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001 30539
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006 m
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040 _aUtSlPG
041 7 _aen
_2iso639-1
050 4 _aPS
100 1 _aHill, Arthur G.
245 1 4 _aThe Terrible Answer
264 1 _aSalt Lake City, UT :
_bProject Gutenberg,
_c2009
300 _a1 online resource :
_bmultiple file formats
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
490 1 _aProduced from If Worlds of Science Fiction July 1952.
500 _aRelease date is 2009-11-24
508 _aProduced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
520 _a"The Terrible Answer" by Arthur G. Hill is a science fiction novella written in the early 1950s. The story unfolds on Mars, where a group of men from Earth land with aspirations of building an empire. Driven by greed and the desire for exploitation, they encounter the native Martians, whose grinning and seemingly submissive demeanor sets the stage for a dark exploration of imperialism and subjugation. As the narrative progresses, the men, led by the domineering Larkin, conduct brutal experiments to assert their dominance over the Martians. They initially attempt to manipulate the Martians through symbolic gestures, but quickly revert to overt violence and coercion, culminating in a chilling climax where Larkin is betrayed and killed by the very beings he sought to control. This shocking turn of events reveals not only the perilous consequences of arrogance and exploitation but also serves as a critique of the dehumanizing nature of imperialism, illustrating that the oppressed may not be as powerless as they appear. The story culminates with a tense atmosphere as the surviving Earthmen flee in their ship, leaving the fate of their initial conquest ambiguous. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
534 _nOriginal publication data not identified
653 _aScience fiction
653 _aShort stories
653 _aMartians -- Fiction
653 _aMars (Planet) -- Fiction
830 0 _aProduced from If Worlds of Science Fiction July 1952.
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30539
999 _c71385
_d71385