
Smith was an active contributor to Astounding Science Fiction during the Golden Age of Science Fiction in the 1940s. His collaboration with the magazine's editor, John W. Campbell, Jr. was interrupted when Campbell's first wife, Doña, left him in 1949 and married Smith.
Smith continued regularly publishing science fiction novels and stories until 1960. His output greatly diminished in the 1960s and 1970s when he had a job that required his undivided attention. He was given the First Fandom Hall of Fame award in 1980.
He was a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders, which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery solvers the Black Widowers.
Smith wrote mainly about outer space, with such works as Operation Interstellar (1950), Lost in Space (1959), and Troubled Star (1957).
He is remembered chiefly for his Venus Equilateral series of short stories about a communications station in outer space. The stories were collected in Venus Equilateral (1947), which was later expanded as The Complete Venus Equilateral (1976).
His novel The Fourth "R" (1959) - re-published as The Brain Machine (1968) - was a digression from his focus on outer space, and provides one of the more interesting examinations of a child prodigy in science fiction.
Smith was an active contributor to Astounding Science Fiction during the Golden Age of Science Fiction in the 1940s. His collaboration with the magazine's editor, John W. Campbell, Jr. was interrupted when Campbell's first wife, Doña, left him in 1949 and married Smith.
Smith continued regularly publishing science fiction novels and stories until 1960. His output greatly diminished in the 1960s and 1970s when he had a job that required his undivided attention. He was given the First Fandom Hall of Fame award in 1980.
He was a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders, which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery solvers the Black Widowers.
Smith wrote mainly about outer space, with such works as Operation Interstellar (1950), Lost in Space (1959), and Troubled Star (1957).
He is remembered chiefly for his Venus Equilateral series of short stories about a communications station in outer space. The stories were collected in Venus Equilateral (1947), which was later expanded as The Complete Venus Equilateral (1976).
His novel The Fourth "R" (1959) - re-published as The Brain Machine (1968) - was a digression from his focus on outer space, and provides one of the more interesting examinations of a child prodigy in science fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 23, 2022
Glen Engel-Cox's review here at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... gets it right if you view this as science fiction. I prefer to call it fantasy hinging on pseudoscience and declare it charming and very, very '60s magazine flavor. And the punchline is more than adequately set up.
Read in Silverberg's Men and Machines: Science Fiction Stories by Fred Saberhagan, Jack Williamson, Fritz Leiber, and More!.
Read in Silverberg's Men and Machines: Science Fiction Stories by Fred Saberhagan, Jack Williamson, Fritz Leiber, and More!.
November 21, 2021
This story hinges on an impossibility—that something can take place in an instantaneous moment. Of course, it starts with an impossibility as well, that being a future where mass transit is accomplished via teleportation, but it’s an SF story so the reader forgives that one impossible thing. But the other—that a baby could be born in the moment of instantaneous teleportation—defies the internal logic of the story, not to mention the whole limbo of the system. Not recommended.
November 2, 2020
3.5 stars
This short story was first published in the
April 1964 issue of Analog Science
Fact/Science Fiction magazine.
This short story was first published in the
April 1964 issue of Analog Science
Fact/Science Fiction magazine.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews