AboutSue Kayton Expertise Engineer who has read thousands of science fiction books and short stories. Can recommend stories on specific subjects and comment on technical feasibility. Especially good at older out-of-print books and authors.
Question Plot: a sleeping/suspended animation creation is found underground. When awakened, it has power to make humans do its will by inflicting pain with its mind. It had once been in control of earth, and now wants that status again. It's of alien origin, and is not the only one around.
In the end, humans prove themselves to have grown and are too difficult to control. When the alien creature tries to leave our planet on a craft of its own creation, the humans succeed in destroying it.
As I recall, it was good. Does a title come to mind?
Thanks!
Brad, Kansas City
Answer I'm pretty sure you're talking about one of my favorite short stories. It was made into an awful movie. The story is collected in several anthologies and is called Who Goes There, by James Campbell.
It will be easiest to find in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, volume 2A and also in the following anthologies
Who Goes There?, Shasta 1948
Uberwindung Von Raum Und Zeit, ed. Gotthard Gunther, West Germany: Karl Rauch 1952
Who Goes There? and Other Stories, Dell 1955
The Best of John W. Campbell, Sidgwick & Jackson 1973
Science Fiction Hall of Fame: The Novellas, Book 1, ed. Ben Bova, Sphere 1975
The Science Fiction Roll of Honor, ed. Frederik Pohl, Random House 1975
The Best of John W. Campbell, Ballantine 1976
StarStreak: Stories of Space, ed. Betty M. Owen, Scholastic 1979
Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Treasury, ed. Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg & Joseph D. Olander, Bonanza/Crown 1980
They Came from Outer Space, ed. Jim Wynorski, Doubleday 1980
The Future in Question, ed. Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg & Joseph D. Olander, Fawcett 1980
