Identify SFF short story: aliens with space travel and swords
April 3, 2022 6:08 PM Subscribe
I remember reading a short story where some aliens who were described as stereotypical vikings trapped in a small, stinking ship (smell, tight quarters) carrying swords, descending on an apparently-unsophisticated planet (it's Earth).
They land, open the doors, and are met with basically the entirety of Earth's armies and their machine guns, who slaughter most of the aliens and take the rest captive. All other alien societies had developed warp-jumping or FTL travel or something by twisting space, and that's basically as far as their technology got. Humans, otoh, didn't develop the space twist (or whatever), so had to develop gunpowder and rockets and physics and thrust and stuff. And as the story ends, the humans are busily learning the alien technology and about to take off to the rest of the universe, and the alien is thinking, "Oh man, this is bad ...."
What story was this?
They land, open the doors, and are met with basically the entirety of Earth's armies and their machine guns, who slaughter most of the aliens and take the rest captive. All other alien societies had developed warp-jumping or FTL travel or something by twisting space, and that's basically as far as their technology got. Humans, otoh, didn't develop the space twist (or whatever), so had to develop gunpowder and rockets and physics and thrust and stuff. And as the story ends, the humans are busily learning the alien technology and about to take off to the rest of the universe, and the alien is thinking, "Oh man, this is bad ...."
What story was this?
Response by poster: Yes! Thank you!
(My children I was attempting to describe this story to also thank you)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:19 PM on April 3, 2022
(My children I was attempting to describe this story to also thank you)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:19 PM on April 3, 2022
The first story Arthur C Clarke sold (though not the first to be published), Rescue Party, had a very similar theme, and Turtledove's story is clearly meant to be an homage. Here are the last few lines of Clarke’s story:
If that's true it's a remarkable parallel with the literary fortunes of H G Wells, who got so exasperated by the continuing acclaim for Country of the Blind that he rewrote it toward the end of his life just to show he could do better — and the result was universally panned.
At least Clarke didn’t make that mistake.
posted by jamjam at 7:43 PM on April 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
"You know," he said to Rugon, "I feel rather afraid of these people. Suppose they don't like our little Federation?" He waved once more toward the star-clouds that lay massed across the screen, glowing with the light of their countless suns.Supposedly, as his career progressed Clarke became increasingly impatient with the lavish praise this story attracted because it it tended to overshadow his later and greater works.
"Something tells me they'll be very determined people," he added. "We had better be polite to them. After all, we only outnumber them about a thousand million to one."
Rugon laughed at his captain's little joke.
Twenty years afterward, the remark didn't seem funny.
If that's true it's a remarkable parallel with the literary fortunes of H G Wells, who got so exasperated by the continuing acclaim for Country of the Blind that he rewrote it toward the end of his life just to show he could do better — and the result was universally panned.
At least Clarke didn’t make that mistake.
posted by jamjam at 7:43 PM on April 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
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The story ends with "What have we done?" (The Roxlani have gifted the humans the gravity drive, essentially.)
posted by kschang at 6:16 PM on April 3, 2022 [5 favorites]