Foundling on Venus
Foundling on Venus
Venus was the most miserable planet in the system, peopled by miserable excuses for human beings. And somewhere among this conglomeration of boiling protoplasm there was a being unlike the others, a being who walked and talked like the others but who was different--and afraid the difference would be discovered. The foundling could not have been more than three years old. Yet he held a secret that was destined to bring joy to many unhappy people.
Book Excerpt
help nor hinder the bitter game of power-politics, secret murder, and misery--most of all, misery.
The men from Mars understand this better, for their quarter is a penal colony. Sleepy-eyed, phlegmatic Martians, self-condemned for minute violations of their incredible and complex mores--without guards save themselves--will return to the subterranean cities, complex philosophies, and cool, dry air of Mars when they have declared their own sentences to be at an end.
Meanwhile, they labor to extract the wealth of Venus without the bitterness and hate, without the savagery and fear of their neighbors. Hence, they are regarded by all with the greatest suspicion.
The Federated States, after their fashion, plunder the land and send screaming ships to North America laden with booty and with men grown suddenly rich--and with men who will never care for riches or anything else again. These are the fortunate dead. The rest are received into the sloppy breast of Venus where even a tombstone or marker is swallowed in a few, short weeks. And they die quickly on Venus, and often.
FREE EBOOKS AND DEALS
(view all)Popular books in Short Story, Science Fiction, Post-1930, Fiction and Literature
Readers reviews
2.3
LoginSign up
A short story about a rescue.
- Upvote (0)
- Downvote (0)
Short and trite.
06/12/2014
A sweet story of a three-year-old found in the mud beside the road by a waitress on a hellish Venus.
If you can accept the construction abilities of the aliens, you'll probably enjoy the story. The writing is pretty good.
If you can accept the construction abilities of the aliens, you'll probably enjoy the story. The writing is pretty good.
02/03/2014
Popular questions
(view all)Books added this week
(view all)
No books found