Tales from the Planet Earth: A Novel with Nineteen Authors

by Frederik Pohl (Editor / Contributor), Spider Robinson (Contributor), S.P. Somtow (Contributor)

A collection of science fiction stories revolves around the theme of human and alien co-existing in one body.

Genres: Science Fiction, Space, Fiction, Anthologies

292 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 1986

About the author

Frederik George Pohl, Jr. was an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years. From about 1959 until 1969, Pohl edited Galaxy magazine and its sister magazine IF winning the Hugo for IF three years in a row. His writing also won him three Hugos and multiple Nebula Awards. He became a Nebula Grand Master in 1993.

Reviews

[Dev Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a neat idea to have different authors tackle the same premise for a short story, and then anthologize the results.

I think this book would have benefitted from leaving the 5 or so weakest stories on the cutting-room floor, because things felt a bit repetitive towards the end. But there were 2 or 3 real bangers amongst the bunch! Ans most were at least decent.

This was some nice, pulpy, classic-era sci-fi - which is like comfort reading for me at this point.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is billed as a collaborative novel by nineteen authors, but I think it's really a theme anthology that was edited by Frederik Pohl and his wife, Elizabeth Ann Hull. It's a rather neat concept, having authors from seventeen different countries write stories from the same prompt, and gives insight into the differences in international conceptions and perceptions. (Back when I was in school they used to teach what they "civics," but...) None of the stories particularly stood out for me, but I enjoyed the idea and thought it was quite well executed.

[Tomer · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting concept for an anthology with a singular common plot of aliens taking over the bodies of humans from afar {projections, not via a physical agent etc}. Now try to imagine around 20 variations to various degrees from authors around the world. Some were easily identifiable with a specific country society \ themes but in general, after a few stories they pretty much sipped into one another, living me with a long yawn. That is not to say, that some had their own merits with aliens examining and giving impressions for our societies and even almost breaking the fourth page depicting the elderly as so called aliens of modern society.

[Brian Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a unique collection of international science fiction writers working on a theme established by Frederik Pohl; aliens have come to Earth, not physically, but through mental projection. While I liked the idea of reading international authors working on a topic, I found some of the stories too similar to each other. Perhaps the topic was too narrow. That said, there are some very good short stories in this collection, one gem is a short story by Polish author Janusz Zajdel, which for some bizarre reason remains his only work translated and published in English (as of 2016).

[Chris T.Etris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tales from the Planet Earth is a fascinating collection of short sci-fi stories. 18 authors, from almost as many countries of the world tackle a shared prompt: alien possession. Whilst some stories are naturally more successful than others, it was interesting to see how the authors used this simple shared narrative dressing to explore a wide range of human concerns. A loss of agency is almost always the central thrust, but through this disempowerment, authors tackle intimacy and relationships (Contacts of a Fourth Kind — Ljuben Dilov), national exceptionalism (User Friendly — Spider Robinson), collective shame (Don’t Knock the Rock — A. Bertram Chandler), cultural appropriation (Fiddling for Water Buffaloes — Somtow Sucharitkul), age and grief (On the Inside Track — Karl Michael Armer) and much more.

Scattered reviews of the last 40 years sometimes critique the collection’s length or lack of editorial sharpness, but I think they miss the point of the book. The prompt - alien possession - is a catalyst, and the outcomes are arguably less important than the project’s boundaries themselves. Falling between distinct voices, tenses, and perspectives, each story holds a mirror back towards humanity. Sometimes with a sense of softness and warmth, sometimes with acerbic disdain. When the aliens inhabit to observe, we’re often given lilting slice of life stories of gentle interaction. Flies on the metaphorical walls of our brains. When the aliens are framed more as recognised antagonists, they are almost always characterised as such to foreground human failings first and foremost.

Growing up, my Dad used to say, believing himself prescient and philosophical: “the only time the human race will really club together and stop killing each other will be when we have a common alien threat to fight”. The authors of Tales from the Planet Earth posit that even in this scenario, we’ll still step on each other’s toes either in intentional duplicitous and sycophantic servitude, or through mostly accidental bumbling inaction.

[Cheyenne · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting read. At first, the idea that all the stories were inspired by the same general prompt - of aliens travelling through space with their minds and possessing human bodies for their own purposes - was intriguing. But a lot of then started to feel the same. There was one called "Don't Knock the Rock" about a human helping the aliens to steal a mountain for a space museum that was pretty entertaining.

However, one toward the end of the collection was really good. It's called "The Legend of the Paper Spaceship." It reads partly like a fable, and partly like a science fiction/historical story. If I end up keeping this book, it will be for that story.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting stories about alien possession from international authors but the stories were all a bit too similar.

[James Bowman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love stories from arou d the World especially SF Frederick Pohl and Sprague De Camp helped to bring them here especially Russian. It was all about the translation though, and thankfully the good stuff found its way to the West. Tales from The Planet Earth brings more than SF stories, it brings new cultures an different ideas about life, l can recommend this book if like me you take away more than you started with.

James Bowman