Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Reluctant Weapon
    The Reluctant Weapon
    The Reluctant Weapon
    Ebook51 pages33 minutes

    The Reluctant Weapon

    By Ed Emshwiller and Howard L. Myers

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
    The Reluctant Weapon

    Read more from Ed Emshwiller

    Related to The Reluctant Weapon

    Related ebooks

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Fairies, Folklore And Forteana

      Mar 23, 2023

      I wrote last month about the way that rooks are supposed to abandon rookeries before the death of the human owner (FT429:29). Another chapter in corvid forteana is the notion of the ‘court’. A human witness watches as a group of corvids (usually rook

      2 min read

    • Article

      Perfect Prose II

      May 15, 2020

      Perfect Prose II
      4 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      May 18, 2023

      CONTACT US BY POST: PO BOX 1200, WHITSTABLE CT1 9RH, OR E-MAIL SIEVEKING@FORTEANTIMES.COM PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS With reference to his article on Nazi UFOs [FT430:44-49], I would be curious to know what evidence SDTucker has for s

      12 min read

    • Article

      Remastering The Mythos: Questions For Ruthanna Emrys

      May 4, 2017

      When Ruthanna Emrys first read H.P. Lovecraft's classic tale "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," her sympathies were squarely with the monsters — and that sympathy was the seed of her new book, Winter Tide.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Oct 8, 2020

      Thank you for making my life more joyful month after month. I can’t tell you how important to me the Fortean Times is. Kevin Hope By email Regarding Matt Salusbury’s Forum article on sunken bells [FT396:54-55], there is more to the bells of Aberdyfi

      14 min read

    • Article

      The Saturnian And The Sirian

      Mar 17, 2021

      The Saturnian And The Sirian
      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Mar 24, 2022

      CONTACT US BY POST: PO BOX 1200, WHITSTABLE CT1 9RH, OR E-MAIL SIEVEKING@FORTEANTIMES.COM PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS The very interesting report on ‘Man Of Russia’ and his outlandish claims about giant trees [FT415:9] got me thinking

      14 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Jul 13, 2023

      James Wright’s letter [FT431:62- 63] rightly points out that the film Poltergeist was allegedly ‘cursed’. However, he gave me a laugh when he mentions actress “JoBeth Williams, who won the part for showing precocious reading ability at her audition”.

      14 min read

    • Article

      Hook, Line And Sinker

      Oct 18, 2018

      Hook, Line And Sinker
      4 min read

    • Article

      If Sheep COULD FLY…

      Aug 3, 2022

      If Sheep COULD FLY…
      6 min read

    • Article

      Slaying Monsters in Fiction

      Jan 23, 2018

      When a monstrous beast appears in a story, then it becomes, at least in part, what that story is about.  The post Slaying Monsters in Fiction appeared first on The Millions.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Nov 1, 2018

      In a hotel in a small town in Norfolk I am listening to someonethrowing glass bottles into a metal bin: toss-shatter, toss-shatter.There are no other sounds; it’s a quiet afternoonbut the one tossing them has a sense of rhythm and I havea sense that

      5 min read

    • Article

      Town & Country Notebook

      Mar 3, 2021

      1) On what musical instrument would a nocturne typically be played? 2) Who was the last monarch before The Queen to have a Diamond Jubilee? 3) Complete the title of the 1990 British film starring Alan Rickman and Juliet Stevenson: Truly, Madly… wha

      1 min read

    • Article

      Smeltzer the Musky Angler

      Oct 17, 2020

      Smeltzer the Musky Angler
      4 min read

    • Article

      Extraterrestrial

      Dec 1, 2019

      Extraterrestrial
      7 min read

    • Article

      War Begins At 600 Feet

      Sep 1, 2021

      A buzzer buzzed, the green light flashed. Back in the plane, Captain Schouvaloff, a Russian-language officer with a devil-may-care wit about him, stood up. In his hand he held the hook of his static line — the lifeline of the paratrooper that jerks h

      1 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Sep 8, 2022

      An account of the Angels of Mons appears in Great British Ghosts by Aidan Chambers in the chapter “Ghosts at war”, along with the following account by a (unnamed) British lieutenant-colonel: “On the night of 27 August 1914, I was riding along in the

      7 min read

    • Article

      John Ashbery

      Mar 15, 2019

      He could understand the things at home.—Wallace Stevens, “Things of August” Scribbled on the expansive mist, the desireof many dwindles to usand our “activities,” wholesomeor otherwise. Soon it becomes apparentthat neither they nor I have any prise o

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Dragon’s Perspective

      Jun 10, 2022

      There once lived a dragon named Deathwing. Well, at least that’s what they called him. Deathwing was growing old, far too old for his liking. The joints of his claws ached and groaned under his ever-growing weight and his scales were beginning to los

      18 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Sep 9, 2021

      With regard to Nick Guitard’s letter pooh-poohing the possible existence of tiny aliens [FT405:71], I would like to make the following observations. David Bowie, may he rock on, once said that the Internet is like an alien being has landed and that w

      17 min read

    • Article

      Nightmares Can Be Fun

      Mar 2, 2023

      My second novel, Frenzy Island, was inspired by a nightmare, writes subscriber Rhydderch Wilson. Actually, make that a series of nightmares. The first in this onslaught of bad dreams involved a group of shipwreck survivors coming ashore on a deserte

      1 min read

    • Article

      Perfect Prose

      Mar 18, 2020

      Perfect Prose
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Philosopher King of the Hoverflies: A roving meditation on nature, literature, and the joy of collecting flies.

      Mar 12, 2015

      As I now live on an island in the sea and am not an expert on anything but hoverflies, we will simply have to start there. In short, my artistic sense remained relatively undeveloped, and my past, as always, caught up with me. When anyone asked, ther

      26 min read

    • Article

      The Devil’s Dictionary

      Jul 6, 2021

      Select entries from Ambrose Bierce’s lexicon of cynicism, bitterness, and humor, produced over a 30-year period beginning in 1881. APOLOGIZE, v.i. To lay the foundation for a future offence. BARD, n. A person who makes rhymes. The word is one of the

      4 min read

    • Article

      Victor Vescovo

      Apr 28, 2020

      Victor Vescovo
      8 min read

    • Article

      Writing Outer Space

      Apr 12, 2018

      On the one hand, there is the world as we know it, the ground-level of human life and everything it entails: the whole arc of history, the transformation of our natural environment, nervous first dates over coffee. On the other hand, there is the rem

      9 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Jul 15, 2021

      Regarding ‘Hunting Bigfoot’, in “Creatures on the Loose” [FT405:26]: adopting Justin Humphrey’s position on the reality of Bigfoot, surely one would be required to establish its nature before designating it a suitable subject for the huntsman. If it

      12 min read

    Reviews for The Reluctant Weapon

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Reluctant Weapon - Ed Emshwiller

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Reluctant Weapon, by Howard L. Myers

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: The Reluctant Weapon

      Author: Howard L. Myers

      Illustrator: Emsh

      Release Date: April 15, 2010 [EBook #31995]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RELUCTANT WEAPON ***

      Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online

      Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

      Transcriber's Note:

      This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction December 1952. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

      The Reluctant Weapon

      by HOWARD L. MYERS

      Illustrated by EMSH

      A live weapon is a downright liability ... it's all too apt to get qualms of conscience!

      When the Zoz Horde passed destructively through this sector of the Galaxy, approximately a billion years ago, they suffered a minor loss. One of their weapons, Sentient Killer No. VT672, had an unexplained malfunction and was left behind to be repaired by the slave technicians who followed the Horde. However, the Zoz were met and annihilated by the Ghesh Empire, after which the masterless slaves dispersed to their home planets. The weapon, unrepaired, was left forgotten in the solar system it had failed to destroy.

      resqu the Wisest, Ruler of Hova, Lord of the Universe, was being entertained by a troupe of Goefd dancers when his Lord of War, Wert, bounded into the Audience Hall. In his hurry to reach Tresqu's throne, Wert slipped on the nearly frictionless floor and skidded through the formation of dancers, sending the slender Goefden sprawling in all directions. He slid to a halt by the Pleading Mat, onto which he crawled and groveled, awaiting permission to speak.

      I believe three of the dancers received broken legs, Tresqu observed calmly. They are rather delicate creatures and not at all clumsy. He dipped the tip of his tail into an urn of chilled perfume and gently dabbed it about his nostril. Speaking pleasantly, with long pauses between sentences, he kept his friendly gaze on the groveling Wert. Oft I meditate on the clumsiness of our race in comparison to many others who are our graceful servants. Why, I wonder, cannot the rulers be graceful? Some of us are very clumsy indeed—too clumsy to live.

      A tremor passed through Wert's stocky body.

      "Possibly my Lord of War has news of sufficient import to excuse his ungainly haste. But I

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1