Here are my reviews of three more science fiction short stories appearing in the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 18 (1956). Two of the stories involve organized social shunning, with the targets of this treatment reacting very differently. The other is about the best way to settle a new planet in the face of hostile native life. All three tales bothered me in different ways...the first one below is the most famous, appearing in other anthologies as well...
THE COUNTRY OF THE KIND by Damon Knight
In a future society criminals are let loose among the people, but are physically altered to emit a noxious odor as well as having their violent urges suppressed by sudden, acute sickness. And the people, upon encountering such an individual, are trained to completely shun him. The protagonist, relating this story in the first person, is such a outcast and describes his ongoing experiences among those who openly despise and avoid him. A chilling tale with some analogies to our time...it also reminded me a little of A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess...
EXPLORATION TEAM by Murray Leinster
If you like bears, then this science fiction story is for you. A settler illegally on a planet has to fight off the hostile indigenous life while working on a rescue mission with one of the authorities bent on arresting him. And his bears, genetically altered to be more intelligent, help them immensely...they're by far the highlight of this flawed (in my opinion) story. It all comes down to whether people should depend more on robots or themselves and animals as they settle the cosmos and encounter unexpected challenges. But the author didn't seem too concerned about whether wiping out the native fauna of another world in the process was wrong...
RITE OF PASSAGE by Henry Kuttner and Catherine Moore
In previous stories, the husband-wife writing team of Kuttner and Moore used the pseudonym "Lewis Padgett" for their science fiction collaborations...Kuttner would pass away in 1958 and this is the final story of theirs that made it to the anthology series I'm going through. As with much of their other fiction, Rite of Passage deals heavily with psychology...it's in the future and big business and totalitarianism have fused to produce a society curiously dominated by a cult of magic, with corporate presidents in charge of dispensing curses and healing those of others...for a price, of course. One of them has realized that the magic isn't real, but can he shake the life-long drilling he has undergone to the contrary when he is tested in an extreme manner? A difficult but important story...Kuttner and Moore were two of the greatest sci-fi short story writers of all time...
Next week: more reviews about 1956 science fiction short stories...
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