Sunday, May 4, 2008

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Clash by Night" (short story, science fiction, free)

An alternate military organization. Unarmed city states, & independent military companies!

You want to attack another city states? Hire one of the military companies for a certain duration! Ditto for defense. Of course, same company will sometimes be hired by two different states. Loser state usually needs to pay tribute.

Story is set on Venus. Human colony comprises of under-sea domed cities that are the unarmed states. Military camps are in the wilderness that is Venusian surface. Story is told from the perspective of a high-ranking officer in one of these military companies.

I think this was the story that was later expended to Kuttner/Moore novel "Fury" (but am not sure).

One episode in the story involves the officer & one more character walk through a stretch of dangerous Venusian wilds. This part of the story has adventures very similar to Stanley Weinbaum's "Parasite Planet".

Collected in.

  1. Isaac Asimov & Martin H Greenberg (Eds)' "Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 5 (1943)".
  2. John W Campbell, Jr (ed)'s "The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding Science Fiction, March 1943.
Rating: B
Read online at WOWIO (no download)

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