The Galton Whistle
"The Galton Whistle" | |||
---|---|---|---|
Short story by L. Sprague de Camp | |||
Illustration of the story in Future Combined with Science Fiction Stories, Jul. 1951 | |||
Original title | Ultrasonic God | ||
Country | United States | ||
Language | English | ||
Genre(s) | Science fiction | ||
Publication | |||
Published in | Future Combined with Science Fiction Stories | ||
Media type | Print (Magazine) | ||
Publication date | July, 1951 | ||
Chronology | |||
Series | Viagens Interplanetarias | ||
|
"The Galton Whistle" is a science fiction short story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, a story in his Viagens Interplanetarias series. It is the first (chronologically) set on the planet Vishnu. It was first published, as "Ultrasonic God," in the magazine Future Combined with Science Fiction Stories in the issue for July, 1951. It first appeared in book form under the present title (that preferred by the author) in the collection The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens, published in hardcover by Twayne Publishers in 1953, and in paperback by Signet Books in 1971.[1] It also appeared in the anthologies Novelets of Science Fiction (Belmont Books, 1963, under the original title),[2][3] The Good Old Stuff (St. Martin's Griffin, 1998), and The Good Stuff (Science Fiction Book Club, 1999).[4] The story has been translated into Portuguese, Dutch, and Italian.[1]
Plot
Surveyor Adrian Frome, one of a three-member survey team working in the jungles of the planet Vishnu, is captured by the centaur-like Dzlieri natives after his supervisor is killed and the third member deserts. Taken to the Dzlieri base, he finds them taking orders from Sirat Mongkut, a Terran previously lost in the area, who is pretending to be a god and has ambitions of uniting the centauroid tribes under himself as emperor. He uses an ultrasonic whistle than only the Dzlieri can hear to bolster his authority. Another captive is Elena Millán, a female missionary who had also gone missing. Faced with the choice of joining his captor's cause or death, Frome pretends to enlist, while actually seeking an opportunity to thwart the madman's grandiose scheme and escape. When it arises, he kills Sirat and absconds with Elena, making for the peak that was the goal of the survey, from which he hopes to signal for aid. Successfully rescued, he puts in for a transfer to Ganesha, another world in the star system, to escape Elena in turn; having formed a romantic liaison with her, he has since discovered she is an incurable religious fanatic.
Setting
The planet Vishnu is a tropical world occupying the same star system as Krishna, de Camp's primary setting for the Viagens Interplanetarias series.
As dated in The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens and the 1959 version of de Camp's essay "The Krishna Stories", "The Galton Whistle" takes place in the year 2117 CE.[5][6]
Notes
- ^ a b Laughlin, Charlotte, and Levack, Daniel J. H. De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography. San Francisco, Underwood/Miller, 1983, pages 255, 44-45
- ^ Laughlin, Charlotte, and Levack, Daniel J. H. De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography. San Francisco, Underwood/Miller, 1983, page 255
- ^ ISFDB entry for "Ultrasonic God"
- ^ ISFDB entry for "The Galton Whistle"
- ^ De Camp, L. Sprague (1953). The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens. New York: Twayne Publishers. p. TC.
- ^ De Camp, L. Sprague. "The Krishna Stories Archived 2020-07-28 at the Wayback Machine" (Essay, in New Frontiers, v. 1, no. 1, Dec. 1959, page 6)
- v
- t
- e
Interplanetarias
Krishna |
|
---|---|
Kukulkan |
|
Other |
|
- "The Roaring Trumpet" (1940)
- "The Mathematics of Magic" (1940)
- The Castle of Iron (1941/50)
- The Wall of Serpents (1953)
- The Green Magician (1954)
- Sir Harold and the Gnome King (1990)
- Sir Harold of Zodanga (1995)
- The Tritonian Ring (1951)
- "The Eye of Tandyla" (1951)
- "The Owl and the Ape" (1951)
- "The Hungry Hercynian" (1953)
- "The Stronger Spell" (1953)
- "Ka the Appalling" (1958)
- "The Rug and the Bull" (1974)
- "The Stone of the Witch Queen" (1977)
- The Goblin Tower (1968)
- The Clocks of Iraz (1971)
- "The Emperor's Fan" (1973)
- The Fallible Fiend (1973)
- The Unbeheaded King (1983)
- The Honorable Barbarian (1989)
- The Incorporated Knight (1987)
- The Pixilated Peeress (1991)
speculative
fiction
Novels |
|
---|---|
Short stories |
|
- The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate (1961)
- The Arrows of Hercules (1965)
- An Elephant for Aristotle (1958)
- The Bronze God of Rhodes (1960)
- The Golden Wind (1969)
- The Wolf Leader (1950)
- Swords and Sorcery (1963)
- The Spell of Seven (1965)
- Conan the Warrior (1967)
- The Fantastic Swordsmen (1967)
- Conan the Conqueror (1967)
- Warlocks and Warriors (1970)
- 3000 Years of Fantasy and Science Fiction (1972)
- Tales Beyond Time (1973)
Science and history |
|
---|---|
Lit crit and biography |
|
- The Conan Swordbook (1969)
- The Conan Grimoire (1972)
- To Quebec and the Stars (1976)
- The Blade of Conan (1979)
- The Spell of Conan (1980)
- Demons and Dinosaurs (1970)
- Heroes and Hobgoblins (1981)
- Phantoms and Fancies (1972)
- The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens (1953)
- The Virgin of Zesh & The Tower of Zanid (1983)
- The Incomplete Enchanter (1941)
- Wall of Serpents (1960)
- The Compleat Enchanter (1975)
- The Complete Compleat Enchanter (1989)
- The Enchanter Reborn (1992)
- The Exotic Enchanter (1995)
- The Mathematics of Magic (2007)
- The Tritonian Ring and Other Pusadian Tales (1953)
- The Reluctant King (1985)
- Conan (1967)
- The Conan Chronicles (1989)
- The Conan Chronicles 2 (1990)
- Conan of Aquilonia (1977)
- Conan of Cimmeria (1969)
- Conan the Adventurer (1966)
- Conan the Avenger (1968)
- Conan the Freebooter (1968)
- Conan the Swordsman (1978)
- Conan the Usurper (1967)
- Conan the Wanderer (1968)
- Sagas of Conan (2004)
- Tales of Conan (1955)
- The Treasure of Tranicos (1980)
- Aristotle and the Gun (2002)
- The Best of L. Sprague de Camp (1978)
- Divide and Rule (1948)
- Footprints on Sand (1981)
- A Gun for Dinosaur (1963)
- The Purple Pterodactyls (1980)
- The Reluctant Shaman (1970)
- Rivers of Time (1993)
- Scribblings (1972)
- Sprague de Camp's New Anthology (1953)
- Tales from Gavagan's Bar (1953/78)
- The Undesired Princess (1951)
- The Virgin & the Wheels (1976)
- The Wheels of If (1948)
- Years in the Making (2005)
- GURPS Planet Krishna (1997)
- The Enchanter Completed (2005)