Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The Sky is Falling" (as by C H Liddell) (novelette, doomsday, free)

One of the really minor stories of authors.

Johnny Dyson is a crew member on a ship sent to Mars to mine some ore that might help prevent an almost certain apocalypse ("Blow-Up") on earth. But he loves his life too much, doesn't want to return from Mars to die.

So chase & drama on Mars. He will fail, & will be forced to return. Only it will be too late to return...

Fact sheet.

First published: Planet Stories, Fall 1950.
Download full text.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore, as by C H Liddell.

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Android" (as by C H Liddell) (novelette, paranoia, free): Androids are quietly replacing humans!

The idea is not new - a conspiracy of things non-human to quietly impersonate humans, sometimes killing the originals they're replacing; see, e.g., John Campbell's "The Brain Stealers of Mars" (read online), or Philip K Dick's "The Father-Thing" (read online). Stylistically, there is some similarity with Kuttner's own "Don't Look Now" (download) about a man's paranoia that Martian imposters among humanity are driving our destiny.

We also see here a favorite theme of Kuttner: children think in ways that are fundamentally different from adults.

Story summary.

James Philips Bradley has incontrovertible evidence that his boss, Arthur Court, is an android rather than human! In fact, his work has convinced him that a sizable number of people he sees around are actually androids. And he thinks they're working towards eventually replacing humanity, though their numbers may not be that big today.

This is the story of his quest (to save humanity). And its strange climax.

Fact sheet.

First published: F&SF, June 1951,
Download full text.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore (as by C H Liddell); fiction from 1950s.

Henry Kuttner's "Where the World is Quiet" (as by C H Liddell) (short story, time quake, free)

There are actually a lot of oft-used tropes here, but the stories it most reminds me of are:

1. Murray Leinster's "Sidewise in Time": An event has induced a sort of earthquake that spawns time & distance across universe - so a patch of earth is replaced with another patch that is from somewhere else in space-time.
2. Jack Williamson's "The Metal Man" (download text scans): An isolated place on earth that no one visits, or can visit, hides utterly alien life-forms & culture.

Story summary.

A recent earthquake near a hill or mountain called Huascan in Peru has created an impenetrable mist over a localized region. Seven young girls walked into it & haven't returned. Locals are terrified.

The narrator, an anthropologist, goes in to investigate, & a major adventure begins...

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Universe, May 1954.
Rating: B.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, or Manybooks.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner; fiction from 1950s.