OK, I’m gonna do it.  With the exception of some of the novels, I’ll be looking at the nominees for the 1945 Retro Hugos, which are awarded for stories published in 1944.  I’m going to start with the novelettes.  I read “The Children’s Hour” earlier this week as a possibility Henry Kuttner birthday post before the Retro Hugo shortlist was announced.  Might as well tackle it while it’s fresh on my mind.

“The Children’s Hour” was originally published in the March 1944 issue of Astounding.  (I’m going to get a lot of mileage out of these posts since many of them will double as Astounding 90th Anniversary posts.)

Before we go any further, I want to address something, and that’s where to find these stories so you can read them.  As a general rule, I don’t do review posts of things that aren’t readily available, although I do make exceptions to that rule from time to time.  For the Hugos, the voting members of Worldcon get copies of the short fiction to read, and the last time I had a membership, that was true for the Retro Hugos as well.

I don’t have a copy of this year’s Retro nominees that was provided to the Wolrdcon membership. The one  year I was a voting member, pretty much everything from the year under question was provided so members could read the stories and nominate for t he short list.  If anyone wants to send me a copy, I won’t snitch.  Promise.

The only short fiction I don’t have a copy of is “Intruders From the Stars” by Ross Rocklynne, and I was able to order a reprint of that one.  I have no illusions that everyone who takes the time to read these posts will have access to all of the stories.  The only reason I have copies of some of them is because I bought several complete runs of pulps on CD last year for myself for Father’s Day.

“The Children’s Hour” is one of the tales that will be hard to come by.  According to the ISFDB, it has only been reprinted in English four times:  twice in 1959, once in 1983, and once in 2010.If you want to read my review, it will be below the “Continue Reading ” link.  I will try to avoid as many spoilers as possible in all of these reviews.

The story starts out with a soldier named Lessing waiting to go in for a hypnosis session.  It started out as part of an experiment, only in Lessing’s case something unusual occurred. It seemed he had no memory of the summer of 1941 when he was under hypnosis. Out from under hypnosis, he could remember that time period.  The officer in charge of the project suspects Lessing is repressing some type of trauma.

“Lawrence O’Donnell” – Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore

When the story opens, they are about to make the breakthrough that will allow Lessing to remember what is being suppressed.

During the summer of 1941 Lessing met a young lady named Clarissa.  They began seeing each other and quickly fell in love.  Lessing began to make plans for asking her to marry him.  It will be no surprise that things won’t work out.

Clarissa lives with an aunt who doesn’t approve of the relationship. Lessing can never recall what she looks like, although his impression is that she is a dark-haired woman.

When Lessing is with Clarissa, colors seem brighter, sensations are stronger, and he seems more alive. The word he uses is “glamor”.  “The Children’s Hour” has a feel of fantasy about it until the end, when things move completely into the realm of science fiction.  That’s all I’m going to say about that.

One day in Central Park, they are walking hand-in-hand towards an exit when Lessing hears a car crash. He turns to Clarissa, and her hand slips from his. Lessing watches as she walks away from him through a series of concentric rings and vanishes. A minute later she comes walking up the path towards him, unaware that anything has happened.

Not long after that, they’re back in the park and get caught out in the rain. When they try to take shelter in a summerhouse, they find the building isn’t there. As a result of getting soaked, Clarissa is ill for a week.

Lessing tries to see her, going over to the apartment Clarissa shares with her aunt.  The apartment is covered with mirrors. He finds the door open, goes in, and ends up in a strange place, where he sees Clarissa surrounded by a strangely dressed group of people.  Two of them move towards him as though he were a threat.  Then he comes to outside the apartment.  This won’t be the last strange thing that will happen to him.

Lessing soon figures out that there is some power wanting Clarissa for himself. The term we would use today would be “grooming”.  Clarissa is unaware of what’s going on for most of the story, although she does begin to realize there are other forces at work.

The reader can quickly figure out that things aren’t going to end well for Lessing. A hint of that is given within the first few pages of the story when Kuttner and Moore quote from Romeo and Juliet.

This is a strong story, one of Kuttner and Moore’s best.  I think the reason it hasn’t been reprinted more often is because of its length. It’s certainly deserving of its Retro Hugo nomination.  If you can track down a copy, it’s worth the effort.

I’ll report on another novelette on the final ballot sometime in the next few days.