In 1980 someone gave me a paperback of sci-fi short stories by some author whose name I cannot recall. One of the stories that stuck in my mind went something like this:
A spaceship is out exploring. They discover a planet that is 99.9% covered with water, save for one small island. The planet also has a very large moon. They name the planet after the crewman who was on watch, something like Thompson’s Planet (not sure about name). Anyway they go down to the island and it’s sort of a lush tropical place. I believe something has gone wrong with whatever craft they used to land, so they’re temporarily stranded.
Something about the island bothers the captain; like it shouldn’t be there. Turns out the suspicion is correct. They realize that since there’s such a large moon that the tides should periodically cover the island and that there should be no developed flora; ergo the island is artificial. Turns out that there is some underwater race of creatures that use the island as a lure to trap prey.
Please someone tell me who the author is. The other stories were decent and I’d love to read them again.
Thanks.
(Re-posted from General Questions.)
My guess (as it’s been a long time since I read it) is that you’re talking about “Grenville’s Planet”, by Michael Shaara. I read it in “Perilous Planets”, edited by Brian Aldiss.
This page has the following to say about it:
Grenville’s Planet, (ss) F&SF Oct '52
Best SF 3, ed. Edmund Crispin, Faber & Faber, 1958
Untravelled Worlds, ed. Alan Frank Barter & R. Wilson, Macmillan U.K., 1966
World Zero Minus, ed. Aidan Chambers & Nancy Chambers, Macmillan Educational, 1971
Perilous Planets, ed. Brian W. Aldiss, Weidenfeld Nicolson, 1978
Soldier Boy, New York: Pocket, 1982
Peter Davison’s Book of Alien Planets, ed. Peter Davison, Sparrow, 1983
Hey Staale Nordlie-
I can’t believe I didn’t post back to say thank you!
Once I saw the name I knew you were right. I didn’t put in my OP the fact that I thought the author had a double-vowel in the name; ShAARa is it is!
Again, many thanks!
Wait.
Michael Shaara as in The Killer Angels Michael Shaara?
This is something I did not know and I need to look into it further.
Takk, Staale Nordlie.
Yes, it’s the same Michael Shaara who had quite a career in sf before making the breakthrough to the big time with KA.
The collection of short stories is presumably Soldier Boy, which came out in 1982.
For more, go to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database and enter Michael Shaara’s name into the search box. For some reason it won’t accept a link directly to his page.
I think I have an anthology at home with this in. I;m not at home right now so I can’t check, but I do remember one other story in that selection, “He walked around the horses”, which was an alternative universe story (based on a real-life disappearance) with a neat twist in the end.