AboutBill Denholm Expertise I have a large collection of paperback SF. I am a serious collector. I can answer quetions about books by a particular author or books published by a particular publisher. I have a special interest in cover art and the artists who do the covers.
Experience I have been collecting SF paperbacks since the 1950s and I have many reference books about Science Fiction.
Publications Various magazines for paperback book collectors.
Question QUESTION: I am looking for an anthology I read in the very late 1970's or early 80's. The stories all had a common theme - authors took something unexplained from the real world and wrote a SF explanation for it. I remember two of the stories. In one story, space explorers from earth discovered a small planet circling a dead star. On this planet, they discovered the remains of an amazing civilization - peaceful, creative. This civilization had been wiped out when their star went nova. They were unable to escape, but left a memorial on the small planet. The explorers figured out that this nova could have been seen from earth, so they tried to figure out when it could have been seen so they could check history. They discovered that the star was easily visible from earth - it was the star that heralded the birth of Jesus Christ. The other story I remember explained why lemmings commit mass suicide by rushing into the sea. Not enough space to describe that story here. The only other thing I remember about the book is that it wasn't very long - mostly short or short short stories and may have had a foreward by Isaac Asimov. Any information would be much appreciated. I have been looking for this book off and on for over 5 years.
ANSWER: Hi Kim,
The first story sounds like "The Star" by Arthur C. Clarke. Here is a link to the ISFDB for that story. The list of books looks longer than it is, due to duplicates. It may be that just by looking at the list, you will see the name of the book you are trying to find.
QUESTION: Bill, I looked up a description of The Star and that's the story! I've been going through the list from the link you provided. Thanks! I thought I'd describe the other story and see if you could identify it, too. Here's what I remember - an group of aliens were moving through space looking for intelligence on other planets. It came across earth during prehistory and decided that, while there was no intelligence at that time, some of the species alive showed promise. They decided to come back later and check on earth, but wanted to leave instructions for the most promising species to meet them. They somehow (and I don't remember all of this part)put instructions in the brain of what they considered to be the most promising species to go to the meeting place periodically. Something happened and they never came back. The land shifted and the meeting place submerged, but the animals kept going to the meeting place. Unfortunately, they chose the wrong species because it was the primates that ended up being the intelligent species. The ones they chose were lemmings. Thanks again for the quick response to my first question!
Answer Hi Kim,
I know I have read the lemming story you remember, I just don't know who wrote it. At first I though that maybe it was Clarke, again, but that didn't pan out. I'm not sure I will be able to help you identify the book you remember.
Do you know about Amazon's SF forum? That is another place you might want to ask.
