Today, December 16, marks the birth of two of the best writers of science fiction, especially short science fiction. Randall Garrett (1927-1987) and Philip K. Dick (1928-1982). Of the two, Garrett is the least well-known and the one I prefer, although I like them both.
Randall Garrett
Randall Garrett wrote at all lengths, but his best work is probably his short fiction. To the extent he’s remembered today, he’s know for the Lord Darcy stories. These are mysteries set in an alternate world where magic works. They were collected about 17 or 18 years ago in an omnibus by Baen. It was one of the books I took with me when we went to Kazakhstan. I remember reading it on the train from Shemkent to Almaty.
But Garrett wrote a number of other stories. I’m going to look at one that I particularly enjoyed, “…Or Your Money Back”. Originally published in the September 1959 issue of Astounding, you can find it in The Randall Garrett Megapack. This story is told from the viewpoint of the top lawyer in Las Vegas. His client claims to have found a way to win at roulette. And he does.
The fun in this story is watching the legal maneuvering the lawyer goes through to get his client off. Of course we don’t know what the trick is that allows him to win at roulette until the end of the story. This one was a lot of fun.
Philip K. Dick needs no introduction. At least not unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few decades or more. He specialized in the “they’re out to get me” type of story. I was going to look at “If There Were No Benny Cemoli” but it’s not available in electronic form. (I was reading for this post throughout the day as I had time on my hands.) Instead I’m going to look at a brief little story from early in Dick’s career.
“Of Withered Apples” is something different than the typical Philip K. Dick story. It’s not science fiction. It’s horror, and not futuristic horror, either. It originally appeared in the July 1954 issue of Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine.
The story concerns a city girl who has married a Vermont farmer. Life on the farm is different from what she has experienced in the past, and she’ having trouble adjusting to it. So it’s no surprise that she has found a lover. What is a surprise is that her lover is an apple tree, the last surviving member of an orchard on the top of the hill behind the farm.
As the story opens, she is going to break up with the tree. I realize this sounds pretty silly. I assure it’s not, at least as PKD tells the story. When he tells it, it’s completely believable, chilling, and full of sexual imagery. You’ve heard the old saying about Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned? The same can be said of apple trees.
As I said, it’s not your typical PKD story, but it is well written and effective. You can find it in The Fantasy Megapack.