[PW] Re: SS-Martian Protoplasm

[Dan Goodman]

Shari Haber wrote:
> Dear Womb at ts:
> 
> My client, and a couple of other people that I've stumbled across on the
> Internet, are looking for a SF short story that originally appeared in
> one of the SF magazines during the 1940s or 1950s, give or take a few
> years. It concerns two adventurers/explorers/Terrans that are looking
> for a lost Martian civilization. They stumble into a
> cave/cavern/crevasse where they find "the ultimate weapon." (It might be
> behind a force field of some kind, or maybe it's the "creature" (read
> on) who is behind the force field.)
> 
> One explorer kills the other over the weapon. A creature (maybe a
> humongous mouth) say it likes to eat cold protoplasm, and then eats the
> dead explorer. Afterwards, the creature says "I like warm protoplasm
> too."
I remembered it as being by Robert Sheckley, and "The Last Weapon" 
sounds like the right title:
 From the Internet Speculative Fiction Data Base http://isfdb:
Title: The Last Weapon
Author: Robert Sheckley
Year: 1953

Star Science Fiction Stories (1953, Ballantine, $1.50, 202pp, hc) Cover: 
Richard Powers
Star Science Fiction Stories (1953, Ballantine, #16, $0.35, 202pp, pb) 
Cover: Richard Powers
New Worlds, August 1954 (1954, 1s 6d, 128pp) Cover: Gerard Quinn
The People Trap and Other Pitfalls (1968, Dell, #6881, $0.60, 204pp, pb)
Far Out (1974, NEL, 0174320558, pb)
The People Trap plus Mindswap (1981, Ace, 0441658741, 469pp, pb)

That source can be unreliable.  From the Contento Index (reachable via 
http://locusmag.com):

The Last Weapon, (ss) Star Science Fiction Stories #1, ed. Frederik 
Pohl, Ballantine 1953

The People Trap and Other Pitfalls, Dell 1968
Far Out, ed. Arthur Arkley, NEL 1974
The People Trap plus Mindswap, Ace 1981

 From the Locus Index:

The Last Weapon, (ss) Star Science Fiction Stories #1, ed. Frederik 
Pohl, Ballantine 1953

The Collected Short Stories of Robert Sheckley Book Three, Pulphouse 
1991 From the Internet Speculative Fiction Data Base http://isfdb:
Title: The Last Weapon
Author: Robert Sheckley
Year: 1953

Star Science Fiction Stories (1953, Ballantine, $1.50, 202pp, hc) Cover: 
Richard Powers
Star Science Fiction Stories (1953, Ballantine, #16, $0.35, 202pp, pb) 
Cover: Richard Powers
New Worlds, August 1954 (1954, 1s 6d, 128pp) Cover: Gerard Quinn
The People Trap and Other Pitfalls (1968, Dell, #6881, $0.60, 204pp, pb)
Far Out (1974, NEL, 0174320558, pb)
The People Trap plus Mindswap (1981, Ace, 0441658741, 469pp, pb)

That source can be unreliable.  From the Contento Index (reachable via 
http://locusmag.com):

The Last Weapon, (ss) Star Science Fiction Stories #1, ed. Frederik 
Pohl, Ballantine 1953

The People Trap and Other Pitfalls, Dell 1968
Far Out, ed. Arthur Arkley, NEL 1974
The People Trap plus Mindswap, Ace 1981

 From the Locus Index:

The Last Weapon, (ss) Star Science Fiction Stories #1, ed. Frederik 
Pohl, Ballantine 1953

The Collected Short Stories of Robert Sheckley Book Three, Pulphouse 1991



-- 
Dan Goodman
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