FROM MIND TO MIND

From the Analog archives: 16 tales, 1942-83, examining the problem of communication. Jack Vance's fine ""The Gift of Gab"" describes an alien species who, paradoxically, appear intelligent but don't communicate with one another. H. Beam Piper's well-known ""Omnilingual"" shows how a dead alien script may be deciphered via the universal language of science. And the third standout is one of Lewis Padgett's strong, appealing series-stories about the ""Baldies""--hairless telepathic mutants struggling to survive in a world dominated by suspicious non-telepaths. Also noteworthy: Anthony Boucher's famous ""Barrier,"" about time travel and a far-future dictatorship; and Christopher Anvil's two-way radio--designed so that you can literally talk back to obnoxious commercials, idiotic announcers, etc. The rest, though, are much feebler and often poorly thought-out: signaling aliens, scrambled communications, a man with a split brain (juvenile melodrama), Columbus mired in modern bureaucratic toils, a faster-than-light radio, dolphins, computers. And, overall, this is a disappointingly superficial and trite anthology--with musty, dusty items obscuring the few real gems.