Robert Sheckley - Perilous Planets - An Anthology of Way Back When Futures: An Anthology of Way-back-when Futures

Brian W. Aldiss is Britain's leading science fiction writer. He has won many of the prizes in the field, including the Hugo, the Nebula, and the BSFA Award. The Australians voted him 'World's Best Contemporary Writer of SF', and his novels and stories have been translated into many languages. His science fiction novels include Non-Stop (1958), Hothouse (1962), and recently more controversial novels such as The Dark Light Years (1964), Report on Probability A (1967), and Barefoot in the Head (1969). He has also proved himself a master of the short story, in such collections as The Moment of Eclipse (1970). His recently published history of science fiction Billion Year Spree has been widely acknowledged as a major contribution to the genre.

Also available in Orbit edited by Brian W. Aldiss:

EVIL EARTHS

GALACTIC EMPIRES Vols. I and 2

Perilous Planets

an anthology of way-back-when futures

edited by

Brian W. Aldiss

Futura Publications Limited An Orbit Book

An Orbit Book

First published in Great Britain by George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd This edition 1980

Introduction and compilation copyright Southmoor Serendipity 1978

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

ISBN o 7088 80711

Reproduced, printed and bound in Great Britain by Hazell Watson & Viney Ltd Aylesbury, Bucks Futura Publications Limited no Warner Road Camberwell, London SE5

'HOW ARE THEY ALL ON DENEBIV ?' by C. C. Shackleton

Copyright 1965 SF Horizons Ltd. Reprinted by permission of the author

MOUTH OF HELL by David I. Masson

Copyright 1968 David Masson. Reprinted by permission of

Faber and Faber Ltd. from THE CALTRAPS OF TIME

by David I. Masson

BRIGHTSIDE CROSSING by Alan E. Nourse

Copyright 1951 Alan E. Nourse. First published in GALAXY

1951. Reprinted by permission of Brandt & Brandt

THE SACK by William Morrison

Copyright 1950 by Street & Smith Publications Inc. Reprinted by permission of the Conde Nast Publications Inc. First published in the September 1950 issue of Astounding Science Fiction

THE MONSTER by A. E. van Vogt

Copyright 1948 by Street & Smith Publications Inc. (now Conde Nast Publications Inc.). Reprinted by arrangement with Forrest J. Ackerman and the E. J. Carnell Literary Agency. First published it} Astounding Science Fiction 1948

THE MONSTERS by Robert Sheckley

Copyright Robert Sheckley 1953. Reprinted by permission of A. D. Peters & Co. Ltd.

GRENVILLE'S PLANET by Michael Shaara

Copyright 1952 Michael Shaara. Reprinted by permission of the author

BEACHHEAD by Clifford Simak

Copyright 1951 ZiffDavis Publishing Co. Reprinted by permission of Robert Mills Limited. First published in Fantastic Adventures July 1951

THE ARK OF JAMES CARLYLE by Cherry Wilder

Copyright 1974 by Cherry Wilder. Reprinted by permission of the author and her agent, Virginia Kidd. Published in New Writings in SF24 edited by Kenneth Bulmer. First published by Sidgwick & Jackson in 1974. Corgi edition published in 1975

ON THE RIVER by Robert F. Young

Copyright 1964 by ZiffDavis Publishing Co. Reprinted by

permission of the author

GODDESS IN GRANITE by Robert F. Young

Copyright 1957 by Fantasy House Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author. Published in THE WORLDS OF ROBERT F.

YOUNG (Gollancz Feb. 1974). Reprinted from The Magazine of

Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 1957

THE SEEKERS by E. C. Tubb

Copyright 1965 by John Carnell for New Writings in SF6.

Reprinted by permission of the author and the E. J. Carnell Literary Agency

WHEN THE PEOPLE FELL by Cordwainer Smith

Copyright 1937 by Street & Smith Publications, renewed 1965 by Paul Linebarger. Reprinted by permission of the author's estate and the Scott Meredith Literary Agency Inc., 845 Third Avenue, New York,NYioo22

SCHWARTZ BETWEEN THE GALAXIES by Robert Silverberg

Copyright 1974 by Random House Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author and his agents, Scott Meredith Literary Agency Inc., 845 Third Avenue, New York, NY10022

THE TITAN by P. Schuyler Miller

Copyright 1952 by P. Schuyler Miller. Reprinted by permission of Mary E. Drake, sister and heir

FOUR IN ONE by Damon Knight

Copyright 1953 by Galaxy Publishing Co. Reprinted by permission of the author

THE AGE OF INVENTION by Norman Spinrad

Copyright 1966 by Mercury Press Inc. Reprinted from the

Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction by permission of the author and his agent, Michael Bakewell & Associates Ltd.

THE SNOWMEN by Frederik Pohl

Copyright 1959 by Galaxy Publishing Corporation. Reprinted by permission of the author and the E. J. Carnell Literary Agency

Introduction

'How Are They All on Deneb IV ?' C. C. Shackleton 13

SECTION 1 UNINHABITED PLANETS

'... Because They're There'

Mouth of Hell David I. Masson

Brightside Crossing Alan E. Nourse 35

The Sack William Morrison 57

SECTION 2 INHABITED PLANETS

Whatever Answers the Door...

The Monster A. E. van Vogt

The Monsters Robert Sheckley104

Grenville's Planet Michael Shaara

Beachhead Clifford D. Simak 128

SECTION 3 A DASH OF SYMBOLS

No Names to the Rivers

The Ark of James Carlyle Cherry Wilder

On the River Robert F. Young 173

Goddess in Granite Robert F. Young 186

The Seekers E. C. Tubb 211

SECTION 4

Love and War

When the People Fell Cordwainer Smith

The Titan P. Schuyler Miller

223 236

SECTION 5 BECOMING MORE ALIEN

A Universal Home Truth

Four in One Damon Knight

The Age of Invention Norman Spinrad

The Snowmen Frederik Pohl 337

Schwartz Between the Galaxies Robert Silverberg

Afterword

Long before I began compiling this book, I could see what it had to contain. Its title and its contents leaped at me while I was working on the first anthology in this series, Space Opera*, three years ago.

For the majority of readers new to science fiction, a landing on another planet - a planet, because unknown, even more perilous than Earth - must be their peak experience of the genre. If they don't get the true sf charge out of touchdown on Procyon v, they will never get any charge at all. The cutting edge of science fiction lies along the interface between the known and the unknown.

So what I wanted for my anthology was that seminal story in which our brave astronauts, or space-travellers as they used to be called, make the first-ever voyage through space, see the stars like jewels flung into the sack of night, and touch down on a totally unknown planet. There they jump out to test the atmosphere, find it even better than Earth's, and take a stroll amid the glorious scenery. Whereupon something awful appears and - according to which seminal story you read -attempts to eat them, warps their minds with obscene telepathic messages, or captures them and takes them into subterranean tunnels.

It was a fantastic story, one you remember for the rest of your life. My trouble was, I had forgotten which story it was. For months, I leafed my way through my library, looking for the seminal story. I found plenty of stories like it, but never that actual story. Eventually the truth dawned. That seminal story had no actual existence. It was a creation of my memory, compounded from elements common to many similar firstlanding stories. It was, you might say, a folk memory of landing on a strange planet.