Comments on: Bad Heuristic

By: NuderWorldOrder

NuderWorldOrder — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 04:26:02 +0000

I can’t help but think those aliens sound like Kerbals. I sure hope that’s not the future I’m helping to create when I assist them with their space program.Anyway, this was a very entertaining read.

By: FinchAgent

FinchAgent — Fri, 08 Jul 2022 07:47:19 +0000

In reply to ReaderMan. Thank you for reading! Yes, the last part was a little quick. This story was stuck for a while because I wasn't quite sure where to go with it after Sophie freed the prisoners, so I felt it was a good place to wrap up. That said, I may add a bit here and there on another editing pass.

By: ReaderMan

ReaderMan — Fri, 08 Jul 2022 05:59:58 +0000

That’ll teach these losers to underestimate a naked girl, she thought.

I like where this is going.

Sophie sighed. With great reluctance, she pulled off both halves of her small outfit and dumped them on the ground.

Leave it to a great ENF writer, to figure out how to creatively get her naked again.

Sophie shuddered at the thought of her pubic hair being immortalized in stone.

A fun sentence, and an enjoyable tale. The last part seemed a bit fast, but maybe that was the ideal pacing for the end run. I like how things concluded. Another great story. Thanks for sharing!

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 15:29:59 +0000

In reply to FinchAgent. Wow! Great detective work. I had no memory of either the tile or the author. I'm not old enough to have read it when it came out (1957). Must have been in an anthology I read years ago. The author's byline was often A. Bertram Chandler and he lived much of his life in Australia, although he was a seaman, an officer in the merchant marine. And I've just noticed he was born in Aldershot, not that far from where I now live. I read a lot of his stuff over the years.

By: Grumpyolddom

Grumpyolddom — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 14:48:07 +0000

I consider this one as one of the many, many hidden little gems on this site.Awesome. Thanks for sharing!

By: FinchAgent

FinchAgent — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 14:10:54 +0000

In reply to Dormouse. I was curious about this, so I did some Googling. It's The Cage by Bertram Chandler. Great little story.

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 10:46:44 +0000

Incidentally, I remember reading a story, many, many years ago, in which a group of humans are stranded on an alien planet. Somehow, they have lost everything, including their clothes. The local inhabitants capture them and assume they are wild animals and put them in a cage. It is only when they somehow adopt an actual wild animal that has wandered in that the aliens realise they are intelligent. Only intelligent creatures keep pets.

By: Big D

Big D — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 22:27:07 +0000

This story had some excellent world building. It is a world that one could feel like they could live in it.

By: FinchAgent

FinchAgent — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 15:45:14 +0000

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. This one is a bit out there, so I’m glad to see it so well received.

This actually worked as an SF story in its own right.

Thank you for saying so, Dormouse. I’m also a big sci-fi fan.

Combining this kind of setting with a story about a naked girl is a very clever concept. And I love the idea that human culture is such an unfamiliar concept to the aliens that they don’t think twice about a naked woman.

Thanks arthwys. The idea of a naked woman on an alien planet (sort of the tree-falls-in-a-forest-with-no-one-to hear-it of ENF) has been rattling around in my head for a long while.

By: arthwys

arthwys — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 13:39:14 +0000

I love these kinds of science fiction stories, set so far in the future that they barely refer to Terra or human society. With hundreds or thousands of alien cultures intermingling.

Combining this kind of setting with a story about a naked girl is a very clever concept. And I love the idea that human culture is such an unfamiliar concept to the aliens that they don’t think twice about a naked woman.