THE LEARNING MAZE: & Other Science Fiction

Four new and three reprinted tales add up to a somewhat more sustaining mix than was offered by Elwood's Survival From Infinity (see above) chiefly because of Psycho author Robert Bloch's challenging model of ""The Learning Maze"" and the reappearance of a vintage Ballard experiment in social engineering ""Thirteen to Centaurus."" Unfortunately the longest selection -- Raymond F. Jones' ""Gift of the Gods"" -- is something less than manna and rather more like a grade B movie script, but the sentimentality in Nancy Mackenroth's ""The Most Beautiful Music"" and Edmond Hamilton's ""Requiem"" (in which a media team is assigned to cover the death of the planet Earth) is professionally restrained. And Harvey and Audrey Bilker's ""Then You Can Do What You Want,"" while nothing profound, offers an unexpected twist on the familiar exposes of controlled societies. Intermittently rewarding.