Saturday, January 29, 2011

Lloyd Biggle, Jr's "Monument" (novelette, colonialism, free): Non-violent, non-Gandhian, resistance against colonialism

So far, the only stories of peacefully & successfully fighting off the far more militarily powerful alien colonists I've read have been Gandhian. This one is different. And beautiful resolution.

Story summary.

An unnamed alien world, later in the story named Langri - after the local name of a human who foresaw their doom & gave them tools to fight it. An idyllic world human colonists want to grab. A lot of things happen, many of them familiar ones, until the natives throw their masterstroke.

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, June 1961.
Download full text from Webscription. [via Bill Garthright @ ClassicScienceFiction Yahoo group].
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Nominated for Hugo Award 1962.
Related: Stories of Lloyd Biggle.

3 comments:

Bill Garthright said...

I'm really glad you liked this, although, as I mentioned elsewhere, the novel (published in 1974) is much better. Well, I think so, anyway.

Usually, when short fiction is expanded into a novel, I prefer the original. But Monument is different. It's still not overly long, and it's a story I can read over and over again.

They need to reprint it in a mass market paperback. (It's still available, but quite expensive for a paperback.)

Crotchety Old Fan said...

One of my faves - and a novel that I think would serve as the basis for an excellent movie script, a movie that would really resonate with our times.

Tinkoo said...

WCF: I had that experience with Asimov's "Nightfall"; read the novel before the original short story version. While I never liked the second half of the novel, I've always liked its first half - redoing the old story - better than the original short story. May be first reading effect.