Stanley G. Weinbaum

Stanley G. Weinbaum (1902-1935) had a brief career as a science fiction writer before his untimely death, but he had an influence that has lasted decades. He was born today, April 4.  It’s been a couple of years since I looked at any of his work.

Weinbaum set many of his stories in a solar system where most of the moons and planets supported life.  That wasn’t anything unusual at the time.  Weinbaum had stories published from 1935-1938.  What was unusual was that Weinbaum’s aliens were often truly alien, such as Tweel from “A Martian Odyssey”, his most famous story.  The stereotypical monsters weren’t his thing.

One of the things that made much of Weinbaum’s work stand out was a sense of humor.  For example, “The Mad Moon”.

First published in the December 1935 issue of Astounding, it’s been a favorite of anthologists through the years.  (Yes, this is another combination birthday and Astounding 90th anniversary post.)  It’s a fun tale that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Grant Calthorpe was a famous big game hunter who had hunted some of the most dangerous creatures in the solar system.  That is until the gold crisis of 2110 wiped out his fortune. Now he makes his living on Io, working for the Neilan Drug company, bribing the native creatures called loonies to bring him leaves of the ferva plant.  The loonies are tall, with long serpentine necks and huge heads.  They are of minimal intelligence and tend to giggle a lot.

More intelligent are the slinkers, which are describes as rat-like with capes resembling bat’s wings. They aren’t friendly.  the wildlife isn’t the only thing dangerous on Io.  The plants are pretty deadly; the whole moon is a jungle thanks to the heat radiated by Jupiter. In fact, Weinbaum discusses the variations of night and day given that the Sun, Jupiter, and Europa all cast light on Io.

There’s also a fever that can cause hallucinations.  Grant thinks he’s hallucinating when he encounters Lee Leilan, daughter of the owner of Neilan Drugs.  Yep, the boss’s daughter, and she’s no illusion.  The only permanently inhabited cities on Io are at the poles.  Lee was going from one pole to the other, against her father’s wishes, to attend a party.  She tries to fly her jet over some mountains that stick out of the atmosphere and doesn’t make it.

She thinks he’s an illusion at first because she’s also suffering from the fever.  They manage to convince each other that the other is real and make it back to Grant’s hut.  The only problem is that Grant has fallen afoul of the slinkers, and they are on the offensive.  Grant and Lee have to depend on each other to survive until help comes.  If it does…

There was a lot of gentle humor in this story, and as I said before, it was a lot of fun.  There’s not much science fiction like this being written today, at least not that I’ve seen. Some of the romance might seem a bit old-fashioned to today’s readers, but I found that to be part of its charm.  Even though I have multiple degrees in Physics, I really enjoy some of the depictions of the solar system where all or most of the planets and major moons had life and their own unique solar systems.  Weinbaum does that type of things extremely well.

I first read “The Mad Moon” more years ago than I’m going to admit in The Best of Stanley G. Weinbaum.  It’s available in electronic form for $1.99 as of this writing.