VarietySF/A/free

Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Carson of Venus" (novel, adventure, free): Hero helps win a war

noreply@blogger.com (Tinkoo) — Sun, 03 Aug 2014 11:40:00 +0000

This is #3 in author's Venus series. I've not read the earlier books, but it's pretty much an independent adventure. And very readable if you can keep plausibility aside.

Story summary.

Carson Napier, hero of the story, along with his ladylove Duare, is homeless & wanted in many jurisdictions on Venus. But he has an airplane he built that can stay up in the air without maintenance or refueling for 50 years! But he needs to land for food. The duo are seeking a home where they will be wanted.

They'll end up on a large island (Korva) with war going on - a common soldier has usurped power & has imprisoned the king. All of Korva has fallen except one holdout, the walled city of Sanara. The city is now under seize.

Carson will end up befriending the holdouts, & help them win the war by bombing enemy from his plane & by playing a spy in usurper's city.

Notes.

There is also an unrelated short story length adventure at the beginning of the novel - tribals kidnap Duare & Carson will rescue her.

Fact sheet.

First published: As a serial in 6 parts in Argosy, Jan 8, 15, 22, 29, & Feb 5 & 12 issues, 1938.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg of Australia or Feedbooks.
Rating: A.
Nominated for Retro Hugo Awards 1939 in novel category.

Isaac Asimov's "No Connection" (short story, puzzle, free)

noreply@blogger.com (Tinkoo) — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 16:01:00 +0000

Millions of years into future, man is long extinct. The world has two dominant intelligent races:

Americas dominated with "Gurrows", intelligent descendents of bears;
Rest of the world dominated by "Eekahs", intelligent descendents of chimpanzees.

Eekahs are far more technologically advanced, are aware that Americas are sparsely populated, & are planning raids to claim that land.

This is the story from the point of view of a Gurrow archeologist who knows a bit about the long extinct man (the "Primate Primeval"). And of his seriously incomplete piecing together of the history of the continent & what lays ahead as they come into more frequent contact with Eekahs...

Collected in.

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

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, June 1948.
Download full text from AlfaLib.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Isaac Asimov.

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

noreply@blogger.com (Tinkoo) — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 19:05:00 +0000

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.

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.

Alice Sheldon's "The Man Who Walked Home" (as by James Tiptree, Jr) (short story, post apocalypse, free)

noreply@blogger.com (Tinkoo) — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 14:45:00 +0000

Apocalypse here results as a side effect of a time travel experiment. While I found the time travel part positively incomprehensible & boring, the rest of it is very readable - a dead world in the process of rebuilding itself.

Story summary.

At the site of the time travel experiment, there was an explosion, a crater, & the side effects that killed much life of earth. But there is also a curious physical phenomenon that is a side effect of original experiment: once a day, every year, at the same time, at a place in the original crater, a "monster" appears for a few seconds - a monster that appears to be moving but is not, it leaves bad smell after it's gone, & any attempt to touch it tends to cost you your limbs.

Story is mostly a view of this curious phenomenon, & eventually an explanation, from the point of view of sundry people who'll watch it over the centuries as the dead place keeps slowly getting inhabited.

Fact sheet.

First published: Amazing Science Fiction, November 1972.
Download full text from Baen eBooks.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Alice Sheldon (as by James Tiptree, Jr).

Frederik Pohl's "The Kindly Isle" (short story, biological weapons, free)

noreply@blogger.com (Tinkoo) — Fri, 13 Dec 2013 15:21:00 +0000

A government agency in cold war era US is building biological weapons for possible use against Russians. One of its researchers has developed a virus that affects a part of the brain that's supposed to drive the infected person nuts, only the effect is a bit different - it makes the infected person irritable & nasty. On the day of his triumph, the scientist vanishes with all the data - so the government no longer has the weapon.

Years later, a colleague sights the scientist on an idle isle, & suspects he has been testing the virus for selling to highest bidder. But subsequent investigation with throw up a completely different direction of his research...

Fact sheet.

First published: Asimov's, November 1984.
Download full text from Baen eBooks.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Frederik Pohl.

Brian Clegg's "Quis custodiet?" (flash fiction, humor, free)

noreply@blogger.com (Tinkoo) — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 15:01:00 +0000

Is human mind ever satisfied? Here we see some unusual & funny political discontent against the "perfect dictatorship"...

Fact sheet.

First published: Nature, 3 October 2013.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.
Added to my "best of 2013" list.

Malcolm Jameson's "Brimstone Bill" (novelette, humor, free): Crooks are useful too!

noreply@blogger.com (Tinkoo) — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 13:53:00 +0000

A part of the story deals with sound engineering - how high frequency, inaudible, sounds affect us. I've no idea if there is any truth in that part.

Story summary.

A corrupt politician in high office collects protection money from a little world called Juno in asteroid belt. He maneuvers a spaceship returning home, with a lot of unspent sailors' salary, to land here for hull cleaning, a process that will ground the ship for a month, giving town ample time to clean the purses of the crew.

But ship captain has a weapon up his sleeve...

Fact sheet.

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

A E van Vogt's "Secret Unattainable" (novella, teleporting gadget, free)

noreply@blogger.com (Tinkoo) — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 17:46:00 +0000

This is van Vogt at his best. Far off concept, but very entertaining story.

Story summary.

Early in the beginning of WWII, a great German scientist is working on a cool gadget: you "focus" it anywhere in the universe, &, through an "orifice" that is part of the gadget, you can directly reach that location.

Want crude? Focus it inside an oil well anywhere, & help yourself!
Want to attack London? Focus it on someplace in the city you want your tanks in, & just drive through the "orifice"!
Want to put an enemy ship out of action at sea? Just drain its fuel tank!
...

Scientist comes to the notice of establishment. Establishment wants his gadget, but the man cannot be trusted - his brother was executed by Nazis for political reasons sometime back. So they get him working on the gadget under careful watch, & arrest him as soon as the gadget is finished. Only the gadget is not going to do them any good, because the scientist indeed was using it as a tool for revenge...

Fact sheet.

Henry Kuttner's "Before I Wake..." (short story, dreaming, free)

noreply@blogger.com (Tinkoo) — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 15:56:00 +0000

What is more real - conscious or unconscious, waking state or dreaming state? In this story, the distinction is blurred.

Story summary.

A young boy, somewhere on Florida coast in the US, has read too many fairy tales & believes them in all innocence. He dreams of sailing to places with magical & colorful characters & things. Until his the world of imagination begins to appear far more desirable than the real world...

Fact sheet.

First published: Famous Fantastic Mysteries, March 1945.
Read online at UNZ.
Note: The text at the link above appears to end abruptly. Story appears complete, but the link has a lot more text beyond the end of the story, with no clear marker to end the story, leading to feeling of abrupt ending.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner .

Lara Vapnyar's "Katania" (short story, non-genre, free): A woman cannot let go of her childhood longings

noreply@blogger.com (Tinkoo) — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 01:44:00 +0000

I think I liked it because it's both mundane & absurd. And nice language.

I'm not sure how accurate the political aspects of Soviet Union are: a neighborhood in Moscow of mostly women, men either dead, defected to West, or in labor camps of Siberia. But political aspects are just background; main story is simple enough.

Story summary.

It's the story of two girls - friends, neighbors & classmates, one envious of what the other has. And what the envious one grows up into in adulthood.

Title, "Katania" is an imaginary country thought up for their dolls, combing their own names - Katya & Tania.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 14 October 2013.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.

VarietySF/A/free

Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Carson of Venus" (novel, adventure, free): Hero helps win a war

Story summary.

Notes.

Fact sheet.

Isaac Asimov's "No Connection" (short story, puzzle, free)

Collected in.

Fact sheet.

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

Story summary.

Collected in.

Fact sheet.

Alice Sheldon's "The Man Who Walked Home" (as by James Tiptree, Jr) (short story, post apocalypse, free)

Story summary.

Fact sheet.

Frederik Pohl's "The Kindly Isle" (short story, biological weapons, free)

Fact sheet.

Brian Clegg's "Quis custodiet?" (flash fiction, humor, free)

See also.

Fact sheet.

Malcolm Jameson's "Brimstone Bill" (novelette, humor, free): Crooks are useful too!

Story summary.

Fact sheet.

A E van Vogt's "Secret Unattainable" (novella, teleporting gadget, free)

Story summary.

Fact sheet.

Henry Kuttner's "Before I Wake..." (short story, dreaming, free)

Story summary.

Fact sheet.

Lara Vapnyar's "Katania" (short story, non-genre, free): A woman cannot let go of her childhood longings

Story summary.

Fact sheet.