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We, the Venusians / The Water of Thought
We, the Venusians (139 p.)
Venus and its natives are exploited by humans.
The Water of Thought (117 p.)
One explorer had already disappeared on the primitive planet, Kappa. So the day that a second Terrestrial, Jones, ran away after drinking the sacred Kappan water that he had coerced the natives into giving him, the remaining planetologists meant to find out just what was going on.
Questioning the aliens only deepened the mystery. For they said that what Jones had drunk would enable him to communicate with his animal ancestors. It was their most precious and sacred possession.
But how could it affect a person never born on Kappa, a person without such "animal" ancestors? What had really happened to Jones and the other man - and what would happen if either of them managed to bring this incredible liquid back to Earth?
Venus and its natives are exploited by humans.
The Water of Thought (117 p.)
One explorer had already disappeared on the primitive planet, Kappa. So the day that a second Terrestrial, Jones, ran away after drinking the sacred Kappan water that he had coerced the natives into giving him, the remaining planetologists meant to find out just what was going on.
Questioning the aliens only deepened the mystery. For they said that what Jones had drunk would enable him to communicate with his animal ancestors. It was their most precious and sacred possession.
But how could it affect a person never born on Kappa, a person without such "animal" ancestors? What had really happened to Jones and the other man - and what would happen if either of them managed to bring this incredible liquid back to Earth?
- GenresScience Fiction
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1965
21 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 22, 2023
Another Ace Double, my second, in which there is no back cover blurb/reviews, but both sides are the front of a book; flip over and turn the book upside down, it is another book. This one is two novels rather than an anthology and a novel, both relatively short. One is _We, the Venusians_ by John Rackham, copyright 1965, with John Rackham a pen name for John T. Phillifent, (1916-1976), an English electrical engineer and science fiction and fantasy author who wrote mostly under the Rackham name. Apparently, most of his works were issued with the works of other authors with the Ace Doubles. The other is _The Water of Thought_ by Fred Saberhagen (1930-2007), copyright 1965, an American science fiction author best known for his Berserker novel series (which I have enjoyed), though this series does not appear as far as I can tell set in the Berserker universe.
Both stories are thematically similar, with one set as one might guess on Venus (the Venus of hot jungles and swamps, not the Venus we know actually exists) and other on a much more temperate planet called Kappa. Both planets feature small human colonies who regard either all the native bipedal very human-looking natives as unintelligent animals (_We, the Venusians_) or a mixture of primitive people but still humans and again a large group of human-looking animals (_The Water of Thought_). In both cases, Terrestrial humans are trying to exploit the “animals” and in both cases the Terrestrial humans are quite wrong about whether or not they are “animals.” Both books have a dashing main character hero, with _We, the Venusians_ focusing primarily on pianist (!) Anthony Taylor and _The Water of Thought_ on planeteer Boris Brazil of the Space Force. Both are adventure stories, though the primary obstacles differ, with _We, the Venusians_ just surviving in the jungles of Venus and contending at least at first with the dangerous fauna, while Kappa in _The Water of Thought_ lacks dangerous wildlife but there is danger a plenty from some of the natives and some of the Terrestrial colonists. Both novels have criminals at the heart of the danger, though it is explicit and allowed crime (colonial exploitation, though the slavery aspects may not be well known outside Venus) in _We, the Venusians_ and very much black market and hidden in _The Water of Thought_. Both books explore what it is to be human and while at first seem extremely racist, it becomes clear that the authors are condemning racism, not endorsing it, though it is shocking especially in _We, the Venusians_ depicting a Terrestrial society where racism is so blatant, obvious, and unquestioned, not just against the Venusians (the Greenies) but against anyone not white on or from Earth.
I think I liked _We, the Veusians_ a bit better for featuring such an alien world with an alien ecology and such fantastically awful people as the villains, though I liked the nods in _The Water of Thought_ to _Heart of Darkness_ and _The Island of Doctor Moreau_, as while those were not dominant elements, they did explain the reality of one of the antagonists. Though I think the diatribe against modern music early on in _We, the Venusians_ was rather odd, which read like a condemnation of all rock music, I was pleased at how much music fit into the overall story. I think both stories shied away from having truly strong and independent women characters, that both for a time had women characters that showed independence and agency and were important to the male protagonists, in the end the authors had them fall short though not necessarily because they were women (perhaps, each reader will have to decide I think if the author had them fail because of gender roles or just novel events). I think _The Water of Thought_ worked for the length it was, though _We, the Venusians_ could have benefited from a somewhat longer treatment. I think some of the characters in _The Water of Thought_ blended together a little, but it wasn’t a huge problem for me.
Both stories are thematically similar, with one set as one might guess on Venus (the Venus of hot jungles and swamps, not the Venus we know actually exists) and other on a much more temperate planet called Kappa. Both planets feature small human colonies who regard either all the native bipedal very human-looking natives as unintelligent animals (_We, the Venusians_) or a mixture of primitive people but still humans and again a large group of human-looking animals (_The Water of Thought_). In both cases, Terrestrial humans are trying to exploit the “animals” and in both cases the Terrestrial humans are quite wrong about whether or not they are “animals.” Both books have a dashing main character hero, with _We, the Venusians_ focusing primarily on pianist (!) Anthony Taylor and _The Water of Thought_ on planeteer Boris Brazil of the Space Force. Both are adventure stories, though the primary obstacles differ, with _We, the Venusians_ just surviving in the jungles of Venus and contending at least at first with the dangerous fauna, while Kappa in _The Water of Thought_ lacks dangerous wildlife but there is danger a plenty from some of the natives and some of the Terrestrial colonists. Both novels have criminals at the heart of the danger, though it is explicit and allowed crime (colonial exploitation, though the slavery aspects may not be well known outside Venus) in _We, the Venusians_ and very much black market and hidden in _The Water of Thought_. Both books explore what it is to be human and while at first seem extremely racist, it becomes clear that the authors are condemning racism, not endorsing it, though it is shocking especially in _We, the Venusians_ depicting a Terrestrial society where racism is so blatant, obvious, and unquestioned, not just against the Venusians (the Greenies) but against anyone not white on or from Earth.
I think I liked _We, the Veusians_ a bit better for featuring such an alien world with an alien ecology and such fantastically awful people as the villains, though I liked the nods in _The Water of Thought_ to _Heart of Darkness_ and _The Island of Doctor Moreau_, as while those were not dominant elements, they did explain the reality of one of the antagonists. Though I think the diatribe against modern music early on in _We, the Venusians_ was rather odd, which read like a condemnation of all rock music, I was pleased at how much music fit into the overall story. I think both stories shied away from having truly strong and independent women characters, that both for a time had women characters that showed independence and agency and were important to the male protagonists, in the end the authors had them fall short though not necessarily because they were women (perhaps, each reader will have to decide I think if the author had them fail because of gender roles or just novel events). I think _The Water of Thought_ worked for the length it was, though _We, the Venusians_ could have benefited from a somewhat longer treatment. I think some of the characters in _The Water of Thought_ blended together a little, but it wasn’t a huge problem for me.
July 5, 2014
We The Venusians - John T Phillifent (as John Rackham)
“terror quest on the misty planet
GREEN MAN’S BURDEN
Anthony Taylor sat watching the wealthy Borden Harper on his multi-vision screen.
‘Is there any more news about the – the Greenies?’ the interviewer was asking.
‘None at all.’ Harper dropped his voice to a deep sober sincerity. ‘We keep on trying, But I’m afraid we are just going to have to face the unpleasant fact that the Greenies are nothing more than human-looking animals…’
Anthony could contain his detestation no longer. Snatching the cushion, he rammed it violently into the speaker-grill, wishing he could ram it down Harper’s throat. Harper and the other humans on Venus, milking it of its miraculous beans, using the green-skinned natives to cultivate the crop, because that’s all they could be trained to do. They had no language, no human-style intelligence, no cultural potential, nothing.
Anthony grabbed up a dummy piano-keyboard savagely. He struck out a crisp-edged series of chords, double-handed, up the keyboard. The notes were sharp, precise sounds.
‘Not bad..’ he said, aloud. ‘For an animal!’
CAST OF CHARACTERS
ANTHONY TAYLOR
When he found himself running out of pills, he knew he could no longer pass for human.
MARTHA MERRILL
She seemed to be a beautiful woman, but how long could she keep up the deception?
DR M’GRATH
A psychiatrist of questionable sanity, he held thousands of Venusians under his sway.
THE OLD MAN
He had the power to wipe out all the human settlements on Venus.
LOVELY
That was the only name she had, for what use did Greenies have for names?
BORDEN HARPER
Though he was the richest man on Venus, he really knew very little about the source of his wealth.”
Blurbs from the 1965 M-127 Ace Double Edition.
Anthony Taylor is an accomplished and talented musician, able to reproduce any classical piece from memory on a keyboard, and able to tune any piano. In a future where classical music has become unpopular his work is playing for the customers of a downtown bar.
One evening, Borden Harper, one of the richest men on Venus, turns up at the bar and, amazed at Anthony's playing, returns with another two 'chance' discoveries, a tenor and a soprano, Martha Merrill. Harper offers them the chance to travel to Venus and perform to the humans living under the domes on the misty planet.
The Venusians have become rich due to a miracle bean which seems to cure all ailments. This is gathered and harvested by the green humanoid denizens of Venus, the Greenies, who have been identified as being 'nothing more than human-looking animals…'
However, Anthony has a secret. All his life he has had to take anti-tan treatment in order to make his skin white, otherwise he would revert to his natural colour of green. He begins to suspect that his new colleague, Martha, is also a secret Greenie and once on Venus, with no supply of anti-tan to preserve their secret, the green begins to show.
Anthony and Martha, fearing that they would be in danger (given the attitude of the human Venusians to Greenies) flee into the wild steaming jungles. There they discover that the Greenies are not the mindless animals that the humans believed them to be, and the secret of how the pair came to be living on Earth.
For 1965, the style is somewhat dated, although the initial scenes on Earth are very interesting, foretelling a world more interested in manufactured music and videoscreens than what might be termed as 'proper live music'. Phillifent evidently knows his classical music and no doubt at the time, at the age of 49, was wrestling with the concepts of music of the Beatles generation.
There are some obvious points made regarding capitalism and exploitation - this is in a sense a 1960s version of the film 'Avatar' - but given the restriction on length of Ace Doubles, doesn't manage to explore the pros and cons of the respective lives of Venusian Humans and Greenies.
“terror quest on the misty planet
GREEN MAN’S BURDEN
Anthony Taylor sat watching the wealthy Borden Harper on his multi-vision screen.
‘Is there any more news about the – the Greenies?’ the interviewer was asking.
‘None at all.’ Harper dropped his voice to a deep sober sincerity. ‘We keep on trying, But I’m afraid we are just going to have to face the unpleasant fact that the Greenies are nothing more than human-looking animals…’
Anthony could contain his detestation no longer. Snatching the cushion, he rammed it violently into the speaker-grill, wishing he could ram it down Harper’s throat. Harper and the other humans on Venus, milking it of its miraculous beans, using the green-skinned natives to cultivate the crop, because that’s all they could be trained to do. They had no language, no human-style intelligence, no cultural potential, nothing.
Anthony grabbed up a dummy piano-keyboard savagely. He struck out a crisp-edged series of chords, double-handed, up the keyboard. The notes were sharp, precise sounds.
‘Not bad..’ he said, aloud. ‘For an animal!’
CAST OF CHARACTERS
ANTHONY TAYLOR
When he found himself running out of pills, he knew he could no longer pass for human.
MARTHA MERRILL
She seemed to be a beautiful woman, but how long could she keep up the deception?
DR M’GRATH
A psychiatrist of questionable sanity, he held thousands of Venusians under his sway.
THE OLD MAN
He had the power to wipe out all the human settlements on Venus.
LOVELY
That was the only name she had, for what use did Greenies have for names?
BORDEN HARPER
Though he was the richest man on Venus, he really knew very little about the source of his wealth.”
Blurbs from the 1965 M-127 Ace Double Edition.
Anthony Taylor is an accomplished and talented musician, able to reproduce any classical piece from memory on a keyboard, and able to tune any piano. In a future where classical music has become unpopular his work is playing for the customers of a downtown bar.
One evening, Borden Harper, one of the richest men on Venus, turns up at the bar and, amazed at Anthony's playing, returns with another two 'chance' discoveries, a tenor and a soprano, Martha Merrill. Harper offers them the chance to travel to Venus and perform to the humans living under the domes on the misty planet.
The Venusians have become rich due to a miracle bean which seems to cure all ailments. This is gathered and harvested by the green humanoid denizens of Venus, the Greenies, who have been identified as being 'nothing more than human-looking animals…'
However, Anthony has a secret. All his life he has had to take anti-tan treatment in order to make his skin white, otherwise he would revert to his natural colour of green. He begins to suspect that his new colleague, Martha, is also a secret Greenie and once on Venus, with no supply of anti-tan to preserve their secret, the green begins to show.
Anthony and Martha, fearing that they would be in danger (given the attitude of the human Venusians to Greenies) flee into the wild steaming jungles. There they discover that the Greenies are not the mindless animals that the humans believed them to be, and the secret of how the pair came to be living on Earth.
For 1965, the style is somewhat dated, although the initial scenes on Earth are very interesting, foretelling a world more interested in manufactured music and videoscreens than what might be termed as 'proper live music'. Phillifent evidently knows his classical music and no doubt at the time, at the age of 49, was wrestling with the concepts of music of the Beatles generation.
There are some obvious points made regarding capitalism and exploitation - this is in a sense a 1960s version of the film 'Avatar' - but given the restriction on length of Ace Doubles, doesn't manage to explore the pros and cons of the respective lives of Venusian Humans and Greenies.
March 29, 2016
The Water of Thought was an unusual story. It seemed to be going in one direction but then seemed to change. I had to think it over after reading it, and it seems like it is more symbolic than overt plot. The question asked seems to be " what IS a real man?". Still not sure I liked the story, but it's one I can't forget either.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews