Answear Came There None
Answer Came There None
7500 words
Like a green and seemingly virginal carpet, the planetary surface
unrolled five miles below the slowing ship.
The title derives from Alice Through the Looking-Glass: “But
answer came there none/And this was scarcely odd, because/They’d
eaten every one.” Jan and pater are a married-couple
Terran searchship crew making their second visit in umpteen years
to an unfortunately lon-dead extrasolar planet. They eventually
get some half-answers to the question of why long-lived, stable,
and technologically advanced civilizations so often come to a hard
end. I can detect a strong, if gender-transposed, link between
them and J(ames) and P(eggy) White. “Suddenly they were
hugging each other, a ridiculous and senseless thing to do considering
the thickness of their suits. But it did not matter.”
Synopsis by Graham Andrews |
| Publication history: |
- THE BEST FROM GALAXY 3, ed James Baen, Award Book,
1975
- Monsters and Medics (see under Books).
|
|
