Robert Moore Williams' "The Sound of Bugles" (short story)

Adventure involving a well intentioned human researcher & a greedy human villain - both trying to figure out how Martians are able to literally create material things out of thin air. Villain will die trying; scientist will learn that their technique cannot be replicated by humans because it involves biological capability we lack, & that he's dealing with super-beings.

Collected in.

1. Donald A Wollheim (ed)'s "Adventures on Other Planets".

Fact sheet.

First published: Startling Stories, September 1949.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Robert Moore Williams.

Roger Dee's "The Obligation" (novelette, free, first contact): An alien's adventures at a human camp on Venus

A shape-shifting surveyor ("Cseth Abrii of Pselpha from the binary suns Kornephoros") from an alien elder race saves a human fisherman on Venus in a storm. Alien's later friendly gestures at the human camp drive another man mad with fear - so we have a madman hunting the alien & other humans of the habitat trying to save the alien. Eventually, the madman will die & so will the saved man's wife, but does the man need to know his wife is dead? Alien thinks he has an obligation towards the friendly man who lost his wife trying to save him...

Collected in.

1. Donald A Wollheim (ed)'s "Adventures on Other Planets".

Fact sheet.

First published: Startling Stories, September 1952.
Read online at UNZ.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Roger Dee.

John W Campbell's "Dead Knowledge" (as by Don A Stuart) (novelette, alien invasion): "Molecular", microscopic, space traveling, light-eating alien invaders want to control us as tools!

Three human star travelers have arrived at a new world 27 light years from earth, only to find that it once harbored intelligent, highly developed, humanoid civilization that is now dead. And, curiously, it's long dead residents have their bodies well preserved & they all apparently committed suicide!!

It drags on for a while, until the visitors themselves start committing suicide - first one, then other. It's the final one who will enlighten us on the nature of infection before himself committing suicide.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, January 1938.
Rating: B.
Nominated for Retro Hugo Awards 1939 in novelette category.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Works of John Campbell (as by Don A Stuart).

Martin Gardner's "Thang" (flash fiction, free): Big fish eats smaller one; & is food to bigger one

This is a very minor story, though apparently a well known one.

A giant, cosmic scale creature called Thang eats up earth for breakfast! And then gets eaten up by something even bigger.

Collected in.

1. Everett F Bleiler & T E Dikty (eds)' "The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1949".

Fact sheet.

First published: 1948. ("for his college literary magazine").
Download full text.
Rating: C.

Fredric Brown's "Knock" (short story, alien invasion, free)

Going by the comments online, it appears to be among the better known stories of Brown. Not a very believable conclusion, but light fun read.

Story summary.

Aliens called "Zan" have raided earth. They took a few hundred animal specimen alive - among them a man & a woman, & killed off all other life on earth. These specimen, including the humans, have now been put as exhibits in a zoo on earth, & this advanced raiding party of aliens is preparing to claim earth as permanent residence.

The man will pull off a coup of sorts, scaring aliens enough with his
ingenuity to make them leave earth...

Collected in.

1. Everett F Bleiler & T E Dikty (eds)' "The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1949".

Fact sheet.

First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1948.
Download full text.
Download audio of X Minus One radio adaptation of this story from Internet Archive. (alt MP3 link)
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Fredric Brown.

Robert A Heinlein's "Double Star" (novel, politics): When an imposter became the ruler

This is a fast paced action story with a lot of election politics. I didn't like it as much as I wanted to because at some places the world view is too provincially Western; the thing that irritated me most was a small passage on the classification of world's languages - confidently told & totally bogus.

Story summary.

Here is a solar Empire spanning many worlds, dominated by humans though there are aliens on other worlds. It's a monarchy similar to British one - emperor is supreme but is a rubberstamp, & sits in a city on the moon. The parliament has the power & is elected; aliens can vote but must choose a human representative. Head of government is the "Supreme Minister", probably majority leader in Parliament.

Current ruling party has arranged the kidnapping of the leader of opposition at a time where he's absolutely required to be present at a Martian ceremony. So his underlings will recruit an actor, Lawrence Smith aka Lorenzo Smythe, to act as an imposter at the function. One thing will lead to another & new situations will keep coming up & the imposter will end up becoming the politician he's impersonating.

The story is, first & foremost, the character study of this actor, & evolution of his personality.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, Feb/Mar/Apr 1956.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Winner of Hugo Award 1957 in novel category.
Related: Stories of Robert Heinlein.

Hal Clement's "The Nitrogen Fix" (novel, apocalypse)

This is an action packed adventure. Like many other stories of author, it's set on a world with atmosphere toxic to humans but not to their alien friends, only the world is earth! And unlike vast majority of stories of author, this one has real villains, in addition to his standard "nature is adversary enough".

This also has an apocalypse setting common to many modern stories: "a closed human habitat has limited oxygen & if you have a third child, someone from family will have to be thrown out ('nomaded')". Only it's far more readable than almost everything I've seen with this setting.

Story summary.

A couple of thousands years into future, much of the oxygen has vanished from earth's atmosphere, all large animals except humans are dead, even humans are very few & dwindling, nitric acid pollutes all open water sources, & there are violent nitrate based plants prone to explosion.

People live in "closed" cities, with water-pool based airlocks. There also are some hardy nomads, folks who were thrown out of cities because of overpopulation but survived. You cannot venture outside without breathing mask & oxygen tank.

There are also "natives" or "Invadors" or "Observers" - curious galaxy-traveling aliens well suited to this earth atmosphere.

This is the story of a nomad couple, their 5 year old daughter, & their alien friend, who arrive at a city somewhere near Boston coast with supplies of salvaged glass & copper nuggets produced from ocean by "pseudu-life" that still survives. Only the customers have some deadly ideas & all hell breaks loose soon after their arrival...

Fact sheet.

First published: 1980.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Hal Clement.

Arkady Strugatsky & Boris Strugatsky's "Roadside Picnic" (novel, first contact): Aliens are to us what we are to ants!

While I didn't dislike it, there are long scenes of the kind you've probably read dozens of times: a band of hardy people on treasure hunt in a jungle full of dangers.

I think its classic status probably has to do with the central thesis: aliens so advanced they won't even notice us if they ever came to earth.

Story summary.

This is a first contact story, but we never actually see aliens. What we see are signs of their Visitation at 6 different locations on earth. "Imagine that you spin a huge globe & you start firing bullets into it. The bullet holes would lie on the surface in a smooth curve... all six Visitation Zones are situated on the surface of our planet as though someone had taken six shots at Earth from a pistol located somewhere along the Earth-Deneb line. Deneb is the alpha star in Cygnus."

Zones where they visited are dead places. And deadly ones. And contain a lot of alien stuff. Why did they visit? Why did they turn these places into ruins? Why did they leave all those artifacts behind? Many explanations are offered, but one is a particularly special one - the roadside picnic theory: "Picture a forest, a country road, a meadow. A car drives off the country road into the meadow, a group of young people get out of the car carrying bottles, baskets of food, transistor radios & cameras. They light fires, pitch tents, turn on the music. In the morning they leave. The animals, the birds, & insects that watched in horror through the long night creep out from their hiding places. And what do they see? Gas & oil spilled on the grass. Old spark plugs & old filters strewn around. Rags, burnt out bulbs, & a monkey wrench left behind. Oil slicks on the pond. And of course the usual mess--apple cores, candy wrappers, charred remains of the campfire, cans, bottles, somebody's handkerchief, somebody's pen knife, torn newspapers, coins, faded flowers picked in another meadow... A roadside picnic, on some road in the cosmos."

So the Visitation Zones contain litter from their "picnic". I could not find a satisfactory answer to why 6 parties would almost simultaneously decide to come for picnic on earth?

Story is mostly an adventure. Government claims to own the stuff left behind by aliens. But "stalkers" illegally smuggle a lot of stuff out.

Fact sheet.

First published: "Avrora literary magazine in 1972, issues 7-10."
Rating: B.

Jack Vance's "Worlds of Origin" aka "Coup de Grace" (short story, murder mystery)

This is classic Vance - the kind of stories he's best remembered for. Very colorful.

Story summary.

In a private space station somewhere far away where men & aliens of many worlds pass through, a man has been murdered.

Ace detective Magnus Ridolph will help the station owner solve the crime. In the process, we meet many suspects of very colorful background each of which could have had a story dedicated to its own culture & customs.

Fact sheet.

First published: Super-Science Fiction, February 1958.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Jack Vance.

Ronald D Ferguson's "The meaning of life" (flash fiction, free)

It begins very well - with interesting illustrations of the idea that the ultimate purpose of life is ... to move stuff from here to there. But later parts become a bit too far fetched.

Fact sheet.

First published: Nature, 17 October 2013.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

Clifford D Simak's "Tools" (novelette, free): Introducing very weird radioactive gaseous aliens

Key parts of this story involve Radon-222 gas, a natural radioactive decay product of radium, & the biggest cause of lung cancer among non smokers on earth. It also is the heaviest gas on earth, though its own decay products aren't gaseous. It's highly toxic.

Story summary.

Humans have been mining radium on Venus, where it's available in vast quantities. It's a key source of energy, & this mining business is a monopoly of Radium, Inc.

Someone discovered strange life-like properties in radon gas found there. In a lab, they've succeed, via special electrical sensors, to communicate with a bottled concentration of it. They've robotic mining devices whose brains are small confined concentrations of gas.

When the bottled gas intelligence in lab that has learned a lot about the human civilization leaks, gas all across Venus learns the things we know. So we have an adventure fighting an elusive omnipresent alien with completely unfamiliar thought processes.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, July 1942.
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Analog/Astounding issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Clifford D Simak.

Ray Bradbury's "Eat, Drink and Be Wary" (flash fiction, humor, free)

A "Venusian banquet lasts a week or ten days, sometimes more, with eight meals a day & twenty courses to a meal." That's normal for Venusians with their ultra-fast metabolism.

But when a human diplomat is invited to one of these banquets, saying no is not an option & going there is death sentence. So our diplomat will seek some scientific help...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, July 1942.
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Analog/Astounding issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Ray Bradbury.

Robert F Young's "The Servant Problem" (novelette, first contact, free): When servants thought they were masters!

Village idiot is also the village inventor. When he mysteriously received plans for a knot-tying machine on an April Fool's Day, he had to build that machine. And what kind of knots did it tie!

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, November 1962.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg.
Download audio from LibriVox.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Robert F Young.

Marissa Lingen's "The Radioactive Etiquette Book" (novelette, diplomacy, humor)

A human diplomat posted at some alien site has to deal with incomprehensible motives of different species of aliens. Specific situations in the story include kidnap of some human kids & stealing of the diplomatic rule book ("The Radioactive Etiquette Book"), neither of which the aliens consider bad.

The story makes a lot of effort to be funny, but it just didn't work for me.

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, March 2013.
Rating: B.

Arthur K Barnes & Henry Kuttner's "The Energy Eaters" (novelette, monster, free): When a human city was overrun with electricity eaters!

This is another "Hollywood on the Moon" story. Set mostly in the lunar city of Hollywood on the Moon, but no movie shooting here.

Image on the right is a picture of Henry Kuttner included with the original magazine publication of the story.

Story summary.

Gerry Carlyle, the interplanetary adventurer, is a headache for Nine Planet Films, Inc: whenever they release a movie featuring exotic life forms of other worlds, she goes there & brings back live animals to earth - so people prefer going to zoo rather than movie theater!

Anthony Quade of Nine Planet has an idea: to bribe her with an exotic alien animal no one has seen, in return for promise to not spoil the company's movie releases. To this end, he's captured some "Promethians", little furry-looking creatures from the "day side" of Mercury. Creatures that feed on electricity & radiation.

Before anyone can do anything, the cute little creatures overrun the city of Hollywood on the Moon, threatening the lives of everyone...

See also.

1. Fredric Brown's "The Waveries": Electricity eating alien invaders make use of electricity impossible on earth.

Fact sheet.

First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1939.
Read online at UNZ.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner's "Hollywood on the Moon" (novelette, free): Adventure on an asteroid

Much of it is old fashioned adventure on an alien world with many local dangers - a man & a girl traveling through its many perils. The alien world in question is Ganymede, not the moon of Jupiter but an asteroid.

Other parts are mostly set on moon. Far side of moon is smaller than near side, has a huge crater where a city has been built - "Hollywood on the Moon". And yes, it's a tinsel town. A film director will go for shooting to asteroid & have adventures there.

Note.

There are two curious things here that were popularized by other works later. But this is probably the earliest mention I've seen of these technologies.

1. James Blish's "Cities in Flight" has New York city uprooted from ground along with its atmosphere & turned into a spaceship & has galactic adventures. In this Kuttner story, the city on moon has a local atmosphere held there by magical hand-wave while rest of the moon has no atmosphere; this is not really a domed city but one like in "Cities in Flight", only grounded.
2. Inhabitants of lunar city prefer artificial radio-controlled animals for pets to the real thing. Sounds a bit like PKD's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep"?

Fact sheet.

First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1938.
Read online at UNZ: part 1, part 2, part 3.
Note: These parts links are not natural divisions of the story, but posting mistake. Last page of each part is the same as first page of next part; so begin it at second page for part 2 & 3.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner's "When the Earth Lived" (short story, doomsday, free): When a mad scientist defeated God

This appears to be among the earliest science fiction stories of Kuttner.

Story summary.

Our universe is but an atom in a larger "super-universe". Alien scientists experimenting in one of their labs have been subjecting some matter to the "cosmic ray" generated by a device in their lab - the ray that creates life! "The power of the cosmic ray--the life ray--at first gave life to only those elements which could readily acquire it--organic entities, protoplasm, evolving to man. Now that the cosmic ray is stepped up, the mysterious life force is spreading to all things throughout the Universe."

So the universe has gone bonkers - with rock, sand, metal, & sundry artifacts acquiring a will of their own! Our mad scientist will debug the cause & build a machine to destroy the alien source of cosmic ray. Recently animated matter goes back to its animate state because it hasn't been alive long enough, so life can go on!

Fact sheet.

First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1937.
Read online at UNZ.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The World is Mine" (as by Lewis Padgett) (novelette, humor, free)

This is part of authors' well known series featuring Gallagher, the mad scientist. I used to love these stories when I first encountered them; I'm no longer as much a fan, but this is still a light fun read.

Story summary.

Gallaghar wakes up from his yet another drinking bout to find a series of curiosities - 3 rabbit-like Martians ("Lybblas") from 500 years into future who want to conquer earth, a time machine focused on his backyard that cannot be turned off & that he apparently invented when his genius unconscious was in control, & a series of corpses of himself from future each with a ray gun hole through his chest.

The story is about putting the puzzle together, inventing a couple of other gadgets along the way.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, June 1943.
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore (as by Lewis Padgett).

Isaac Asimov's "Silly Asses" (flash fiction, satire, free)

It's a commentary on the first nuclear (weapons?) tests - wise alien's reaction to discovery that the man has detonated a nuclear device on his own world.

The SFFAudio link below has more on the immediate political background to the story.

Fact sheet.

First published: Future Science Fiction, February 1958.
Download full text & audio from SFFAudio. [via QuasarDragon]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Isaac Asimov.

Fredric Brown's "Sentry" (flash fiction, war, free)

In a long drawn galactic war, the "good" side is still not used to the sight of ugly monsters that comprise the enemy.

Fact sheet.

First published: Galaxy, February 1954.
Download full text & audio from SFFAudio. [via QuasarDragon]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Fredric Brown.

H B Fyfe's "The Wedge" (short story, first contact, free)

A sole human exploring a far away world in his scout-ship is captured by local aliens. Aliens are interested in learning about the capabilities of humans, so our hero plays a dumb animal...

Fact sheet.

First published: If, September 1960.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks. [via Becky@ClassicScienceFiction]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of H B Fyfe.

Robert F Young's "Collector's Item" (short story, free)

Hmmm... so even Galactic Historian can make minor omissions...

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Universe, September 1956.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg or Manybooks. [via Becky@ClassicScienceFiction]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Robert F Young.

Gregory Benford's "Think big" (flash fiction, climate change, free)

An astronomer looking at alien planets will find, over the years, evidence on a lot of worlds where atmospheric composition seems to be driven by intelligent design - sometimes to cool the world, sometimes to warm it.

But she's not the only one watching alien atmospheres for intelligent interventions. Others from far have seen similar evidence in earth's atmosphere too...

Fact sheet.

First published: Nature, 18 July 2013.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Gregory Benford.

Andrew Barton's "The Paragaon of Animals" (short story, slavery)

Old idea, but readable.

Story summary.

A recently colonized-by-humans world of Esperanza, terraformed by mysterious Precursors millions of years ago & seeded with earth life (this part completely unnecessary to story!), now has huge bird-like local animals called "strewth" that humans have began using as draft animals on farms. Cassandra Warkworth runs a nursery to raise these animals for sale to formers. As she learns more about the animals, she'll begin having doubts as to weather they're animals & not low-tech sentients...

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, March 2013.
Rating: B.

Ken Hinckley's "The ostracons of Europa" (flash fiction, first contact, free)

A human explorer in a submersible deep under a subsurface ocean of Europa meets a local...

Very exotic locale.

Fact sheet.

First published: Nature, 4 July 2013.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

David Smith's "Sweet Tooth" (short story, rebellion, free)

Some men in a group of rebels opposing the alien occupation of earth are using an ingenious technique to pass messages among the group, in spite of serious alien surveillance, using in the process a weakness of a local alien commander...

Fact sheet.

First published: Short-Story.me, 12 July 2013.
Download full text from publisher's site. [via SF Signal]
Rating: B.

John Grant's "Buzz off" (flash fiction, first contact, humor, free)

A fleet of elder alien race of "Sgrin'th" has arrived on earth, hoping to help the aborigines grow out of their "cultural infantilization" & to help fix the ruined climate.

But on contact, humans are extraordinarily hostile. Aliens are baffled, but perhaps you as a human can figure out the reason for hostility...

Fact sheet.

First published: Nature, 20 June 2013.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.

Evelyn E Smith's "The Venus Trap" (short story, free): Man brings hope to a dying alien species

Man has just began colonizing an alien world called Elysium, a world full of intelligent native plants. But most males of these plants died out of a disease; the world is now full of female intelligent plants, with no hope of a future generation.

One of the colonists men will develop a special relationship with Magnolia, one of these female plants, leading to much acrimony & jealousy on the part of his wife. But things turn hopeful near end, with a new arrival from earth...

See also.

1. Eric Frank Russell's "P.S."; download as part of a larger package: A man has had an alien as a pen-pal for a number of decades. Now, old & alone, he learns that his life long pen friend is actually a tree & a rather smelly one at that! How should he react to the news?

Fact sheet.

First published: Galaxy, June 1956.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks. [via John Grayshaw @ClassicScienceFiction]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Evelyn E Smith; Vegetable SF.

C J Cherryh's "The Pride Of Chanur" (novel, space opera): What if lions evolved into intelligence?

I won't call it a bad read, but I seem to no longer enjoy most space opera now-a-days. But this may be the first space opera I've seen that is almost entirely from aliens' point of view; humans play a very minor & junior role.

Story summary.

There is something called Compact - a region of space somewhere on the edge of human space. Many alien space traveling species live here, cooperating & fighting. One of the more villainous of them, "kif", had got hold of some human spacemen, whom they tortured to presumably get the coordinates of human homeworld. Three prisoners died, one escaped. The escaped one found sanctuary in a "hani" ship. Much of the story is the chase & fights across star systems to get hold of this human prisoner, sucking in other alien races in the fight too.

Hani look like intelligent lions. Through the story, I got an impression this was a feminist work because gender roles among Hani are reversed relative humans - females do outside work & earning, men keep homes. But a discussion at ClassicScienceFiction points out similarity of Hani culture with that of lions. In fact, the "Pride" of title might be a pun on pride of lions; "Chanur" is the hani clan to which the heroine, Pyanfar, belongs. Officially, "Pride of Chanur" is the name of the hani spaceship in the story.

Fact sheet.

First published: 1982.
Rating: B.
Nominated for Hugo Award 1983 in novel category.

Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Year of the Big Thaw" (short story, first contact, free)

A farmer is telling how come he doesn't know where his son was born...

The plot itself is ordinary, but I loved it because of its beautiful but peculiar language, probably an old English dialect.

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Universe, May 1954.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Download audio read by Greg Weeks from LibriVox.
Rating: A.

Fred Hoyle & John Elliot's "Andromeda Breakthrough" (novel): A shadowy European trading syndicate dreams of creating another East India Company

This is a sequel to the authors' excellent novel "A for Andromeda". While this too is a fast moving adventure, it's much less interesting than original:

1. It appears to be penned mostly by Elliot. None of Hoyle's characteristic humor, leg pulling of politicians, or a central cool idea here.
2. It appears to be an unplanned for sequel. Characters that died or were otherwise removed at the end of the first book are resurrected, in rather questionable ways, so they can be part of this adventure.

A shadowy European multinational trading outfit ("Intel") working towards world control, an imaginary non-functional middle eastern country ("Azaran"), synthetic fast-breeding sea-based bacteria that suck up nitrogen from atmosphere leading to disastrous weather, are all part of the canvas. Plus some characters from first book, including the hero.

Intel now controls, or thinks it does, the "alien in the computer" & intends world domination via stuff the alien will invent. Hero, will, of course, save the world from them.

Fact sheet.

First published: 1965.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Fred Hoyle, John Elliot.

Hal Clement's "Impediment" (novelette, communications): Telepathy considered impossible among humans

I must have read the "Best of Hal Clement" earlier. I don't remember many of its stories' titles, but as I begin reading a story, I discover I'd read it before. This one too is a reread, but one I'd forgotten so thoroughly I ended up finishing again.

Story summary.

This is a first contact story that focuses on possible difficulties in communicating with aliens. In this case, aliens are telepathic & can read imagery in your brain. And while they cannot speak audibly, they are not deaf; they can hear sounds of our speech.

And yet the communications are so hard as to be impossible. The difficulty lies in human comfort, rather need, to communicate in code - what our brain thinks, we must mostly code in symbols of speech. It's ok if the actual brainwaves generated by two individuals with the same thought differ, since they'll both render it in common code. Aliens don't understand this idea of translating to code, since they're used to direct communication of thoughts.

Giant insect-like alien visitors themselves are space pirates out of ammunition, & want arsenic here to make poison gas. A human insect researcher doing some field work north of Arctic Circle runs into them.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, August 1942.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Hal Clement; fiction about language issues.

Tom Godwin's "Cry from a Far Planet" (short story, first contact, free)

This reminded me of an episode in author's "The Space Barbarians", the second novel in his Ragnarok series. Aliens called Kilver in the novel are called Varn here; otherwise, the story could have been a chapter in the novel.

Story summary.

Human exploration expeditions to stars have been miserably failing, frequently getting the exploring humans killed. Killed because of misunderstandings brought about by difficulty in communications with aliens they encounter on different worlds.

One such explorer here, facing just such a fate, will be saved by ... well, it's deus ex machina. No real enlightenment, but a happy ending & a readable story.

Fact sheet.

First published: Amazing Science Fiction Stories, September 1958.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks. [via Becky@ClassicScienceFiction]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Tom Godwin.

Poul Anderson's "The Helping Hand" (novelette, diplomacy, free)

This one might be read differently in rich vs poor countries. It's about the real nature of the so called "aid" given by rich countries to poor ones. While the term has practically vanished from India during the last 2 decades, local readers should find a lot here that strikes a cord.

This story is about a rich & powerful country wanting, altruistically, it would seem, to give "aid" for reconstruction to two poor countries that have just been through a war & are both in bad shape. One country accepts it; other doesn't. Story looks at the evolution of these two countries - which one comes out better off 50 years down the line, one that accepts the aid or the one that refuses it.

Countries involved are actually star faring empires. Earth is the rich one. Two warring parties are the alien worlds of Cundaloa & Skontar.

See also.

1. L Sprague de Camp's "Finished" (download as part of a larger package): Another story that deals with a rich vs poor country issue that used to be an emotional one in India till 1980s, even a bit in 1990s, but is rarely heard of now - technology sanctions as a diplomatic policy tool.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, May 1950.
Read online at BookReader, or download full text as part of the scans of Astounding (British ed), June 1951.
Rating: A.
Nominated for Retro Hugo Award in 2001.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Poul Anderson.

William Morrison's "Bad Medicine" (short story, humor, free)

Don't look for logic, & it's a light fun read.

Story summary.

A couple of human conmen running their "Gigantic Medicine Show" have landed on Saturn, attracting curious Saturnians to crowd around their ship. So they open shop - selling "The Red Mans' Old-Fashioned Radioactive Herb Remedy, fortified with vitamins A to R inclusive, the latter made with the most recently discovered carbon isotope", with the promise it will "increase your intelligence a thousandfold!" But payment should be in the form of red bead necklaces Saturnians wear - dirt cheap there, very pricey on earth.

Well, both sides will successfully trade what they desire ... to the horror of the sellers...

Fact sheet.

First published:  Thrilling Wonder Stories, February 1941.
Download full text from Pulpgen. [via QuasarDragon]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of William Morrison.

H G Stratmann's "Neighborhood Watch" (short story): Keeping nosy humans out is a pain!

This is part nostalgia of planetary stories & part fanfic (name dropping like Pod'cayne, Twee'l).

All parts of solar system are teeming with intelligent telepathic life, comfortable with others but each species minding their own business. And they're getting mighty uncomfortable with nosy humans, once pets of now long dead telepathic intelligent earthlings. To ward off human remote controlled probes that keep trying to peer into their worlds, they have to build & maintain complex illusions for human equipments' sensors.

But the Martians aren't what they appear to be to rest of the community, & are willing to make humans their pets...

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, January/February 2013.
Rating: B.

John G Hemry's "The Sergeant-Major" (shortstory, satire): When British trumped over a Martian tripod

Actually, the story has a much longer title:  "The War of the Worlds, Book One, Chapter 18: The Sergeant-Major".

It's a military satire. And a fanfic - being an episode from "The War of the Worlds" (download) that Mr H G Wells failed to write. Because it's completely opposite the running theme of Wells' classic - British easily trumping over the Martian invaders (in Wells book, you get the impression it's humanity vs Martians, even though it happens in
England).

One of the alien tripods heads towards a garrison of colonial Britain in India, so Sergeant-Major Richardson & a few soldiers are sent to take care of it.

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, January/February 2013.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of John G Hemry.

Frank Herbert's "Rat Race" (short story, detective, free): Rats are to men as men are to...

A police detective, during a routine errand to a mortuary, asks an idle question about something kept there. He gets an evasive response. He smells rat, & we are on to something really big...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, July 1955.
Download full text as part of scans of Astounding (British Edition), December 1955.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Frank Herbert; fiction where men are lab animals to aliens.

Sydney J Bounds' "The Beautiful Martian" (short story, free): Fear creates hate creates destruction

A beautiful flame-being arrived in a strange ship in a village on Christmas eve. All village welcomed it, children were particularly happy, & "she" wanted only to contribute happiness.

In the morning, the news spread & the unwise men began arriving: soldiers, politicians, scientists, businessmen, priests, ... They brought fear, greed, hate. They evacuated the village, & they destroyed the visitor & her ship.

Fact sheet.

First published: Nebula Science Fiction, #14 (November 1955).
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Rating: B.
Related: Christmas fiction.

Robert Silverberg & Randall Garrett's "The Chosen People" (as by Robert Randall) (novelette, communications, free): Teaching the scientific method to deeply tradition bound

This rarely reprinted story would be among my all time favorite science fiction. It's a study in how to win friends & influence people!

Story summary.

There is a deeply religious & tradition-bound alien society on a world called Nidor. Humans came a few decades back, & seem to be wise & religious beyond question; so they're respected & have been allowed to run a local school that teaches the familiar to youngsters, sometimes in new ways. And what a revolution it is brewing!

Story is told via a massive local disaster that can only be averted with the new ways of thinking: "Hugl", small insect-sized pests, travel in vast swarms & destroy everything in their path. Only "Edris powder", the traditional insecticide, is not working this year...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, June 1956.
According to ISFDB, it's first of the 3 stories that make up the fix-up novel "The Shrouded Planet".
Download full text as part of scans of Astounding (British Edition), November 1956.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Robert Silverberg, Randall Garrett.

Murray Leinster's "The Extra Intelligence" (short story, body snatching, free): Something evil is looking for a brain it can take control of

A mad scientist has discovered a way to revive the dead, & is about to try his experiment on a dog, with the help of a friend & a woman assistant. A friend who has built a machine to measure, quantitatively, how conscious a thing is - where the thing could be any animal or plant!

They not only are successful in reviving the dog, for a short while, but the revived dog is behaving as if it's very smart - smarter than a man, in fact. But the woman assistant has observed something the men didn't - dog's intelligence is probably not dog's own...

Mad scientist will later try the procedure on himself, in the hope that he will become an intellectual superman - kill himself & set up the circumstances so friend is forced to try reviving him. Only the woman's theory is right...

Fact sheet.

First published: Argosy Weekly, 30 November 1935.
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in, or read online at UNZ (UNZ site seems to have some way to download pdf too but I could not get it to work).
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Murray Leinster.

James E Gunn's "Private Enterprise" (as by Edwin James) (short story, colonialism, free): Taking charge of a country by taking control of its economy

Nine System Trade Alliance, a human bloc of Sol, wants Rigel V to join the Alliance. Alliance needs Rigel V to expand to galaxy, but Rigel V fears its way of life will be destroyed by its absorption into the powerful Alliance.

To mold public opinion there, & to take control of key infrastructure & opinion makers, earth has planted a spy network there - at least one human, a financial genius, as leader & at least one Rigelian earth can completely trust.

The story mostly takes place after the cover of human mole is blown & he's arrested, & ultimately reveals how human spy network worked there & the Rigel V was made to agree to join the Alliance.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, July 1950.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding, July 1950.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell. 

Eric Frank Russell's "Exposure" (short story, alien invasion, free): Bad luck dooms alien invasion of earth

A Rigelian colonial party of shape-shifters has found earth, & early evidence suggests this should be a world easy to take. So they land near a small human camp, take samples of local life, including 2 humans, for dissection, & plant 2 spies each in 4 small towns nearby - spies taking the shape of the two humans they'd picked. How were they to know the specific human samples they had picked will look out of ordinary in pretty much every other city?

Of course, the alien party will never leave earth.

Notes.

1. This is one of the stories with feel good effect, but I found the quick human win in the end too convenient.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, July 1950.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding, July 1950.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated & ranked list - infrequently updated).

Isaac Asimov's "Playboy and the Slime God" aka "What Is This Thing Called Love?" (short story, parody)

Skip it if the discussion of sex embarrasses you.

The moment I read the first line, I knew I'd read the story before. But it's been some years, so I read it again. And wasn't disappointed.

This is a hilarious parody of bug-eyed monsters from outer spaces coming to earth to kidnap girls to satisfy their sexual urges. Plus there is a ... sort of critique of Playboy magazine.

Story summary.

Slimy alien scientist from far off part of galaxy kidnaps a man & a woman to demonstrate to his boss that earth is a major danger to galaxy & must be destroyed. Danger because its creatures don't "bud" singly to produce the young as is the norm everywhere, but reproduce by combining genes from two separate individuals, thus significantly accelerating the evolution. Only problem is: his knowledge of human reproduction & anatomy is limited to Playboy magazine & bug-eyed monster kind of sf literature.

Hilarity ensues as the two aliens coax the man & the woman to couple & produce a child...

Notes.

From editor's introduction to this story in "Great Science Fiction from Amazing", #1:

'Several months ago a magazine named Playboy, which concentrates editorially on girls, books, girls, art, music, fashion, girls & girls, published an article about old-time science-fiction. Called "Girls for the Slime God," it was illustrated with synthetic covers of non-existent sf magazines, each replete with bug-eyed monster, mad scientist, & partially naked, nubile girl.'

'We commissioned one of sf's most sex-appealing writers to create a story especially for the insatiable Playboy, & to prove to him that sf has not forgotten that S-X is the most important thing in the Universe.'

Fact sheet.

First published: Amazing Stories, March 1961.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Isaac Asimov.

Poul Anderson's "Man Who Counts" aka "War of the Wing-Men" (novel, war, free)

According to Wikipedia, one of the editions of it in book form is a heavily edited one. This post is based on the version that was originally serialized in Astounding.

Story has very colorful setting & environment.

Story summary.

What if, during the creation of Israel during the 1940s, US had sided with Arabs instead of Israel? Neither of these parties is mentioned, of course; it's about a war between two alien nations on their world Diomedes with a party of 3 humans siding with the underdog & giving them major military advantage.

One of the warring side, Drak'ho, is a sea-based nation that has moved into the lands occupied by Lannachska, driving the original inhabitants into interior. Because the fish Drak'ho depends on for survival has inexplicably moved into waters of these shores.

Story has its warts, like brief infodumps in the middle of something interesting or at the beginning of a chapter. And the humor of Van Rijn, one of the 3 humans, didn't always work for me. But it's a fast moving action adventure that I often found difficult to put down.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, February/March/April 1958 as a 3-part serial.
Download full text as part of the scans of 3 issues of Astounding (British edition) where it was serialized in 3 parts: May/June/July 1958.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Poul Anderson.

Charles R Tanner's "Tumithak of the Corridors" (novella, adventure, free)

While the ideas here are familiar, may be this was one of the stories that originated some of them? And there is obvious influence of H G Wells.

Story summary.

Shelks, of Venus, conquered earth thousands of years ago, driving humans into vast underground warrens that are now the natural habitat of humanity. Tumithak, hero of the story, is a human from these warrens who has vague dreams of humanity overcoming the shelks & reclaiming earth.

To this end, he will undertake a journey to the surface to slay a shelk. Story is mostly of his adventures during this journey.

See also.

1. A Bertram Chandler's "Giant Killer": An intelligent rat from an "underground" rat colony will kill a "giant" (a man).
2. William Tenn's "Of Men & Monsters": Man living as rat-like pests in a world (earth?) now owned by giant aliens.

Fact sheet.

First published: Amazing Stories, January 1932.
Download full text from The Writings of Charles R Tanner. [via James W Harris @ClassicScienceFiction]
Rating: B. 

Douglas Drew's The Carbon Eater (novelette, chemical warfare, free): Neutralizing a carbon-eating poison gas

This appears to be a fairly oft-cited story. And from an author who was far from prolific.

I noticed at least 3 different things here:

1. Arguments justifying colonialism. Didn't go down very well with me.
2. A "carbon eating" gas that sounded somewhat like aliens' "iron mining" in one of the "doc" Smith's "Lensman" novels. In this case, it's an extremely active gas & liquid. Martians employ it as a weapon to rid themselves of carbon-based human colonists. A lakeful of this material, with a little electrical stimulation, is producing enough gas to kill all humans on the world. Our chemist hero, of course, will save most humans, except for early casualties.
   
   I liked this part though the details are hand-wavy.
3. Hero against the bull-headed establishment, & winning in spite of them. Lot of action in later parts.

See also.

1. Murray Leinster's "Tallien Three" (download in 4 parts, beginning here): Hero is forced similarly to burn a lot of infrastructure near end, to similarly save a cityful of lives.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, June 1940.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding (British Edition), June 1940.
Rating: A. 
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.

John Campbell's "The Invaders" (short story) & "Rebellion" (novelette)

These two, in sequence, are often listed as part of a 3-story series, with the first story as "The Machine". But these two are only marginally related to "The Machine". And these two stories are actually one long story, split probably because of publishing constraints of the day.

Story summary.

At the beginning of "The Invaders", earth is an idyllic place; The Machine had eliminated all threats to humans, including microbes, thousands of years ago. And humans are a bit like Eloi in "The Time Machine" of H G Wells - intellectually degenerated into animals because no skills are required to survive in this world.

That's when alien invaders come & make earth their own. They domesticate the humans, treating & breeding them as animals. There is a very moving scene at the beginning of invasion where aliens are dissecting a woman while her man watches helplessly, not understanding the enormity of what is happening.

"Rebellion" happens several thousand years later. Aliens are well entrenched. Humans are bred into many different strains. Accidentally, a mutation gives back a human the power to lie. And circumstances place him in a situation where he can forge official breeding records.

The mutation is stealthily propagated, until eventually the descendents build a gadget that can overcome the firepower of ruling aliens & the rebels force the aliens to leave earth.

Collected in.

1. Lester del Rey (ed)'s "The Best of John W Campbell".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, June 1935 ("The Invaders") & August 1935 ("Rebellion).
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of John Campbell.