Thursday, November 8, 2012

Dean McLaughlin's "The Man On the Bottom" (novelette, war, free): Surviving a sure death...

One of the illustrations by Martinez accompanying the reprinting in the British edition of Astounding Science Fiction magazine of short story The Man On the Bottom by Dean McLaughlin. Picture shows leaders of two undersea domes of warring nations conferring.
I'm surprised it hasn't seen much reprinting. Good stuff.

Story summary.

A future where many dome cities exist under the oceans. Mostly mining towns - mining the ocean bottoms. Now there is a deadly dispute brewing between America & South Africa - a rich mineral source lies in the territory common to domes of both, & both want the other party out.

When war breaks out, there is no hope for inhabitants of the domes. These are very vulnerable places; they might inflict some damage to an attacker, but they themselves will anyway be destroyed.

One determined supervisor of a dome has a survival plan...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, March 1958.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding (British Edition), June 1958 where it was reprinted.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell

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