“Man is not happy, unless he has some enemy to overcome, some difficulty to surmount.”
Amazing first story! Just as humans took over for the dinosaurs so the insects are fighting to take over from man in this near future drama.
Told from multiple generations of the same family it is more about what drives us, physically and spiritually, as people. It is not enough to merely exist.
This was layered, entertaining, and insightful. Loved it!
Read it for yourself:
https://ebooks.genesismachina.ca/harris-the-miracle-of-the-lily/
The Conquest of the Gola (1931) by Leslie F. Stone ★★★★★
“They were determined not only to revenge those we had murdered, but also to gain mastery of our planet.”
A matriarchal planet is invaded by profiteers from Earth. Those guys had no idea with whom they were messing!
Read it for yourself:
https://www.pulpmags.org/collections/pdf/won19310400.pdf
The Black God’s Kiss (1934) by C. L. Moore ★★★½☆
After her lands are invaded and subjugated Jirel ventures to the underworld to seek a weapon rather than be raped by Guillaume and his men.
The underworld parts of the story were pleasantly Lovecraft-y, but the ending was a disappointment.
The heroic end is the reserve of men, but when Lida’s teammates falter she steps up.
Read it for yourself:
https://loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/Perri_Space_Episode.pdf
That Only a Mother (1948) by Judith Merril ★★★★½
Quietly devastating story in reaction to the use of atomic weapons. From mutations to paternal infanticide this was horror.
Listen to it for yourself:
https://pseudopod.org/2017/05/15/pseudopod-542-that-only-a-mother/
In Hiding (1948) by Wilmer H. Shiras ★★★½☆
A mirror of the previous story, this is an optimistic reaction to the use of atomic weapons. While the fallout kills, it also produces geniuses who can blend into society.
If it were not for the difficult to endure parts about cat breeding, this would have been rated higher.
Max was eyeing the bronze red-headed figure with something approaching awe...
“I wouldn’t mind being a Mead myself!”
Ah famous last words! A beautiful unexpected red-headed savage welcomes a colony ship to his world. This is a story of identity, sexuality, and acceptance. It was unexpectedly light and rather sexy.
Read it for yourself:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/50774/50774-h/50774-h.htm
The Inhabited Men (1951) by Margaret St. Clair ★★★☆☆
“After the economy was well established, its hosts, had they known it, were potentially immortal.”
Basic but interesting story about symbiotic lifeforms and misunderstanding.
Delightful aliens among us, gifted humans story. Published over a decade before the first issue of X-Men!
And now I need to read Ingathering: The Complete People Stories.
All Cats Are Gray (1953) by Andrew North ★★★☆☆
In a tame early inspiration for Alien, this spooky space salvage story still has some chills.
Always trust your cat, they can see things you cannot.
Depressingly bleak post war dystopian future of sexism and a totalitarian regime.
Read it for yourself:
https://loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/Jones_Created_He_Them.pdf
Mr. Sakrison’s Halt (1956) by Mildred Clingerman
★★★★☆
“Look at the crazy things she did - like riding the Katy up and down the line for thirty years almost every day, looking for the halt that swallowed Mr. Sakrison!”
This was a moving response story to the anger and violence over school integration.
A southern woman falls in love with a Yankee with high ideals of racial brotherhood she was not ready to share.
On a halt to pick his fiancé, Mattie, a flower Mr. Sakrison hugs and chats with a black man. Mattie is too angry by the scene to join them and the train leaves, separating them.
She spends decades riding the train to find the stop again. It is not until she tells her young companion she would now accept the interracial embrace and join them that the stop reappears.
Later the young companion, stressed over the burning crosses and baying hounds of her neighborhood laments,
“I realize how terribly far Chapel Grove still is from Mr. Sakrison’s halt.”
As the Federation begins integrating Earth with its people a meteorologist, Flin, and his wife meet vicious racial violence in a small town.
As Flin prepares to return home for psychological counseling he understands the worst thing about violence is the darkness it imparts. Flin wishes to be free of his newly discovered feelings of hatred, but not before taking revenge. Oh no, not before revenge...
“We have watched you, little slave. What have you done that is free today?”
I was close to tears reading this story about a hunting dog on an ice world. She wants so desperately to do the right thing, to understand, but it’s impossible for her to stop being a dog. Ok, now I am crying, looking at my German Shepherd.
Read it for yourself:
https://loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/Emshwiller_Pelt.pdf
Car Pool (1959) by Rosel George Brown ★★★☆☆
Sweet and strange story about a couple reconnecting against the background of alien integration and some frightful child violence.
The original illustration for this story...
For Sale, Reasonable (1959) by Elizabeth Mann Borgese ★★★☆☆
A cyborg’s resume pointing out the cost benefits of its value verses large scale computers or humans.
A relationship over two planes of existence is fraught by the conflicts between a visual and conventional learner.
Payne comes off as hard on Lee but why would you marry someone to teach you physics? And if that was your goal why didn’t you marry a physics teacher?
Read it for yourself:
https://galacticjourney.org/stories/6106fsfgardener.pdf
The Tunnel Ahead (1961) by Alice Glaser ★★★★★
This was everything I wanted from Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery and did not get; the normalization of the horrific.
In a world of staggering overpopulation no one is told to limit their number of children. Everything is fair, room is carved out for everyone equally.
But there’s a catch...
Listen to it for yourself:
https://pseudopod.org/2020/02/07/pseudopod-688-the-tunnel-ahead/
The New You (1962) by Kit Reed ★★☆☆☆
An unhappy woman pays for a dream makeover to impress her husband... he just finds new things not to like about her.
When a small group of men is all that’s left of the human race an alien gives them a chance to convert to women. The story is about homosexual prejudices.
Boring story of a morphic single sex alien race changing their form to hustle humans for drugs.
I hated this story, it literally made me sick, but I appreciated it’s presentience. The rise in popularity of reality TV leads to the abuse of its stars. The hungry voyeuristic masses must have their thrills, whatever the cost.
Read it for yourself:
https://loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/Wilhelm_Baby_Great.pdf
The Barbarian (1968) by Joanna Russ ★★★★☆
Alyx, aged warrior and thief, woman of the world, faces off with a man of legend. Perhaps he is a god, perhaps he is a lie. This was an enjoyable work of fantasy.
The dying earth reaches out to a medical researcher for help. Out of love for her he creates a plague that wipes out humanity. These kinds of stories are usually full of color and gut punch, this was the dishwater slowing going down the drain.
A subtle study of identity and human connection. A tenclone on the far reaches of space looses his nine siblings and must learn the about other human companionship.
Average 3.82 Stars! This was a wonderful and relevant collection.
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