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Millennial Reviews XXXII: A Martian Odyssey & The Valley of Dreams

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James Nicoll

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Feb 15, 2000, 3:00:00 AM2/15/00
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A Martian Odyssey [From the Best of Stanley G. Weinbaum]
Stanley G. Weinbaum
Ballentine 1974 [1934]
26 pages

Synopsis: Jarvis and several companions are the first men
on Mars. Jarvis has just returned from an unplanned forced march from
where his atomic plane stopped working and recounting his tale.

Along the way, he met and befriended a birdlike alien
named Tweel by saving it from a Martian predator. This Mars, while
arid, is very densely populated often by thing which eat other things.

Although Jarvis cannot learn Martian, Tweel manages to learn a
few words in Englihs, using his tiny vocabulary to communicate with
Jarvis. They trek across the Martian Desert, encountering telepathic
monsters, silicon based animals and a nest of hive creatures, from whom
Jarvis, in the spirit of exploration, steals a valuable glowing gem
which may be the cure for cancer. Hijinks ensue but they survive,
although Jarvis and Tweel are separated.

Valley of Dreams
Stanley G. Weinbaum
Ballentine 1974 [1934]
24 pages

Jarvis and and Leroy, the French member of the crew, leave
on a second exploratory jaunt, hoping to get some decent film footage
to sell when they get back home. They head towards one of the poles,
eventually discovering a vast city.

While exploring it, they encounter more of Tweel's people, including
Tweel himself. Tweel takes them on a tour of the city. The city is ancient,
at least 15,000 years old and Tweel people were at one time vastly greater
in number and power: a mural shows their encounter with humans in Egypt,
although how a race without chemical or atomic power got to Earth is un-
answered. After a near fatal encounter with the dream beasts Jarvis met
in the first story, they return to the ship.

Jarvis explains that Tweel's people are dying out through lack
of energy, so he has given them the secret of atomic power.

Weinbaum died very young and ims all of his stories came
out over an 18 month period. When you consider what the state of the
art was when he was writing these stories, they are quite impressive
[If you can find a copy of the _Best of Stanley G. Weinbaum_, Asimov
goes on at some length about just how impressive Weinbaum was, showing
the virtues of 'Campbellian' SF long before JWC was an editor.

I don't think anyone expected space travel to be as expensive as it
is: Jarvis and his buddies expect to pay for their trip out of the film rights
to the footage they shoot on Mars.

Weinbaum also expected certain forms of government to last longer
than they did: Germany is an autocracy [One can only hope a resurgence
of the old Germany monarchy rather than the rat-bastard in charge of
Germany in '34]. This conservatism is reflected in other stories in the
collection: the two main colonial powers on Venus are the USA and the UK.
I imagine it would have been hard to believe that the UK would be beggared
by another Great War in 5 years.

Tweel is one of the earliest attempts at a human-level ETI
whose behavior is nonhuman. Tweel's a bit unusual in that he is brighter
the humans he meets, able to figure out their languages while we can not
figure out his. His is a fallen civilization and not the only one: the
rat-beast seen in one scene is found on one of the Jovian moons and it's
species shares -that- world with another fallen civilization, the loonies.

Not at all an accurate view of our time, but an entertaining one.
It's a pity that our system is so empty and much more of one that Weinbaum
had so little time in which to write.


--
From _Emily Bronte: Standup Comedian_
"Knock, Knock." "Who's There?"
"Death." "Death who?"
"Just Death."

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