Blood Brother (James White)

Dr Conway is sent on a mission to the planet Meatball with one of its inhabitants, a large doughnut shaped lifeform called Surreshun, the first being to ever leave the planet. Most of the surface of Meatball is a thick sea and a land mass made up of living creatures, the coastline a continual battleground between predators and prey. Also, nuclear warfare is slowly killing the planet.

Conway and his team land and make contact with other creatures. In order to learn more about the environment, Conway asks to accompany a being similar to Surreshun, called Camsaug, on an underwater sea trip, but both are soon in trouble.

Blood Brother conjures up some fantastic mental images and is full of intriguing ideas, but its slightly too long and the story itself doesn't do the premise justice. Still good, but has to go down as a near miss - more on author James White here.

Overall:- 6/10

Planet:- Meatball  Spaceship:- Descartes (from the French philosopher)

Included in:-
New Writings in SF-14 edited by John Carnell (44 pages)

A Martian Odyssey (Stanley G. Weinbaum)

Astronaut Dick Jarvis is exploring the surface of Mars, when his rocket crashes and he is forced to walk the hundreds of miles back to his ship, which has three other crew. He teams up with a strange bird-like creature called Tweel and they continue the long journey together.

'A Martian Odyssey' was written way back in 1934 and is considered a classic of the sci-fi genre (see its own page on Wikipedia for more details), a legacy enhanced by the fact that author Stanley G. Weinbaum died the following year, aged just 33 and so left a very small body of work. The story does come across as dated, but it reminded me of 'The Wizard of Oz' with its episodic journey and strange characters (the pyramid creatures, dream-beasts and barrel monsters). It certainly has an aura of greatness and fully deserves its lofty position in the realms of science-fiction and fantasy.

Overall:- 8/10

Planet:- Mars  Spaceship:- Ares (from the Greek God of War)

Included in:-
Science Fiction Hall of Fame - Vol One edited by Robert Silverberg (28 pages)

Student Body (F. L. Wallace)

The biologist in a group who land on a new planet, finds a mice-like animal which he needs to contain to make sure it doesn't adversely effect the humans, as they start to colonise the area. A robot cat/killing machine is used to control the mice, but this is later found in pieces after a larger breed of rat materialises and they attack the robot in numbers. Dogs are therefore brought in to see off the rats, but the evolution on the planet is much faster than expected.

Any short story with its own Wikipedia entry must be good and Student Body (not totally sure about the relevance of the title) is excellent. The narrative is easy to read, informative and exciting, and without having to spend pages and pages explaining the underlying meaning, conveys all it needs to and more. The conclusion stops you in your tracks (despite being slightly telegraphed) and this would make a first rate sci-fi film for all Alien and Predator fans.

Overall:- 8.5/10

Planet:- Glade

Included in:-
Spectrum V edited by Kingsley Amis & Robert Conquest (22 pages)