What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

Invaders from Rigel
This topic is about Invaders from Rigel
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SOLVED: Adult Fiction > SOLVED. Man transformed into living metal [s]

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message 1: by Joseph (new)

Joseph | 4 comments I'm trying to remember the author and title of a science fiction story I read decades ago. I want to say it's a golden age short story (maybe a novel) but I may be wrong on that point.

The story follows a man who, waking up from a long bout of unconsciousness, finds that he has been transformed into a being of living metallic components. The streets outside his apartment are deserted and look like they have been that way for a very long time. He finds corpses, some of people who seem to have changed completely to solid metal and some who did not complete the change and died half metal, half flesh. He surmises that he was exposed to the changing factor (radiation?) at just the perfect level. His shielding apartment walls and open window(?) letting exactly the right amount of radiation in for right amount of time. He begins to explore the city...

I seem to remember it being set in a very large city.

and that's were my memory begins to fade.

I think that he finds others like himself and also some people who were shielded enough to still be fully human, but that might be me stirring a different story into the mix.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have so... so many books, many still in boxes, that I could be years finding it again without assistance.


message 2: by Michele (new)

Michele | 2488 comments This does have a "golden age of sci fi" feel to it. Hope someone solves it, I'd like to read it too,


message 3: by Ann aka Iftcan (new)

Ann aka Iftcan (iftcan) | 6917 comments Mod
King of Argent possibly? It doesn't really seem to fit the descrption, but I thought I'd throw it out.


message 4: by Joseph (new)

Joseph | 4 comments Ann aka Iftcan wrote: "King of Argent possibly? It doesn't really seem to fit the descrption, but I thought I'd throw it out."
That looks interesting. I might have to put it on my list of books to track down, but no that's definitely not it. The protagonist in the story I'm trying to figure out doesn't really know what happened to him and I positive it's set on Earth.


message 5: by Bek (new)

Bek | 31 comments Could it be the short story "The Metal Man" by Jack Williamson?

Full text of story here: http://hairygreeneyeball.blogspot.com...


message 6: by Joseph (new)

Joseph | 4 comments Bek wrote: "Could it be the short story "The Metal Man" by Jack Williamson?
Wow! Always up for a good Jack Williamson story but no that's not it.
"My" story had a more contemporary earth setting, following the metal man as he wanders his city and no interplanetary travel that I remember.
Side Note of Interest: Someone else has said they remember a Scholastic Book Club (remember them?) book from the 70's but with alien invaders coming to collect the metal people partway through the story. Unfortunately, they didn't have a title or author. While I did buy and read more than my fair share of Scholastic books, I don't remember any aliens in the story and my school book club period was mostly before I got into science fiction.



message 7: by Joseph (new)

Joseph | 4 comments Fletcher PrattInvaders From Rigel
Whoop! It's been identified.
Invaders from Rigel aka The Onslaught from Rigel by Fletcher Pratt.
A version is available as a Project Gutenberg etext.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41049
Now to get this on my Kindle and out of my nagging brain pan.


message 8: by Andy (new)

Andy | 2124 comments Joseph wrote: "Fletcher PrattInvaders From Rigel
Whoop! It's been identified.
Invaders from Rigel aka The Onslaught from Rigel by Fletcher Pratt.
A version is available as a Projec..."


Glad you found this - I've been wondering what it was - I think a classmate of mine told me about it back in 1976 or so, after he read it, but I had no idea what the name was.


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