The possibility that our planet will some day be dominated by
the insect world has been admitted by our greatest entomologists, and the
possibility of this is not half so remote as one might think. Some of our
deepest thinkers believe that it is not only possible, but most probable, that
this may happen, or possibly has happened in the past. It is a story tremendous
in its possibilities, and the author has written it with such a facile pen,
that you cannot lay the story aside until you have come to its conclusion.
The Forgotten Planet
(SF/Adventure)
By Murray Leinster
ISBN #978-1947964136
Price $19.95
220 Pages
Rating 5-Stars
This book contains three novelettes: THE MAD PLANET,
THE RED DUST, and NIGHTMARE PLANET, collected from the pulps. The story takes
place thirty thousand years after the 20th century, and into the
second Carboniferous Period. Insects are now giants, even larger than they were
in the first Carboniferous Period. Our hero is Burl, a simple man little more
than a savage.
In
THE MAD PLANET we meet Burl as he forages in the large toadstools looking for
food, a naked human who only exist for food. He’s about twenty years of age,
and has notice Saya, a beautiful female among the tribe, who causes strange
feelings within him. While hunting for food he accidentally falls into the
river and is swept forty miles from his little tribe. The story is all about
his dangerous tract home, and the many near tragedies that come upon him; giant
spiders, army ants, fires, and other dangerous insects. Returning to Saya, he
is no longer naked, but wrapped in the soft wing of a giant butterfly, and
toting a slain spider on his back. Naturally, Saya decides he’s the man for
her. This was a fun yarn.
THE
RED DUST finds Burl in a quandary over the sudden appearance of red toadstools
that emit poisonous red particles into the air. His people must leave and find
new land if they are to survive, and there is much hardship and danger along
the route. But in the end he leads his tribe to safety in the mountains far
from the deadly toadstools, and finally takes Saya for his mate. A sequel to
THE MAD PLANET.
Nightmare
Planet is a bit different from the first two. Actually, it doesn’t seem to fit
with the other two stories. It is still Burl and Saya, but they’re not lovers
yet, and their valley (not where the second story left off) has been over-run
by a giant spider with her egg sack. The babies hatch and start eating
everything in the valley, including humans. Burl kills one of the spiders as he
goes for food. H thene tells them he’s leaving the valley. He pulls Saya along,
and then the rest follow. They climb a mountain reaching high above the clouds
where they find fresh air, and small insects, plus view the stars and sunrise
for the first time. Then they find a pack of dogs and instantly become constant
companions. In the first two stories we were led to believe their world is
Earth thirty thousand years after the 21st century, but now we’re
given a new history. The planet had been seeded many times in the past by a
highly advanced race of aliens. One ship crashed, and that’s where humans and
dogs came from. At the end of the story the aliens return once more and find
Burl and his people, and subject him to an educator machine, and they build a
city on top of the mountain, where the president of the aliens come to hunt
with Burl. This story brings a final conclusion to the short series, even f it
is hard to fit it in with the previous two stories.
Okay,
the stories were definitely fun. I love anything with giant insects and
spiders. We never see a scorpion in the stories, but thirty-foot long
centipedes, spiders with a thirty-foot leg spread, and mammoth-sized
tarantulas. Beetles the size of tanks, and enormous moths and butterflies.
There were some minor formatting problems, but I highly recommend the book for
lovers of science fiction and adventure.
Tom Johnson
Author of WORLDS OF TOMORROW
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