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.

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.

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.

Algis Budrys' "The Peasant Girl" (as by Paul Janvier) (short story, free)

Not sure why I liked it - I would like to say the plot didn't do much for me, but it sure kept my attention & I finished it in a single sitting.

Story summary.

Mankind has split into two races - ordinary humans, & a new apparently far superior race of supermen - telepathic, able to change shape of things by thought, able to move by thought, etc. They seem to control ordinary humans' lives.

One day, Dorothy, the little sister of Henry Spar, a small town "cabinetmaker", vanished. Apparently kidnapped by one of the supermen, something that seems to happen fairly regularly, with ordinary men resigned to this fate. But Henry goes looking for his sister...

I found the ending too antithetical to rest of the story, supermen to whom ordinary men are supermen, in some sense...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, June 1956.
Download full text as part of scans of Astounding (British Edition), November 1956.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Algis Budrys.

James H Schmitz's "Undercurrents" (novella, property dispute, free): Foiling a murder plot

Close family & friends own a firm, with rules of incorporation such that holding will remain within the group, even in the event of death of one of them. One of them a greedy evil member. Over the years, she gets various other members killed, grabbing their share on the cheap.

Now she's after the last significant share holder other than her. To kill her in a way that won't be traceable to culprit. Telzey Amberdon, with help & a lot of telepathic handwave, will help foil the plan.

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, May/June 1964 (as a 2-part serial).
Download full text from Baen Books.
Rating: B. 
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campebell.
Related: Stories of James H Schmitz.

Eric Frank Russell's "The Glass Eye" (short story, alien invasion)

It has been quite some time since I saw a really good story of Russell; this one breaks the jinx. It's as good as anything by Russell at this story length.

Story summary.

Two arrogant "Sagittarian" invaders, Qvord & Eenif, have finally discovered Earth, & want it. So they plan to soften up the inhabitants for slavery, before masters arrive in hordes.

Near the end of the week long softening, they'll finally face the horror...

Notes.

1. Title refers to a camera lens, employed as a weapon by humans.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, March 1949.
Rating: A.
Among the stories edited by John Campbell for Astounding/Analog. 
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated list).

James H Schmitz's "Poltergeist" (short story, free): Exorcising an unusual ghost

This ghost haunts not a place but a man, & has made his life miserable. Telzy Amberdon, budding telepath, will help him get rid of it...

See also.

1. James Schmitz's "Sour Note on Palayata" (download). Similar idea in a more colorful setting.

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, July 1971.
Download full text from Baen Books.
Rating: B. 
Among the stories edited by John Campbell for Astounding/Analog.
Related: Stories of James H Schmitz.

Tom Godwin's "The Space Barbarians" (novel, space opera): Teaching slave takers a lesson

This a sequel to author's excellent novel, "Space Prison" (download). Not quite in the class of original, but still a very good read. This is not a survival story, however; it's a pure space opera, & not always entirely logical.

Story summary.

Three human worlds - Ragnarok, Athena, & Earth. Ragnarokans are the hardy survivors & Athenans the enslaved people of the first book. And three alien races: Gerns, Shomarians, & Kilvar.

Gerns are the slave takers of first book. Now, 3 years after the first book's end, Gern empire is destroyed by humans - led by Ragnarokans.

Action starts with mysterious aliens raiding Ragnarok; they take a 100 women & young men, stun the remaining population of the only town here, & poison the air that blinds all exposed to it. Earth & Athena refuse to help Ragnarok find the culprits & avenge the raid; so Ragnarokans are all alone in their revenge.

Most of the story is Ragnarokans locating the real culprits & taking their revenge, in spite of enemy's far superior strength. Most of kidnapped human will die a horrible death before end. There will be a lot of confusion on who the real culprits are - hominid Shomarians who're related to Gerns, or cat-like telepathic Kilvar.

Fact sheet.

First published: 1960.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Tom Godwin.

James H Schmitz's "Sour Note on Palayata" (novelette, mystery, free): An unusual evolution of brain

I'm not sure of the factual accuracy of the thesis of this story - I know little about psychology. Central idea here is: of the two minds we have - conscious & unconscious - conscious is the smarter one; unconscious is relatively dumb.

Aliens in this story have the opposite: conscious is intelligent but relatively dumb; real smart alien lives in the unconscious - leading to curious behavior. And author gives us a good reason why evolution chose to structure these aliens like this.

Plot itself is structured as a mystery: there seems to be more to Palayatans than meets the eye, something far smarter, an unknown factor - call it X. Investigators need to figure out if X indeed exits, & whether it is a threat to humanity.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, November 1956.
Download full text from Baen CD.
Rating: B.
Among the stories edited by John Campbell for Astounding/Analog.
Related: Stories of James H Schmitz.

James H Schmitz's "Forget It" aka "Planet of Forgetting" (novelette, free): An unusual animal defense against predators

An intelligence agent, carrying a secret coded (paper?) file to another world, is captured by the enemy on the way. Story is of him outwitting the entire enemy ship taking him to their world. Features telepathic plants capable of moving around.

Fact sheet.

First published: Galaxy, February 1965.
Note: "this cover story was mistakenly listed as "Planet of Forge" on Galaxy's TOC."
Eric Flint on online version I've linked in download link below: 'we changed the name of the hero, did some rearranging of paragraphs in the early sections of the story, somewhat modified a few paragraphs of background material to make it fit the Hub setting, and cut a short "trick ending" that wasn't really part of the story itself and wouldn't fit the Hub setting.'
Download full text from BaenCD.
Rating: B.
Nominated for Nebula Award 1966 in novelette category.
Related: Stories of James H Schmitz.

Edward W Ludwig's "The Lonely Ones" (short story, first contact, free): Stone age man is modern man what modern man is to...

Man has looked through the Sol - all the way from Mercury to Pluto; no animal life anywhere. Now a party of 6 is on its way to Proxima Centauri to look. And they do find it there, but ... this is not what they wanted to find...

Fact sheet.

First published: Galaxy or If, July 1953.
Note: Project Gutenberg's HTML copy includes image of If's cover with the story, but attributes the story to Galaxy. ISFDB attributes it to If.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Edward W Ludwig; first contact fiction.

A E van Vogt's "Slan" (novel, adventure): Supermen hunted by men

Leave your brains somewhere, & enjoy a generally gripping adventure on earth & Mars.

Story summary.

Humanity is divided into 3 races: normal humans, "true slans", & "tendrilless slans". "True slans" are carefully bred intellectual & physical supermen from natural human mutations. "Tendrilless slans" are carefully mutated form of "true slans" - they don't have tell-tale "golden" tendrils in their hair that act as telepathic antennae in "true slans", & they're'nt telepathic. It's these tendrils that sets "true slans" visually apart from normal humans, &
makes them easy hate targets - hence "tendrilless slans".

This is the story of Jommy Cross, 9 year old when we first meet him. His mother has just been killed for being a slan; he's being hunted to be killed. We'll see him growing up in a world that hates him for being what he is, but like a true hero, he never stoops to becoming an animal in spite of his superhuman abilities.

We'll also meet Kathleen Layton, a 13 year old who's also on the death row for being a slan; her story will abruptly end partway through & later return in a totally crazy way.

Notes.

1. The word "slan" is a sort of shortening of "Samuel Lann". He's the semi-mythical man who arranged conditions for first "true slans" to breed in numbers.

See also.

1. Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Mutant" series of short stories (most are online): Far more thoughtful exploration of similar idea & plot.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, Sep/Oct/Nov/Dec 1940.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.

James H Schmitz's "Novice" (novelette, free): Your pet could be smarter than you think

Young Telzey Amberdon with her pet Tick-Tock is sent with her evil Aunt Halet to the human park world Jontarou. Now there is a history behind Tick-Tock: no one knows what kind of cat it is or which world it is the inhabitant of.

Here Telzey will meet intelligent natives humans are unaware of, & will help their civilization integrate into human one.

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, June 1962.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Webscription. [via someone at ClassicScienceFiction]
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of James H Schmitz.

Everett B Cole's "Millennium" (novella, free): Serf to feudal lord to dead!

There is a very old Sanskrit story from "Panchtantra" (~200 BC) that was part of my primary school curriculum: A jackal accidentally fell in a drum of blue dye. He noticed his color change in his image in the river & promptly declared him the new king of the jungle. Until the rains washed off his new color...

This story has a similar idea. A serf gets opportunity to kill his feudal lord during a hunt. He kills him & appropriates two powerful gadgets the lord had: one gives the wearer telepathic power; second makes the wearer invulnerable to any kind of attack. Things happen, & in time, by cleverly using these devices, he rises to be a feudal lord himself. A very cruel one.

Only the gadgets belong to a space faring society & were lost on this world during an accident on one of their visits. Now they're back to recover the gadgets. So they'll end the rein of the cruel lord as they recover their gadgets.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, May 1955.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Everett B Cole.

Rick Raphael's "Sonny" (short story, humor, free): US Army got too lucky with this draftee!

Hilarious story. Concept is somewhat similar to Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Hogbens" series of stories.

Story summary.

Jediah Cromwell, a mountain boy living with his mother, gets a compulsory army draft. Result: both the Army & the US government get far more than they'd bargained for...

Collected in.

1. Judith Merril (ed)'s "10th Annual Edition: The Year's Best S-F".

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, April 1963.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Rick Raphael; funny stories.

Murray Leinster's "The Black Galaxy" (novel, space opera, free): Accidental human hero takes on murderous aliens

This is a very pulpish story; easy quick read, though.

Story summary.

The first human interstellar ship, Stellaris, still half finished, accidentally takes off due to a short circuit - with the hero & ship's designer, Rod Cantrell, on board with his girlfriend Kit. Plus some workers who didn't go out during lunch time.

They'll have major adventures hunting an alien race of murderous barbarians. Barbarians that wait for civilizations to mature, then come kill the whole world with a death ray & do the lootings!

Fact sheet.

First published: 1949.
Download full text from Internet Archive.
Note: The 1954 novel version I've linked is either an expanded form of a novella of the same title that first appeared in Startling Stories, March 1949, or the same novella published as a novel. I'm not sure.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Murray Leinster; Space opera fiction.

James H Schmitz's "Oneness" (short story, telepathy, free): Moving from autocracy towards something more benign

I've a feeling this is a cold war story about USSR from US perspective of the time, though neither country is mentioned & my reading on the subject is limited.

Story summary.

Earth is run with an iron hand by a political entity called "the Machine" - essentially the rule of a few powerful men, without checks. Political dissent is severely dealt with. A penal colony was set up on Mars, & has a lot of dissidents with good scientific training.

One find day, these "Mars Convicts" develop stardrive & escape. Now, 50 years later, a lone ship of theirs, with a single passenger, is back. The passenger is Rainbolt, "a trained specialist" in the "practical applications" of "the principles of Oneness" they've developed. He's captured, of course.

His magic begins to spread as his interrogation, including torture, begins...

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, May 1963.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of James H Schmitz.

Algis Budrys' "Riya's Foundling" (short story, free)

This is strange story, & I'm not sure I understand it fully. A very strange mother adopts some strange foundlings - telepathic beings, both mother & one of her adopted kids, & each probably from different parallel earths...

Fact sheet.

First published: Science Fiction Stories, #1 (1953).
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Algis Budrys.

William Tenn's "The Flat-Eyed Monster" (novelette, parody): An inversion of bug-eyed monster idea

There have been several stories of the class; perhaps the most famous is van Vogt's "The Monster". And while I didn't find it as magical as van Vogt's, it's a very good read.

Story summary.

Alien scientists on a world near the center of galaxy have accidentally teleported a human, Clyde Manship, into their lab! Aliens ("flefnobes") are telepathic among themselves; Clyde can listen to their conversations, but cannot be "heard" by them.

Of course, the aliens find the man supremely repulsive, what with "those horrible lonely eyes! Just two of them--& so flat! That dry, dry skin without a trace of slime", & probably a non-sentient animal. So he must be killed, perhaps after dissection. So we get a standard monster story - with Clyde, the monster, running for his life through the alien city & the whole world hunting him "before the creature starts to reproduce" ...

Fact sheet.

First published: Galaxy, August 1955.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of William Tenn.

Eric Frank Russell's "The Star Watchers" aka "Sentinels from Space" aka "Sentinels of Space" (novel, free): Humanity's guardian angels get involved in its petty troubles

While the story is generally quite readable as an adventure involving political intrigue, it's unusual for a Russell story in that it includes pretty much every known genre trope: telepathy, teleporting, mutants, pyrotics (ability to physically burn someone by thought!), body snatchers, shape shifters, energy beings, bug-talkers, levitators, aliens, Martians & Venusians, ... you name it. It's as if author wanted to dedicate it to the wide-eyed fan happy with funny sounded names.

I like to be surprised by a story's twists, but this one uses magic rather than logic for this.

Story summary.

It's a complex story with a lot of threads, but the main plot involves David Raven, an alien disguised as human. He's one of the two guardian angels on earth of unnamed god-like energy beings, primarily to guard against possible interference in human development by Denebs, another advanced alien race.

But much of the story involves only humanity. Human colonies on Mars & Venus want freedom Earth is denying them; so they've started a sabotage campaign on earth. Earth cannot stop them from coming in, or it will have to recognize them as non-citizens!

David will unofficially help the government put out the rebellion.

Quotes.

1. "All wars go on for too long".
2. On governmental secrecy: "What constitutes legitimate news was decided by the type of mind that insists that matters of major public interest must not be divulged in the public interest."
3. "the most effective technique is not to fight a thing but set its own parts fighting one another."
4. "The public will swallow anything providing it appears to bear the seal of official approval & is sufficiently long sustained & plays upon their fears".

Fact sheet.

First published: Startling Stories, November 1951.
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Rating: B.
This story was later expanded into the novel "Sentinels from Space" (1953), also sometimes titled "Sentinels of Space".
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated & ranked list).

Eric Frank Russell's "Afternoon of a Fahn" aka "Rainbow's End" (short story, free): When human explorers landed on a "trap" world

Idea is very familiar - Ray Bradbury's "Mars is Heaven!" (download radio adaptation), Eric Frank Russell's "Mesmerica", Fredric Brown's "Nothing Sirius" (download scans as part of a larger package), ... But I still liked it.

There is a reference to an apparently European legend I'm unfamiliar with: midget people with magical powers go away to another earth-like world because they're not welcome on earth. Does "fahn" mean anything to anyone?

Story summary.

A human scout ship with a crew of 4 has discovered a very earth-like world, rich in uranium. They land to explore.

Then they meet its midget humanoid natives, & things begin to get both pleasing & annoying...

Fact sheet.

First published: Imagination, April 1951.
Download full text as part of scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated & ranked list).

A E van Vogt's "War of Nerves" (novelette, space opera, free): Cultures reach an _inferior_ stage, & then forever stay there!

Main story is a juvenile adventure: human inter-galactic exploration ship, Space Beagle, is telepathically attacked by "birdlike people" of Riim, a world in "one of a hundred star groups accompanying Earth's galaxy through space." Aliens quickly take over the minds of the ship's crew & send the ship to its suicide mission of plunging into a star. Except for the hero - Elliot Grosvenor, a "Nexialist". He will use aliens' own weapon on themselves to single-handledly save the ship.

How one reads the subtext, however, depends on reader's own prejudices. The key thesis of the story is: cultures eventually fall, a stage author calls "fellah". Once in fellah stage, a culture forever remains there. And all individuals comprising the culture suddenly turn into inflexible idiots - hence easy pickings, even individually, for anyone from a more vigorous culture! Since India is specifically named a "fellah" culture in the story, I'm obviously biased in how I take the thesis.

Notes.

1. Aliens in the story are "hymenopters" - apparently, beings that grow a copy of themselves from their body - on the outside rather than inside; copy later detaches to become a separate individual.

Fact sheet.

First published: Other Worlds, May 1950.
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Rating: B.
This story is part of author's "Space Beagle" series.
Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.

John W Campbell, Jr's "Forgetfulness" (as by Don A Stuart) (novelette, first contact): Technological progress involves forgetting old knowledge

I wonder if van Vogt's fantastic story, "The Monster", was inspired by this? Both involve advanced aliens visiting earth, & trying to bully a single apparantly harmless & unarmed man, & ... getting surprised. van Vogt's version is by far the better of the two; that was the story that made me notice van Vogt.

Story summary.

A pioneering 100-strong alien expedition has arrived on earth ("Rhth", to aliens) from Pareeth. Millions of years ago, their distant animal ancestors were uplifted by humans, & perhaps they've come to pay homage to their benefactors.

What they find here are abandoned cities, a tiny village with virtually no technology, & what remains of the human race apparently living a primitive existence off land.

Aliens are respectful, for old times sake, & a bit arrogant too. Seun, a very humble man, shows them around the dead city, but humanity seems to have forgotten much of the technology that made this city tick.

Aliens go back home. Only to return with a colonizing expedition that has instructions to move the remnants of humanity off to some sort of reservation & use only minimal force, in case of resistance, because of its past glory.

Aliens are in for a shock, when they threaten to use this minimal force...

Collected in.

1. Raymond J Healy & J Francis McComas (Eds)' "Adventures in Time and Space".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, June 1937.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of John Campbell (as by Don A Stuart); fiction from 1930s.

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Open Secret" (as by Lewis Padgett) (short story, free): Men have created a monster

Not among the better stories of authors, & with many familiar plot elements.

Story summary.

Mike Jerrold has accidentally discovered the existence of intelligent robots - something that is not supposed to exist. As he gets deeper into the discovery, he finds that they're actually the masters of humanity - driving the world towards a destiny of their own choosing, & there is nothing anyone can do about it.

We're given a hypothesis about how they came to be: "Suppose you make a perfect solvent. What would happen? It would dissolve anything you put it in. You could make it, but you couldn't keep it. Intelligent robots are like that." The first successfully created robot "processed the scientist [its creator], so Dr Jones thought he had failed; it left another, useless robot in its place, & it went out & hid. It didn't like this world. It wanted something different. So it simply set out to change the world".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, April 1943.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding issue where it originally appeared.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore (as by Lewis Padgett).

Henry Kuttner's "Dark Dawn" (as by Keith Hammond) (short story, adventure, free)

Among the least interesting I've seen from Kuttner so far, & the only one where I've seen him advocating slavery!

Story summary.

A new kind of atom bomb test somewhere in the Pacific changed Daniel Gresham (who was looking at the blast) unusually: he lost his vision, but gained the power to telepathically take over brains of lesser animals like sharks & birds. So, in spite of being now blind, he can still see the world through the eyes of these creatures.

And at the bottom of the sea, two races of intelligent sea animals live - a ruling race called "Swimmers" with their cities, & a slave race of "dark" animals called "Others". Blast disrupted machines that kept Others enslaved, & now a Swimmer has telepathically connected with Gresham, seeking help.

A bit of adventure. Slaves overrun the masters. This gives Gresham a mission in life - to exterminate the former slaves for daring to dream freedom!

See also.

1. Similar telepathically living in another's mind also occurs in Olaf Stapledon's "Star Maker".
2. Feeling of exhilaration in a human who can telepathically live inside a stronger animal & explore environments normally inaccessible to him is the main theme in Poul Anderson's "Call Me Joe" (download audio or comic book adaptation.) & Clifford D Simak's "Desertion" (download scans as part of a larger package) too.

Fact sheet.

First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1947.
Download full text.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner; Telepathy in fiction.

Fritz Leiber, Jr's "The Mutant's Brother" (short story, telepathy, free)

Two brothers - Greer & John - with a telepathic mutation that matured after puberty - ability to control the minds of up to 4 or 5 people within a distance of about 100 feet.

They were orphaned early, were adopted by different families. Greer grew up a good man, in a loving family. John grew up a criminal in a abusive family.

Now law is closing in on John. Won't life be easier if he could make them kill Greer instead, & think they'd taken care of the criminal?

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, August 1943.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding issue where it originally appeared.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog.
Related: Stories of Fritz Leiber; fiction from 1940s.

Ian Tregillis' "What Doctor Gottlieb Saw" (short story, free): A telepathic woman grabs control of a WWII German training camp

A training camp to develop unusual abilities in people, like ability to move through solid matter! Among the talent here is an unusual woman - Gretel. Who would have thought she was after power?

This is the story of resident psychiatrist, Dr Gottlieb, playing detective & putting together the long chain of events that were behind an apparent accidental death.

See also.

1. Murray Leinster's "The Mole Pirate": Adventure involving a vehicle that acquires the ability to move through solid matter at the press of a button.

Fact sheet.

First published: tor.com, 8 June 2010.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

E G von Wald's "Fair and Warmer" (short story, free): Where intellectual curiosity is a disease!

In some ways, this is a van Vogt style story. Not as much impact, but an interesting read. And a funny one too.

Story summary.

There are now may be 30 or 100 "humans" in the world - no one has counted for centuries. These are immortals, telepathic, have telekinetic abilities, can manufacture drugs in their body at will, ... And have a curious social system where "administrators" are morons compared to mere citizens! This is a contented society, where curiosity is considered a disease!

A while back, some aliens arrived on the world, & are now camping somewhere. One man, Tensor, however, is feeling curious about them - an alarming situation, this curiosity, according to his doctor! Finally doctor prescribes an untried medication - go satisfy your curiosity, & we get to learn something about the aliens...

Fact sheet.

First published: If, July 1954.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks.
Rating: B.
Related: Fiction from 1950s.

Poul Anderson's "The Sensitive Man" (novella, free): A superman rescues a hostage

A fast moving action story, with some ruminations on politics & society. In a world where man has began building cities on the surface of, & at the bottom of, seas, & has also began farming on the ocean's surface.

I've collected some quotes from this story here.

Story summary.

Psychotechnic Institute is developing a variation of Asimov's Psychohistory: the "science" of manipulating society to force-move it in a desired direction! Men with political ambitions desire it. One of them have kidnapped a veteran researcher from the institute, Dr Michael Tighe.

Simon Dalgetty, the young protegee of Tighe & a trained superman, will go out & effect a rescue. With help from Elena Casimir, an FBI mole in the gang. Of course, by the end of the story, they'll be romantically entangled too.

Title comes from superman abilities of Simon: ability to make his physical senses supersentitive, far beyond what is merely human.

Notes.

1. Story makes a direct reference to Voltaire's alien visitation story, "Micromegas" (download).
2. According to Wikipedia, this story is part of a series - a future history called "The Psychotechnic League", & this story happens in the year 2009.

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Universe, January 1954.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Poul Anderson, from 1950s.

Eric Frank Russell's "Three To Conquer" aka "Call Him Dead" (novel, alien invasion): Invasion by intelligent microbial parasites of Venus

This is one sitting reading material. Fast paced, unputdownable, action story. But based on much written about ideas: ghosts & alien forms "possessing" a victim, & inhuman beings masquerading as humans quietly on their way to replacing humanity.

Story summary.

US government has sent a secret manned mission to Venus with 3 astronauts: William Gould, Cory McDonald, & Earl James Langley. With two expected dates of their return, depending on whether they find the locate hostile & need to immediately return, or if they get some time to explore. First date is past but not the second - so officialdom is happy exploration is happening.
Note: I'm puzzled by stories even from 1950s assuming manned space travel is easier than space communications!

Actually, officials are wrong. The ship has returned. Only, its three astronauts are now possessed by a parasitic intelligent life form of Venus that by itself has the form of microbes inhabiting the nervous tissue of its host. It's happy in its human hosts, & has quietly set about multiplying itself by infecting more people.

Then we have the hero - Wade Harper. Only known human telepath, & a far better detective that ordinary cops & FBI men. He will stumble upon the secret of aliens, & persuade the powers-that-be in Washington to mount the concerted government effort to rid the world of menace. And succeed, after much drama.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, August/September/October 1955 as "Call Him Dead".
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John W Campbell, Jr.
Buy at Amazon.com.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated list).

Henry Kuttner's "The Eyes Of Thar" (short story, first contact, free): A meeting of two universes

Among the less interesting stories of Kuttner. And there is a distinct feel of early C L Moore here.

Story is set on Mars. Title refers to two moons of Mars - the twin "Eyes of Thar", according to a local legend.

Story summary.

Samuel Dantan, a human, long hunting the "men" of Martian "Redhelm Tribe" as price of his revenge for killing of his (Martian?) girlfriend long back in a raid by Redhelms, is finally cornered - alone, unarmed, pursued by a group of Redhelms.

This is the situation in which he discovers the ancient buried lab of a Martian scientist named Sanfel, now dead for centuries. Lab has a device that opens a portal into a world called "Zha" in another universe - a universe with different laws of Physics, where even time behaves very differently.

Sanfel built this gateway to help Quiana, a "woman" there cornered by an "Enemy". Since Sanfel is long dead, Dantan will end up helping Quiana, & will in turn get help ridding of his own Redhelms pursuers.

See also.

1. C L Moore's "The Bright Illusion": Aliens who're unsafe to look at for humans because of the light patterns they make. A man must be especially armored to look at them.
   Aliens in this story are similarly unsafe to look at unarmored.

Fact sheet.

First published: Planet Stories, Fall 1944.
Download full text from Internet Archive or from this unnamed site.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Stephen Arr's "Chain of Command" (short story, satire, free): Bureaucracy illustrated!

I'd never even heard the name of author, & what a lovely tale!

Story summary.

George & Clara are mutated mice - telepathic, intelligent, & capable of speech. They live with their children in a nook in an atomic plant. Every night, someone puts a trap outside their mousehole. No one gets hurt, since all mice, even kids, know about it, but Clara fears kids might get hurt anyway. She wants George to convince the humans to remove the trap.

So we get a hilarious view of the human bureaucracy as poor George's request travels up the hierarchy...

Fact sheet.

First published: Galaxy, May 1954.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories about bureaucracy; Fiction from 1950s; Tuesday Classics.

Everett B Cole's "Indirection" (short story, first contact, free): A method to keep state secrets

While there are any number of stories that tell the story of a fiction author, or movies that tell about movie makers, this is by far the most engaging I've seen of the kind: science fiction authors as agents enrolled to keep state secrets!

Story summary.

Super-advanced galactic races have had their observers forever on earth, their memories now preserved in legends. To make things more interesting, humans were among the advanced races that somehow faced a long forgotten doomsday, & fell to primitive times; but they do retain something from this ancient glory.

Now one of these alien observers, masquerading as a human scholar in a remote rural community, has his cover exposed due to a naughty native servant. So what should the aliens do to ensure humanity is prepared for an eventual contact with them...

See also.

1. Arthur Clarke & James Blish's "Guardian Angel": Another story where humanity needs a long time preparing for contact with aliens, known so far via legends. Specifics, however, are very different.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, January 1956.
Download full text as part of Astounding issue it appeared in.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: First contact fiction; Fiction from 1950s.

H P Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu" (novelette, free): Sleeping alien awakens to claim earth!

There is little action; it's mostly a story that builds up atmosphere. And it does so by frequently calling upon its (presumably original) target readers' prejudices - white man's superiority over those of other skin colors, "different" means abominable, worshiping ancient gods is evil, ...

A lot of readers will have a right to take offense at a lot of places. And virtually every other sentence contains a negative adjective - "accursed", "hateful", "awful", "monstrous", ...

This is, however, an obviously influential story - I can see influence on some works of Henry Kuttner, John W Campbell, Jr, & Eric Frank Russell. Probably others too.

Story summary.

Narrator is piecing together the story from notes of his recently dead "great-uncle, George Gammell Angell, Professor Emeritus of Semitic Languages in Brown University". During a short period lasting a few days or months, some people across world have been dreaming similar dreams. And there have been discoveries of similar but very ancient idols of a strange anthropoid god belonging to no known religion, on an unknown type of stone, at several places in the world, amid some sort of very ancient local religious cults.

He will eventually get drawn into the story & go interview people & see places involved. And eventually tell us the real story:

Aliens ("Great Old Ones") of huge body stature came to earth when the world of young. Immortal aliens with body of no known materials, building their massive buildings with "wrong" angles that spawn unknown dimensions, ... They've a priest called "Cthulhu".

Over the eons, their city ("R'lyeh") (cities, with R'lyeh only one of them?) has sunk under sea, where these telepathic immortals now lie dead ... no, lie dreaming. The process of their awakening is complex, & can only happen when the stars are in "the right positions". Someone who's not among them must awaken their priest Cthulhu at the right time; priest will then awaken the rest of them.

To ensure there is someone to awaken them, the sleeping ones have telepathically been influencing "sensitive" humans telepathically - ensuring there are fanatic religious bands all over world who will do their bidding at right time.

Now an earthquake has raised above sea surface the undersea building that entombs Cthulhu, & the stars are right. So the telepathic call goes out to nearest cult band to come awaken the priest. The band will be killed in a conflict with white sailors on the way, & the victorious come to claim what the cult wanted them not to see. And will unwittingly awaken the Cthulhu...

Notes.

1. Description of Cthulhu abode - "In this phantasy of prismatic distortion it moved anomalously in a diagonal way, so that all the rules of matter and perspective seemed upset." - made me recall the idea of the enchanted palace of Pandavs in "Mahabharat" where Duryodhan kept falling during his first visit because what the eyes saw wasn't real. There must be similar buildings in mythology elsewhere too.
2. According to Wikipedia, this story has the first-ever mention of the fictional alien "Cthulhu".
3. Wikipedia notes the following works as possible influences on this Lovecraft story: Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "The Kraken", Lord Dunsany's "A Shop in Go-by Street", "The Gods of Pegana" (download), Guy de Maupassant's "The Horla" (download), Arthur Machen's "The Novel of the Black Seal" (download).
   
   "Other inspirations for Lovecraft's story are referenced in the story itself—for example, James Frazer's The Golden Bough, Margaret Murray's Witch-Cult in Western Europe, and W. Scott-Elliot's Atlantis and the Lost Lemuria". I'd not noticed these local references.

See also.

1. H P Lovecraft's "Dagon" (download): Provides "an earthquake has raised an under-ocean city to surface for a while" subplot.
2. Irvin S Cobb's "Fishhead" (download): Probably provides "swampy land with an inland lake & its resident monster who's friend to feared locals" subplot.
3. Henry Kuttner's "Where the World is Quiet" (download) may have been inspired by this Lovecraft story. A localized region of earth's surface inhabited by unnamable alienness where any humans enter at their own peril.

Fact sheet.

First published: Weird Tales, February 1928.
Download full text from DagonBytes. MP3 audio. A graphic novel adaptation at Scribd.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of H P Lovecraft; fiction from 1920s.

Jack Vance's "The Miracle-Workers" (short novel, free): A future society gone retro rediscovers the scientific method

While the story covers a wide canvas, the best parts deal with something many of us go through while growing up: you see unlimited possibility in the world around & unorthodox ways of doing things; elders keep telling you why it won't work & is impossible! This is the story of a boy facing this constant discouragement, but refusing to be dissuaded.

Story summary.

"Sixteen hundred years before, with war raging through space, a group of space captains, their home bases destroyed, had taken refuge on Pangborn. To protect themselves against vengeful enemies, they built great forts armed with weapons from the dismantled spaceships.

The wars receded; Pangborn was forgotten."

Now humanity on Pangborn is divided into feudal "Keeps", with Faide Keep, led by Lord Faide, about to trump over the last resistance to its overlordship.

Humans isolated on this world have forgotten the scientific method, science & technology, but have developed powerful telepathy practiced by "jinxmen". Telepathy is widely used as a war weapon. A skilled jinxman can manipulate the mind of someone so the victim behaves as if possessed by a "demon", or feels discomforted, etc. Jinxmen's telepathy is also the only means of long range communications. Except for telepathy, its back to swords, arrows, horses, etc.

"First Folk" (also called "autochthon"), hominid hive-beings who were the world's original inhabitants & were hunted & driven out from their habitat to jungles by initial invaders, had adopted the scientific method of invaders. So the conditions are now right for a face-off between humans & First Folk - telepathy vs scientific method.

Scientific method will trump. But this is a Campbell edited story - so humans need to win! Quick unorthodox experiments of young Sam Salzar will make humans trump over 1600 years of scientific weapon making of First Folk!

Notes.

1. Title refers to original human colonists. Since their scientific method is now considered crude, & their gadgets miraculous & incomprehensible, they are sometimes referred to as the "miracle-workers".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, July 1958.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding issue where it originally appeared.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Jack Vance; Tuesday Classics; 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.

A E van Vogt's "M 33 in Andromeda" (short story, space opera, free): Smart humans vs galactic-scale monster

According to Wikipedia, title of this story is wrong: "M33 is in constellation Triangulum; M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, is in Andromeda."

Also, according to Wikipedia, it's one of the stories in author's fix-up novel, "Voyage of the Space Beagle".

Note this is a juvenile story; don't be too critical or logical. But it did appeal to heart - in a fun, mindless way.

Story summary.

Anabis, a galactic scale alien creature in the form of mist that surrounds worlds & interstellar void of its galaxy, feeds on the "life force" of animals - it's satiated when an animal dies! It doesn't directly do any killings though - it just ensures conditions where there will be killings. That is why it has turned every habitable world in its galaxy to a jungle world - because such worlds have "prolific life-&-death cycles"!

Now human exploration battleship, Space Beagle, is approaching its home galaxy, & Anabis sees a new food source - in the galaxy where the ship came from. Only there are too many galaxies in the general direction the ship is approaching from.

So we see a war of nerves between humans in the ship & Anabis - reveal location of human home galaxy, please. Because it's a van Vogt story, humans will, of course, not only win but see to it that Anabis is destroyed.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, August 1943.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding issue where it originally appeared.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog.
Part of the author's "Space Beagle" series.
Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.