Review: Trouble on Titan and two more stories

Trouble on Titan and two more stories by Henry Kuttner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought this was pretty great. Unexpectedly thoughtful, even though it had a few very pulpy ideas innit.

The solar system appears to be filled with a variety of alien species. Some of those we hear about are the Zonals, living on Titan and referred to as sub-human. Another director, Udell, has managed to produce a smash hit tv story with the Zonals as the stars, but unfortunately the director is killed in an accident before the filming is completed. Enter Quaid, whom the fine folks at Nine Planets Films enlist to complete the project.

The story moves along very quickly and is full of fascinatingly alien descriptions. Overall, I loved this. It's a simple plot with a pretty transparent twist, but a lot of care has gone into making this a very alien adventure. The dialogue certainly shows the age of the story, originally published in 1947 but I didn't pick up on any jarringly superseded scientific ideas. In fact, some of the descriptions included very nicely disguised scientific reasoning.

The following are a bunch of quoted descriptions of the alien species that appear in this story:

"They used to be highly civilized at one time, historians think, but something wrecked their brains."

"The Zonals spend a lot of time underwater,"

"Its body was thoroughly anthropoid in outline, and curiously graceful in its sleekly furred, streamlined contours. The Zonal was a little more than five feet tall. Its hands and feet were huge and webbed."

"The Zonal squirted jets of liquid from its eyes."

"The creature was shooting through the air like a streamlined spaceship, thirty feet high and going fast."

"Those sacs on their back look soft, but they’re plenty tough. They’re filled with gas, continually renewed and manufactured by letting in air and water to mix with the chemicals of their bloodstream."

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I only read the story 'Trouble On Titan' and haven't read the 'and Two More Stories' yet. The main story is available for free on the Gutenberg Project website.

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