Category Archives: Short Story

The Ape-Men of Xlotli – David R. Sparks

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pulpxlotli01Yikes — longest story in the collection — 114 pages according to Amazon’s print version.

The action starts immediately as Kirby is running from eleven Mexicans firing at him with bullets “whining over his head and whizzing past the hoofs of his galloping, stolen horse” — nice grouping!

He stops to give the horse a rest and some water. In the distance, he sees the band of Mexicans come to a sudden stop.  Also, the horse runs off.  He surmises that both events have something to do with the sickening sweet smell in the air, and a sound like a geyser.  With no horse, and the Mexicans not moving, Kirby ventures into a canyon unknown to him.

Before long he sees a rattler and a skeleton.  He is able to tell from the bones that it was a white man, and sees that he died grasping a golden cylinder.  Continuing along the narrowing canyon, Kirby comes to a dead end.  Luckily, he is able to detect a hidden doorway and goes through it.  On the other side of a dark tunnel, he emerged into a “diminutive Garden of Eden.”

Over the course of eleven days, Kirby detected signs of life, and that someone had been in his camp as he slept.  He takes one of their clues to be a hint to go down into the geyser, so he spends days fashioning a rope to lower himself down.

Immediately after the next eruption, he lowers himself into the hole.  At 100 feet, he discovers another horizontal tunnel and hears music.  Looking up, he sees someone cut his rope and he falls, or slides down the sloping pit until he is ejected into a pool of water outside.  It gets better as he is rescued from the water by a group of hot babes.

They tell him that their people have lived there forever, unknown to the outside world. But now they need help.  This is proven true as a band of the titular ape-men storm the beach.  They try to carry the babes back into the jungle, but Kirby shoots one of them and the others get the idea.

The girls want him to lead a revolt against their human leaders.  For many years, there had been only girls born, and in the last 16 years, no babies at all.  So now 34 young women were ruled by some old geezer Wise Men.  Between the low birthrate and the ape-men, the girls sought outside help to help with the ape-men infestation.  The Wise Men wanted to enter a treaty with the ape-men where they would give away some of the girls in exchange for peace.

They ascend the plateau where the Wise Men live.  One of the very old men immediately comes at Kirby with a knife.  He subdues the old man and demands to see the High Priest.  The High Priest then tries to do what the Wise Men could not — Kirby responds by punching him in the face, and kicking him out of the tower.

Much of the High Priest’s power is due to his separation from the others.  Like the Wizard of Oz, once they see that he is just a dude, he is greatly diminished in their eyes.

After kicking the High Priest out of his tower, Kirby takes one of the babes as his wife. Their marriage and his coronation are scheduled for the same day so they will get screwed on gifts.

Like all socialist utopias, this one has a cache of weapons hidden by the elite.  Kirby distributes the rifles to the girls and makes Annie Oakleys out of them

Just as Kirby and his bride Naida are preparing to be married, Kirby spots some ape-men, presumably on the bride’s side.  Luckily, this wedding is packing more heat than Connie Corleone’s.  After they see that Naida has been taken, they arm up and head for the ape central.

They make their way through this underground wilderness, facing a dinosaur, wild beasts, things with tentacles — again with the tentacles! — and even the legendary Quetzacoatl.  Kirby is able to save the day by merely killing the High Priest.  And every last remaining ape-man.  On earth.

A pretty good story.  Longer than the others, so there was more meat to it.  Maybe not so much in characterization, but in various scenes of action.  Sadly with the cast of nubile jungle-women, there was nothing the least bit risque in their clothing or actions.

Post-Post:

  • First published in Astounding Stories of Super Science, December 1930.  Entire issue is available at Gutenberg.
  • Also that month: Bette Davis arrives in Hollywood; national concept of beauty takes a weird turn.

The Terrible Tentacles of L-472 – Sewell Peaslee Wright

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pulpterrible01Not to be confused with LV-426.

Hanson is recalling the days of his youth — 100 years ago — when he was sub-commander of the spacecraft Kalid of the Special Patrol.

Immediately upon receiving a promotion to commander, he is given the assignment to find two missing ships, the Dorlos and the Filanus (commanded by Rear Admiral Tobias Fünke, I believe).

Both ships had been ordered to L-472 and never returned.  The Kalid is to follow their trail, but very carefully.  The are ordered not to land until they have spotted the ships from low-level reconnoitering.  But really, what is the alternative?  Land and search the planet on foot?

The Kalid spots the ships, but is unable to positively identify them.  Yeah, those are probably two other ships on this uninhabited, unexplored rock described as “off the beaten path” (of space?).  Hanson plays the odds and decides to land the ship.  As they get closer they are able to confirm that these are indeed the missing ships.  Both are intact, with their hatches wide open, not even a screen door; but no signs of life.

The rescue party consists of half the Kalid crew, and they are packing “atomic power pistols.”  Christ, I’m a 2nd Amendment guy, but let’s not get crazy.

The group enters the Dorlos which, like the Mary Celeste, seems like it was abandoned suddenly with no clue as to why.  Hearing a commotion outside, they rush to the hatch. The trees are now:

“Lashing and writhing as though in the grip of some terrible hurricane, trunks bending and whipping, long branches writhing, curling, lashing out –“

Next time I see the word writhing twice in one sentence, there better be some girls involved.  Come to think of it, they certainly seemed to have skewed the chained and scantily clad babes toward the early selections of this anthology.

When two of the men make some sudden movements to avoid a bee-like creature, the low gravity of the small planet can’t stop them from soaring into the air.  In mid-air they are snagged by the tentacle-like branches of the forest.  The trees continue attacking the men until they use the disintegrater beams to start slicing through trunks.

They get a signal from a survivor of the Dorlos to kill as many trees as they can.  He describes a similar scene as the Kalid experienced.  The Dorlos’ crew, unready for the low gravity, sailed into the air and were snagged by the trees for feeding.

After a bloody or at least sappy attack, the humans prevail.  Hanson is able to save 11 men and is a hero.

A nice little space opera, but could have used more action with the tentacles.

Post-Post:

  • First published in Astounding Stories of Super-Science, September 1930.  Entire issue is available at Gutenberg.
  • Also that month: First non-stop flight from Europe to the US despite Lindbergh having made his US to Europe flight 3 years earlier.  Guess they didn’t want to push their luck.

The Ray of Madness – Captain S.P. Meek

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pulpray01Agent Carnes of the Secret Service is paying a visit to Dr. Bird’s private laboratory in the Bureau of Standards.  Things start off with a sinister vibe as Carnes is refered to as an operative rather than an agent.  And Bird has a private laboratory?  And don’t get me started on those bastards at the Bureau of Standards.

They chat about a new element named Lunium.  It is unusual in that it was discovered by using the spectroscopic method on the moon, hence the name.  Such a discovery makes sense in the spectra of the sun and other stars, but the Moon is a rock with no atmosphere, so this is a mystery.

Carnes seems to take the service part of his job more seriously that the secret part.  He knows that “a corpse is a chatterbox compared to [Dr. Bird].”  In strict confidence, he tells Dr. Bird that the “President of the United States acts as if he were crazy.”  And not in the way politicians are usually criminally insane, but “Bugs! Nuts! Bats in his belfry!”

First he showed a failing memory, then a restlessness, then a habit of nocturnal prowling.  He will awaken, rage back and forth in the bedchamber, then go back to sleep.  During the day, he is lethargic, a complete blank at times.  He also keeps his eyes shut and avoids light.

Bird forms a theory, but like Sherlock Holmes, keeps it to himself until he can test it out.  I have a feeling Dr. Bird was intended to be a recurring character.

The story gets very topical as Bird says, “the worship of ISIS was really only an exalted type of moon worship.  The crescent moon, you may remember was one of her most sacred emblems.”  However, he was referring to this Isis.

Using a lot of scientific jargon, Bird is able to deduce that the Russki’s were shining a beam into the solarium where the President had been sleeping.

This one got a little tedious with the experimentation and science, but I could easily imagine Bird in other stories.

Post-Post:

  • First published in Astounding Stories of Super-Science, April 1930.
  • Also that month:  Hostess Twinkies invented.
  • The scientific passages make sense now that I see that Meek was a chemist in the military.  He wrote under the names Capt. S.P. Meek, Maj. S.P. Meek and Col. S.P. Meek.
  • As suspected, Bird and Carnes were the subject of many other stories.

Ray Bradbury Theater – The Long Years (S4E11)

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bradbury02The Hathaways are the last people on Mars because they missed the last ship back to Earth.  They were in the mountains on an archaeological dig.  When they returned a week later, Mars had been evacuated.

John Hathaway stares at the stars each night hoping to see a rocket ship streaking among the unmoving stars.

One night, he takes his regular walk up to a hill where there are three graves.  In a quick pan, we see only the name Tom Hathaway (1988 – 2007).  At this point, we don’t know Tom is his son.  He asks their forgiveness for what he did.  He reflects on 20 years spent waiting for another ship from Earth.

rbtlongyears04Returning to his house, he sees a light moving across the sky.  He calls the family out and tells them, “We’re going home!”  To be sure they are spotted, Hathaway is able to remotely switch on every light in nearby New New York City.  In the short story, he just burns the city down.

Hathaway and his son take a golf cart to meet the ship.  The crew is descending the ladder, and hey — it’s Captain Wilder from And the Moon Be Still as Bright!  Hathaway takes them home to meet the wife and kids who they had last seen 20 years ago. Wilder comments that Cora has not aged a bit in 20 years.  Maybe it is just the way she is styled, but unfortunately the actress playing Cora doesn’t really look that much younger than Hathaway.

rbtlongyears05One of the other crewman knew the kids and comments they they also appear exactly as they had 20 years earlier on Earth.  Son Tom evens says he is “twenty-one” in his only dialogue in the episode.  He is in several scenes, but just stands there looking a lot like Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber, never uttering another word.

But he is positively loquacious next to the female crew member who gets not a single line of dialogue.  She is even seen speaking in a couple of scenes, but in the background where we can’t hear her.

As Hathaway visits the graves again, Wilder joins him.  Hathaway explains that a virus killed his whole family in a week.  So he built robots to recreate his family.

When Wilder tells Hathaway that they can only take him back to Earth, not his family, he tries to explain it to them.  “What is goodbye?” asks his robot wife in the sci-fi trope where a non-human speaks perfectly throughout an episode, but then doesn’t know a key common word.  What if they had been humans, would there still only have been room for Hathaway?

rbtlongyears10While he is trying to explain “going away”, he ironically does the big “going away” as he has a heart attack and dies.  They bury Hathaway next to his real family, and the crew leave them on Mars.  The episode has a much better ending, a great ending — the robot family uses the same tools which created them to create another John Hathaway.

In the last scene, they are all sitting at the dinner table and Cora has made John’s favorite chicken dish.  Although, I don’t know what he’s going to do with it as it was strongly suggested that robots do not eat.

In the short story, the robots are deemed too human to kill, so they are left to do the same repetitive mundane tasks forever.

Post-Post:

  • First published in Macleans, September 1948.
  • Just to confuse things, in the episode, the father is John and the son is Tom.  In the short story, the names are reversed.  Also, the wife in the episode is named Cora instead of Alice, and they have an extra daughter in the short story.
  • Directed by Paul Lynch who also made Prom Night.

Ray Bradbury Theater – The Toynbee Convector (S4E8)

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bradbury02I’m not sure if this series is wearing me down, or if it was just a late bloomer — I’m actually starting to like some of the episodes, or at least I can appreciate them when I can see through the figurative filter of 80’s style and the more literal filter of an awful DVD transfer.

It also helps to not go in expecting The Twilight Zone.  As much as Serling was praised for his humanity, it is Bradbury that really digs into it.  The science is given a complete pass, sometimes there is a lack of twist, irony or even closure; sometimes it is just a slice of slightly askew life.

The evidence in this case is that the twist is obvious almost immediately — yet it still kept me interested.  It was well-cast and well-acted; Bradbury’s rambling prose was appropriate to the story and was well executed.

Craig Bennett Stiles (James Whitmore) is looking out at a beautiful day.  There are boats sailing on the blue waters, people are hang gliding in clear blue skies.  A helicopter is flying in carrying reporter Roger Shumway.

rbttoynbee02In the control room, they are running tapes of “burning rain forests, smog alerts, gridlocked cities, sea birds caked with oil — that’s how it was as we entered the [19]90’s”.  But 100 years ago, in 2000, Stiles became the first and only man to travel through time.

After his trip 100 years ago, Stiles went into seclusion after showing the world the pictures he took of the pristine future where man had conquered the ecological chaos he had created in the late 20th century.

Stiles selects Shumway out of the pool of reporters because he has a reputation of telling the truth — that would certainly make him unique in 2015 also.  At 4 pm that afternoon in the year 2100, the world will see his ship whiz by on the time-travel journey he made 100 years earlier.  Stiles and Shumway enter his home.

Stiles shows off the time machine, the Toynbee Convector.  Styles tells us it was named for Arnold Toynbee who said, “If a people, civilization does not rush to meet the future, the future will plow them under, kill and bury them.”

rbttoynbee03I’m not sure if that is an exact quote. Wikipedia summarizes his study of civilizations as “he concluded that they rose by responding successfully to challenges under the leadership of creative minorities composed of elite leaders.”  Which seems pretty self-evident — if they don’t meet the challenges, they fade away.  And there will always be a certain segment of any society that is the smartest or most creative.  Unfortunately, today “elite” has come to mean politicians and actors, both groups which have more than their share of criminals and imbeciles.

Stiles recalls his return to ticker tape parades and the people as he showed them the pictures of the future that was possible for them. “We cleaned and made fresh the air we breathed, we replanted the forests, reclaimed the oceans, lakes and river.”

When Stiles fly-by does not occur at 4:00, Shumway realizes that the whole story, for 100 years, has been a lie.  Seeing the shape of the environment, Stiles came up with the idea of the time-travel to inspire people to change their ways.  He faked tapes, even built tiny perfect fake towns under blue paper skies.  Seeing this beautiful future, people know it was possible and made it happen.

Stiles crawls into the time machine and just seems to die; in the short story, it is more like a suicide.  In the episode, Shumway edits the tapes of his talk with Styles so his deception is cover up, and his words are inspirational,  He even uses laser technology to simulate Stile’s fly-by.

In both versions, Stiles lie is covered up.  The episode is a little more uplifting though, further establishing Stiles as a world-changing hero.  It is nice for a change in sci-fi seeing someone’s lie or hubris actually work out well, and have them be elated at what they have done.

Post-Post:

  • Short story first published in Playboy, January 1984 (by which time its incredibly poor photographic style had literally made the magazine into the joke that it had always inspired — worth a purchase only because of the articles).
  • The plan could have easily backfired.  When presented with tapes of the clean, beautiful future, people could have thought that if they keep doing what there were doing, things would still turn out fine.
  • In any event, maybe we could have kept Al Gore off TV for the past 10 years. That’s gotta be worth something.