A Planet Called Cervantes (John Keith)

A  lone stranger called Kerrender arrives on the planet Cervantes (presumably a nod to the famous Spanish author), He is a highly trained fighter, 7ft 5ins tall and needs fuel for his ship to help repel an attack by the Rengols, an enemy force who have decimated his home planet of Rawn. After a saloon brawl leaves ten of the locals dead. Kerrender is challenged to a duel with flame-whips, while the Rengol fleet is getting ever closer.

There is a mish-mash of themes here, none of which really work (although the Spaghetti Western saloon scene is quite fun), The pretentious repetition of the line 'On Rawn died the Thirty Thousand...' is just irritating and while the ideas are decent enough for a student rag mag, they are exposed in this short story. Looking on the isfdb site, author John Keith didn't do anything else, which is a shame as there is promise in the raw talent, and the writing itself is reasonable.

Overall:- 4/10

Planet:- Cervantes

Included in:-
New Writings in SF-26 edited by Kenneth Bulmer (12 pages)

Two Rivers (R.W. Mackelworth)

A community lives by a lake inside a huge dome which supposedly protects everyone from the toxic air outside. A group of them plan to be the first for over 100 years to leave the safety of the dome and they journey on two boats, down two rivers, that flow to the outside. Some of one group are stranded and they travel across land to try and meet up with the second boat, which is travelling down the other river, but a virus has already caught up with them. The planet seems unsuitable for habitation, but there are 100,000 people who need to know for sure.

English author R.W. Mackelworth doesn't have a huge body of work and I'm not surprised as this short story is drab. The writing itself is fine but the plot is dull and goes nowhere. The 'hope for mankind' optimistic ending does nothing for a cynic like me and I'd forgotten the characters and narrative within minutes of finishing reading.

Overall:- 4/10

Included in:-
New Writings in SF-17 edited by John Carnell (24 pages)