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Anything You Can Do ...
What do you do when an alien with exceptional physical abilities crash lands on Earth and leaves a path of death and destruction in its wake? You use biological modification to create an enhanced human able to match the alien in strength and speed. But is the result still human? Find the answer to this question in Randall Garrett's novel Anything You Can Do...
236 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
13 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Randall Garrett
440 books87 followersRandall Garrett's full name was Gordon Randall Phillip David Garrett. For more information about him see https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?239
He was married to Vicki Ann Heydron
His pseudonyms include: Gordon Randall Garrett, Gordon Aghill, Grandal Barretton, Alexander Blade, Ralph Burke, Gordon Garrett, David Gordon, Richard Greer, Ivar Jorgenson, Darrel T. Langart, Blake MacKenzie, Jonathan Blake MacKenzie, Seaton Mckettrig, Clyde (T.) Mitchell, Mark Phillips (with Laurence Janifer), Robert Randall, Leonard G. Spencer, S.M. Tenneshaw, Gerald Vance.
He was married to Vicki Ann Heydron
His pseudonyms include: Gordon Randall Garrett, Gordon Aghill, Grandal Barretton, Alexander Blade, Ralph Burke, Gordon Garrett, David Gordon, Richard Greer, Ivar Jorgenson, Darrel T. Langart, Blake MacKenzie, Jonathan Blake MacKenzie, Seaton Mckettrig, Clyde (T.) Mitchell, Mark Phillips (with Laurence Janifer), Robert Randall, Leonard G. Spencer, S.M. Tenneshaw, Gerald Vance.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
September 19, 2020
I first came across Randall Garrett's work through reading of his collaborations with Robert Silverberg in Silverberg's essay collection, "Other Spaces, Other Times: A Life Spent in the Future (2009)", in which he describes Garrett as a knowledgeable and experienced 'science-guy' who had had decent work published by 1956 (when they first started working together - Sliverberg still in his early twenties during this period) in various pulp magazines. I do not often see Garrett's work on the shelves of used bookstores, but fortunately, many of his stories can be found in the public domain.
This solo novel length story, published in 1962, near the end period of his collaborative period with Silverberg, confirms that Garrett is a perfectly competent scifi writer in his own right. This particular work reminded me somewhat of the those by Alfred Bester and perhaps Cyril Kornbluth (with or without Frederik Pohl). The humour, characters and situations tended to be a bit dark.
It is set, mostly, on Manhattan Island after it was destroyed by a "sun-bomb." The New York city has been renamed "Capital City", which is the location of, "the world government". This is a time when space technology has developed the "inertia drive propulsion system", which means the possibility of solar system colonization and the mining of the asteroid belt.
From there, much other interesting elements accumulate in this quick pace, easy to follow, 50's style scifi yarn. It is surprisingly good in some aspects and rather cheesy and juvenile in others - meaning, its on par with most of what appeared in the pulps of this era. Some of the stronger themes are, determining alien intelligence v..s alien customs. The reality and effect of alternative communication methods. For instance, this alien, know as "the Nipe" has perfect memory recall, therefore, it has no need to write things down, thus has no need for the ability to read. However, it managed to learn both the Russian and the English language in a very short period of time with no formal instruction.
The element of folks being allowed to be killed (and eaten) by this creature for several years because of the government's desire to study it and the likelihood of learning advance technology is rather disturbing. Its victims are sacrificed without even knowing they are doing so, yet, this is not actually unlikely considering the time and target audience it was written for.
This is not a bad example of light but entertaining pre-"new wave" pulp scifi.
This solo novel length story, published in 1962, near the end period of his collaborative period with Silverberg, confirms that Garrett is a perfectly competent scifi writer in his own right. This particular work reminded me somewhat of the those by Alfred Bester and perhaps Cyril Kornbluth (with or without Frederik Pohl). The humour, characters and situations tended to be a bit dark.
It is set, mostly, on Manhattan Island after it was destroyed by a "sun-bomb." The New York city has been renamed "Capital City", which is the location of, "the world government". This is a time when space technology has developed the "inertia drive propulsion system", which means the possibility of solar system colonization and the mining of the asteroid belt.
From there, much other interesting elements accumulate in this quick pace, easy to follow, 50's style scifi yarn. It is surprisingly good in some aspects and rather cheesy and juvenile in others - meaning, its on par with most of what appeared in the pulps of this era. Some of the stronger themes are, determining alien intelligence v..s alien customs. The reality and effect of alternative communication methods. For instance, this alien, know as "the Nipe" has perfect memory recall, therefore, it has no need to write things down, thus has no need for the ability to read. However, it managed to learn both the Russian and the English language in a very short period of time with no formal instruction.
The element of folks being allowed to be killed (and eaten) by this creature for several years because of the government's desire to study it and the likelihood of learning advance technology is rather disturbing. Its victims are sacrificed without even knowing they are doing so, yet, this is not actually unlikely considering the time and target audience it was written for.
This is not a bad example of light but entertaining pre-"new wave" pulp scifi.
October 6, 2014
On my light listening kick, I'm running through the Randall Garrett stories read by Mark Nelson for LibriVox. This one has a promising beginning since it is telling us the story from the point of view of both humans and the alien stranded on Earth. He's not a sweet, fuzzy wuzzy sort of alien but yet has a relatively sophisticated way of viewing Earth natives. That makes it interesting from the get-go.
May 24, 2021
Classic science fiction with all the classic elements: from a BEM (alien "bug eyed monster") to telepathy, a post-apocalyptic version of the USA, advanced technology in medicine as well as physics and robotics. The author wrote a lot more humor than regular science fiction, but this novel is carefully assembled, with all the multiple threads neatly untangled and tied off at the end.
July 28, 2018
The time is the future: Not the immediate future or the far future, but somewhere in between. There has been a nuclear war (the "Holocaust"). From the ashes rose a new society with a world government run from the capital city built on Manhattan Island after Manhattan was obliterated by a "sun-bomb." (What happened to the other four boroughs and New Jersey? We're never told.) The invention of the "inertia drive" propulsion system has transformed transportation and by extension, all of society. It has also brought the solar system within reach of colonization, especially the mineral riches of the asteroid belt.
Far out in space, a four-eyed, eight-armed alien known only as "the Nipe" is looking for someplace to set down and repair his damaged, gradually failing spaceship. The Sol system happens to be right up ahead. The third planet looks promising. Unfortunately, when he tries to land – somewhere in the Siberian tundra – the ship is damaged beyond repair. He quickly encounters human beings, but has trouble believing that they are the dominant intelligent species, because while they are very clever, they seem incapable of creating an orderly society. There must be a higher, ruling race living somewhere on Earth, or maybe even off it, say, in the asteroid belt. He manages to make his way to the capital on Manhattan Island without being apprehended; from his experiences along the way he learns that humans lack the technology necessary for him to repair or rebuild his ship and escape from Earth.
The Nipe is smarter (in many ways) and physically much faster than humans. He can defeat any human in individual combat with nothing but his eight hands. Having quickly comprehended human language, society and technology, he goes into hiding in an old disused part of the New York subway system, coming out only to steal materials and equipment and to kill and eat people. (Could his alien physiology really assimilate human tissues and biomolecules for nutrition?) Since Earth lacks the technology necessary for him to build another spaceship, he sets about trying to build a communication device that will allow him to "phone home" for someone to come and rescue him. The humans have detected his presence on Manhattan Island and also discover his intentions, and are understandably apprehensive, as they're having enough trouble coping with just one Nipe, and don't want this one's relatives to come calling. They want to stop him but not kill him, as they realize the potential transformative benefits of learning new alien knowledge and technology from him. Since they have no idea how his alien physiology works and thus how to incapacitate him, they take another tack: They take Bart Stanton, an ordinary man, and with hormones and surgery and all the other techniques a sci-fi writer would come up with in 1963, they turn him into a superman, with the speed and power to hold his own in a fight with the Nipe. This naturally leaves Bart with some nagging questions about just who he is and the purpose of his life.
While there is nothing too obviously dated about human technology in the story, the speculative stuff about humans is either quaint or silly bordering on ridiculous. This includes the ability of one scientist who is a member of the team "enhancing" Stanton to infer practically everything about the Nipe and his race from almost no information. It also includes very dated notions about techniques of human enhancement, silly stuff about hypnosis, even sillier stuff about twins and telepathy, and very Sixties gender relations.
The action builds steadily toward what one expects to be a climactic reckoning between Nipe and human, but the actual climax fizzles badly. I give this book three stars because Garrett succeeds brilliantly in creating a convincing alien who is very different from humans not just physically but also mentally and emotionally, but he does not do nearly so well with the humans in the story.
Far out in space, a four-eyed, eight-armed alien known only as "the Nipe" is looking for someplace to set down and repair his damaged, gradually failing spaceship. The Sol system happens to be right up ahead. The third planet looks promising. Unfortunately, when he tries to land – somewhere in the Siberian tundra – the ship is damaged beyond repair. He quickly encounters human beings, but has trouble believing that they are the dominant intelligent species, because while they are very clever, they seem incapable of creating an orderly society. There must be a higher, ruling race living somewhere on Earth, or maybe even off it, say, in the asteroid belt. He manages to make his way to the capital on Manhattan Island without being apprehended; from his experiences along the way he learns that humans lack the technology necessary for him to repair or rebuild his ship and escape from Earth.
The Nipe is smarter (in many ways) and physically much faster than humans. He can defeat any human in individual combat with nothing but his eight hands. Having quickly comprehended human language, society and technology, he goes into hiding in an old disused part of the New York subway system, coming out only to steal materials and equipment and to kill and eat people. (Could his alien physiology really assimilate human tissues and biomolecules for nutrition?) Since Earth lacks the technology necessary for him to build another spaceship, he sets about trying to build a communication device that will allow him to "phone home" for someone to come and rescue him. The humans have detected his presence on Manhattan Island and also discover his intentions, and are understandably apprehensive, as they're having enough trouble coping with just one Nipe, and don't want this one's relatives to come calling. They want to stop him but not kill him, as they realize the potential transformative benefits of learning new alien knowledge and technology from him. Since they have no idea how his alien physiology works and thus how to incapacitate him, they take another tack: They take Bart Stanton, an ordinary man, and with hormones and surgery and all the other techniques a sci-fi writer would come up with in 1963, they turn him into a superman, with the speed and power to hold his own in a fight with the Nipe. This naturally leaves Bart with some nagging questions about just who he is and the purpose of his life.
While there is nothing too obviously dated about human technology in the story, the speculative stuff about humans is either quaint or silly bordering on ridiculous. This includes the ability of one scientist who is a member of the team "enhancing" Stanton to infer practically everything about the Nipe and his race from almost no information. It also includes very dated notions about techniques of human enhancement, silly stuff about hypnosis, even sillier stuff about twins and telepathy, and very Sixties gender relations.
The action builds steadily toward what one expects to be a climactic reckoning between Nipe and human, but the actual climax fizzles badly. I give this book three stars because Garrett succeeds brilliantly in creating a convincing alien who is very different from humans not just physically but also mentally and emotionally, but he does not do nearly so well with the humans in the story.
December 19, 2018
Librivox audio. Featuring an excellently alien alien known as the Snipe ! the main reason I enjoyed this book. The Snipe arrives, and attempts to get back home, but he is hunted by other far less interesting characters, including a detective and his twin for his unfortunate habit of killing an eating humans. The plot is convoluted and average, but the sneaky but deadly Snipe stole my heart, due to his impeccable manners and habit of dealing with the boring management meetings with human experts by at first engaging in polite debate, and then by slaughterIng all the attendees, eating one or two, and then nipping off to his secret lair Scott free. I also loved the way humanities powers that be decided to wait for another 6 years after taking 4 years to discover his lair. Quite right, as a conservationist I approve of importing super intelligent high speed aliens to cull the human population a tad , the environment will be well chuffed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 7, 2023
El título original no menciona ningún monstruo, el título en español condiciona ya de entrada al lector.
Nipe es un extraterrestre y su comportamiento aterra. A los humanos, cosa natural si de manera ritual los devora, una vez muertos, en señal de respeto.
El relato del seguimiento por parte de los militares de Nipe corre paralelo a la de dos hermanos gemelos uno de los cuales quedó gravemente afectado por exposición a radiación.
Curiosa sorpresa en el desenlace final y alguna parte humorística como es que Nipe ha confundido un hospital mental con una forma de gobierno.
Nipe es un extraterrestre y su comportamiento aterra. A los humanos, cosa natural si de manera ritual los devora, una vez muertos, en señal de respeto.
El relato del seguimiento por parte de los militares de Nipe corre paralelo a la de dos hermanos gemelos uno de los cuales quedó gravemente afectado por exposición a radiación.
Curiosa sorpresa en el desenlace final y alguna parte humorística como es que Nipe ha confundido un hospital mental con una forma de gobierno.
August 15, 2024
Una historia de Primer Contacto poco convencional.
Una criatura extraterrestre varada en la Tierra se ve imposibilitada por sus propios prejuicios para comunicarse con los humanos; y estos, a su vez, deben dejar de verla como un monstruo para poder establecer una comunicación mutuamente provechosa.
Escrita con la sencillez característica de los relatos pulp de los 50-60, es de lectura muy ágil y de argumento forzosamente simple, pero muy entretenido. Buena lectura para el verano.
Una criatura extraterrestre varada en la Tierra se ve imposibilitada por sus propios prejuicios para comunicarse con los humanos; y estos, a su vez, deben dejar de verla como un monstruo para poder establecer una comunicación mutuamente provechosa.
Escrita con la sencillez característica de los relatos pulp de los 50-60, es de lectura muy ágil y de argumento forzosamente simple, pero muy entretenido. Buena lectura para el verano.
April 14, 2018
Different with an somewhat standard Alien monster which could have ben taken from a horror movie if you just look from the outside. But we get to see the Aliens point of view and the psychology behind his actions. And the humans in the story understands his psychology!
A story with remarkably reasonable and moderate protagonists, both the Alien and the humans despite some horrific actions.
A story with remarkably reasonable and moderate protagonists, both the Alien and the humans despite some horrific actions.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 11, 2017
I liked the development of the Nipe character, but the ending was a bit too pseudo-scientific for my taste.
May 6, 2017
Different.
May 22, 2018
Every once in a while a science fiction story includes an alien that is not just a human in another skin. In Anything You Can Do ..., a Nipe, ugly as any alien in a 1950's B-movie, crashes on earth and begins to wreak carnage and death as it tries to survive and to find a way off the planet. No one survives contact with the alien and no one can determine the reasons for its actions. The only solution appears to be to develop an enhanced human to confront and defeat the alien. The action starts on page one and goes non-stop to the end. The LibriVox narrator, Mark Nelson, makes this an enjoyable listen.
October 8, 2016
I liked the superior alien and the unique plans for its confrontation. Good storytelling, although a bit corny sometimes.
July 24, 2014
"Anything You Can Do . . ." exists in two forms--both available free from Project Gutenberg. The shorter earlier edition was a two part serial published in "Analog". It has a number of flaws. The general effect is that of a rushed job. The tale seems a padded short story with plot holes, characters with little relevance, and a predictable ending. The last mentioned is a result of the influence of John W Campbell who tended to prefer stories with an "alien xenophobic" quality {i.e. Humans are the best beings in the universe}.
The longer fix-up does improve significantly with greater detail and is more satisfying to read. On the other hand, it still remains a very average example of "Golden Age" Science fiction. Perhaps there is some nostalgia value in a story of this type and it is free.
The longer fix-up does improve significantly with greater detail and is more satisfying to read. On the other hand, it still remains a very average example of "Golden Age" Science fiction. Perhaps there is some nostalgia value in a story of this type and it is free.
November 13, 2014
This was a well-paced science fiction story that is a curious look at how two sentient species can look at things as prevailing as death. The difference between these two species creates some major misunderstandings for an alien that has crash-landed on Earth in a post-holocaust future. Holocaust, in that it is a world rebuilt after bombs have decimated much of civilization. It is also the story about twin psychic brothers that have undergone years of scientific experiments.
Though I enjoyed the story for the most part, the ending is anticlimactic. It was the most fitting ending, yes, but anticlimactic nonetheless. The commentary at the end regarding the experiments on the two brothers also struck me as a little out of place because I didn't feel as connected to the two characters. However, Mark F. Smith's reading of this story made the ending a lot more palatable.
Though I enjoyed the story for the most part, the ending is anticlimactic. It was the most fitting ending, yes, but anticlimactic nonetheless. The commentary at the end regarding the experiments on the two brothers also struck me as a little out of place because I didn't feel as connected to the two characters. However, Mark F. Smith's reading of this story made the ending a lot more palatable.
February 8, 2016
Interesting and enjoyable.
Genre: science fiction thriller, apocalyptic, growing up saga.
Sloppy writing and punctuation in many places, but the story was well-written otherwise.
Projected technology of the future is typical for 1963.
Garrett uses the compound verb “had had” too frequently. He writes flashbacks precisely the way I was warned not to in creative writing texts.
The philosophical arguments of Dr. George Yoritomo are interesting, but I fail to see where he got his information from.
Genre: science fiction thriller, apocalyptic, growing up saga.
Sloppy writing and punctuation in many places, but the story was well-written otherwise.
Projected technology of the future is typical for 1963.
Garrett uses the compound verb “had had” too frequently. He writes flashbacks precisely the way I was warned not to in creative writing texts.
The philosophical arguments of Dr. George Yoritomo are interesting, but I fail to see where he got his information from.
February 16, 2013
Two brothers, lost identities, an invincibly brilliant alien and medical modifications are a few of the plot devices in this easy read. It may not be award winning quality but it is a fairly solid choice for its generation of science fiction - landing fairly squarely in the classic model of reliance on strong male leads and a respect for scientific ingenuity.
July 25, 2016
Nostalgia di una fantascienza ingenua che non c'è più in un Urania del 1963 comprato alle bancarelle: caccia all'alieno assassino sulla Terra del futuro tra astronavi argentee, operazioni chirurgiche azzardate, basi dentro agli asteroidi... con tanto buonismo e un po' di scoperta dell'altro. Qualche morto violento a parte, potrebbe essere un fumetto Disney.
Want to read
May 28, 2010Unfortunately I have an e-book edition of this story on my iPod Touch, which recently met a violent end, so I won't be finishing it in the near future. :( What I did read of it (about 50%) seemed quite interesting, and I hope to read the rest of it someday.
December 31, 2011
It was hard to decide who to root for. The alien or the earthlings. A sympathetic "Nipe" creates a clash of cultures when stranded on earth. A decent short SF novel with good doses of psychology and action.
(My first kindle experience. Free download from Amazon.)
(My first kindle experience. Free download from Amazon.)
December 8, 2015
absolutely loved it. it's one of those rare prescient books from the never-never time (1963) that takes hard swings at future prediction and actually does quite well. of special note is the discussion of alien thought and augmented humans
April 5, 2013
Audiobook: Intersting story plot.Keeps you hooked till the end.
July 18, 2013
This book is a very good example of the most confusing way to tell a story and have it make sense at the very end. Had it not been so confusing then I might have given it one more star.
January 11, 2015
Nice, old fashioned, SF.
February 9, 2015
Fairly standard Golden Age SF, but had a few nice twists.
February 21, 2015
Solid, competent, diverting.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews