# Book title and author? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 25, 2004, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-title-and-author/246922 "2004-05-25T03:00:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lektrikpuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/47e85d/32.png) [@lektrikpuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lektrikpuke)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-title-and-author/246922/1 "2004-05-25T03:00:30Z")
Hi, Once read a sci-fi book based on Mars, I believe, and I don’t know what it was. I know that it’s not Bradbury’s “Martian Chronicles” as I just bought it. :smack: One of the story’s had a person stranded on the planet with no food and water, and eventually the planet made some water for him (somehow sensing his need). The punchline is the water (or whatever it was the planet produced for him) changed him so that he could survive on the planet. Another story was about a seriously henpecked man that enters a death machine that kills him in a myriad of ways. Each time he dies he is reborn. Anybody know the name of the book? Thanks. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-title-and-author/246922/2 "2004-05-25T04:45:19Z")
Oh dear! As I read the first line, I was at once thinking of “Martian Chronicles”/“Silver Locusts”… oh well. ☹ Can’t help you then, but the books you _are_ looking for sound good, (this from someone who does not much read science fiction. SO I hope someone knows the answer, so that I can look for them too. Good luck 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-title-and-author/246922/3 "2004-05-25T04:52:57Z")
Could be [Stanley G. Weinbaum’s _A Martian Odyssey_](http://www.catch22.com/SF/ARB/SFW/Weinbaum,Stanley.php3) that you’re thinking of. The linked page mentions a _Best of_ collection. I could be completely wrong (it’s been years since I’ve read the story), but he’s worthwhile anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-title-and-author/246922/4 "2004-05-25T05:15:13Z")
The first description reminds me of a VanVogt story (I think it was, anyway…) ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-title-and-author/246922/5 "2004-05-25T06:57:16Z")
> [@rjk](#): > > Could be [Stanley G. Weinbaum’s _A Martian Odyssey_](http://www.catch22.com/SF/ARB/SFW/Weinbaum,Stanley.php3) that you’re thinking of. The linked page mentions a _Best of_ collection. I could be completely wrong (it’s been years since I’ve read the story), but he’s worthwhile anyway. Yeah, you’re completely wrong. The first part (about the water) sounds vaguely like one of Leigh Brackett’s Martian stories, but the second part (about the husband) isn’t ringing a bell. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-title-and-author/246922/6 "2004-05-25T09:41:34Z")
Book-identification questions usually do best in the Cafe Society forum, so I’ll move this thread over there. bibliophage moderator GQ ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-title-and-author/246922/7 "2004-05-25T12:34:19Z")
The second story sounds a lot like Algis Budrys’s **Rogue Moon**. And the first is much like John Varley’s **In the Hall of the Martian Kings** , only it was an expedition, not just one man. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-title-and-author/246922/8 "2004-05-25T13:22:42Z")
The first has come up recently (ok, within the last 6 months) on the [Abebooks](http://www.abebooks.com) booksleuth forums, and it was identified there - unfortunately, I haven’t found the specific post yet! … more searches of the forums continued, when I finally ran across the right one! YAY! A.E. van Vogt’s ‘Enchanted Village’: > [@](#): > > Bill Jenner is the sole survivor of a crash. In a village of 4 towers, he is fed and housed automatically. There are low marble stalls, troughs to eat from. The temperature is uncomfortably hot, fine chemical spray stings him, the food seems to be pulpy wood fibre. He puts crumbs, stale and mouldy from his pockets, into the trough and it creates a reasonabable facsimile for him to eat. By the end, we realise that he has adapted, with a 4 foot tail and a long snout. Everything suits him perfectly. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-title-and-author/246922/9 "2004-05-25T14:47:19Z")
> [@Lsura](#): > > The first has come up recently (ok, within the last 6 months) on the [Abebooks](http://www.abebooks.com) booksleuth forums, and it was identified there…A.E. van Vogt’s ‘Enchanted Village’ Argh. I’m an idiot. Yeah, that’s exactly the story I was thinking of. And there I was, flipping through books late last night, wondering why I couldn’t find it in any of my anthologies by Brackett, C.L. Moore, C. A. Smith… If you’re looking for a copy of the story, [NESFA Press](http://www.nesfa.org/press) recently printed a best-of volume of van Vogt’s short stories. ---
**Author:** ![lektrikpuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/47e85d/32.png) [@lektrikpuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lektrikpuke)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-title-and-author/246922/10 "2004-05-25T23:27:35Z")
Thanks for the replies everybody. The quote of Van Vogt’s is correct. I didn’t put the snout and tail part in there (as a test?). 🙂 Now I’m thinking that maybe it was a book of short stories that I read in an english / literature class in high school (almost 30 years ago)? I’m trying to get my son interested in reading, and he seems interested in sci-fi. The best stories I could remember were those. Thanks again. 🙂