[PW] Re: SS-Martian Protoplasm

[Shari Haber]

Thanks, Dan!

It does sound like it could be Robert Sheckley's "Last Weapon."

Shari Haber
MCLS Reference Center
shaber at mcls.org

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dan Goodman" <dsgood at iphouse.com>
To: <list at project-wombat.org>; "Shari Haber" <shaber at mcls.org>
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 4:33 PM
Subject: Re: [PW] SS-Martian Protoplasm


> 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
> All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.
> John Arbuthnot (1667-1735), Scottish writer, physician.
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>
>