What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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The Brain Stealers of Mars
SOLVED: Adult Fiction
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SOLVED. SF Short Story with Robots Sniffing Pepper [s]
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Bargle
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Dec 23, 2015 05:48AM
I read this over 20 years ago. The one bit I remember is this: There's a group of robots with one man mixed in with them. He can't be distinguished from them for some reason. Another man trying to figure out who he is by holding something in his hand and having each of them smell it and tell what it is. The robots each say 'pepper', but the human sneezes, identifying himself.
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It does sound a bit like Asimov, but I can't think of a specific Asimov story like that.
I'm pretty sure it's not in _Early Asimov_.
Authors to try if it is not Asimov: Harry Harrison, Murray Leinster, Ben Bova, Ron Goulart, Theodore Sturgeon and Eando Binder. They all published in the 1950s to 1980s, they all covered tales with robots and interesting situations, and they would all come up with intriguing twists in their tales. Also, the book Clone by Richard Cowper comes to mind, though I think there were more humaniform apes in it than robots.
Definitely not Richard Cowper, but I'll look into the others.
I hope you find it somewhere. Sorry I could not help more.
No luck with the authors suggested, so bumping this back up.Pepper robot thread.
Pretty sure it's not _Code of the Lifemaker_, as I recall that was all set on a moon in the solar-system.From the intro:
The aliens had never gotten round to extending their civilization much beyond the limits of their own planetary system, which was unfortunate because that was the end of them.
Everybody has a bad day sometimes.
I'm certainly not surprised I'm wrong on this one.
Definitely not Code of the Lifemaker. What I'm looking for is a short story. This did jog my memory a bit, though. The story does take place in our solar system. I think the setting of the pepper sniffing was on the Moon or Mars.Thanks for trying.
Kym wrote: "http://www.umich.edu/~engb415/literat..."Uhhh, what're you trying to do here??
The link has:
1) Stories in which robots kill or attempt to kill humans:
Not part of the description.
2) Stories in which robots/androids are confused with or look like humans
None of the ones described seem to match, remaining ones are:
"Imposter" (1953) by Philip K. Dick
"Made in USA" (1953) by J. T. Macintosh
"The Darfstellar" (1955) by Walter M. Miller
"Comfort Me, My Robot" (1955) by Robert Bloch
"Synth" (1966) by Keith Roberts
Replica (1987) by Richard Bowker
3) Robot Courtroom Dramas:
Uhh, not in the description? Unless this is a line-up...
4) Man-Robot Boxing matches:
Not in the description.
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edit: strikethrus for those eliminated, for those of you playing at home
I've got a book with "Imposter" in it coming from the library. I've read "Satisfaction Guaranteed" and "Fondly Fahrenheit". The others remain possible.
What were those two stories about?
"Fondly Fahrenheit" is about a robot that becomes that becomes erratic if the temperature around it gets too high."Satisfaction Guaranteed" is about a robot that tries a bit too hard to make its mistress happy.
Your description of FF reminds me of the Asimov story of a robot on Mercury that was to mine pools of... (selenium?)
Justanotherbiblophile wrote: "Your description of FF reminds me of the Asimov story of a robot on Mercury that was to mine pools of... (selenium?)"I thinks you're thinking of Asimov's "Runaround" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runarou... - Fondly Fahrenheit is very different, indeed ("erratic" in that story means "occasionally murderous").
Andy wrote: "Justanotherbiblophile wrote: "Fondly Fahrenheit is very different, indeed ("erratic" in that story means "occasionally murderous")..."I was trying not to spoil the story for anyone who hasn't read it.
Thanks Bargle for the work in putting down enough, but not too much, using those darnfangled words.
Bargle wrote: "Andy wrote: "Justanotherbiblophile wrote: "Fondly Fahrenheit is very different, indeed ("erratic" in that story means "occasionally murderous")..."I was trying not to spoil the story for anyone w..."
Oops... Sorry.
Pssst, you can edit your old post and take it out, or put spoiler tags on it. ;)Also, I'd not said, but you're totally correct in "Runaround", if anyone else cares.
"Imposter" wasn't the story. I do remember the story was written in the style of a 40s or 50s story.
Could it have been The Brain Stealers of Mars by John W Cambell Jr? The story is about shape shifting aliens who impersonate people, but the man's friend does use pepper to distinguish the man from the rest of them. https://archive.org/details/TheBrain-...
By golly, that's it. I mis-remembered the non-humans as being robots. I don't know what book it was in, but that's the story. Thanks, Brittany!
Bargle wrote: "By golly, that's it. I mis-remembered the non-humans as being robots. I don't know what book it was in, but that's the story. Thanks, Brittany!"
You're welcome! Glad to help :)
Bargle wrote: "By golly, that's it. I mis-remembered the non-humans as being robots. I don't know what book it was in, but that's the story. Thanks, Brittany!"
Cool. Glad you found your story. You might be interested to know that Campbell revisited this story, creating the more sophisticated version as "Who Goes There?"
Hmmm, I didn't make the connection, but that does make sense. Thanks, Andy.
What's the Name of That Book???
Books mentioned in this topic
Alien Worlds (other topics)The Brain Stealers of Mars (other topics)
Code of the Lifemaker (other topics)
