The Mad Moon
Encyclopedia
The Mad Moon is a science fiction
short story
by Stanley G. Weinbaum
that first appeared in the December 1935 issue of Astounding Stories. As was the case with his earlier stories "A Martian Odyssey
" and "Parasite Planet
", "The Mad Moon" showcases Weinbaum's talent for creating alien ecologies. "The Mad Moon" was the only Weinbaum story set on Io
.
In Weinbaum's Solar System
, Jupiter
radiates enough heat to create Earthlike environments on the Galilean moons
. Io, the innermost Galilean satellite, has a tropical climate, so that the two human settlements are located at the poles, Junopolis in the north and Herapolis in the south. Extending partway around the equator are the Idiots' Hills, whose peaks extend beyond Io's dense but shallow atmosphere. (Weinbaum apparently didn't realize that Io is tidally locked
, since he has Jupiter rise and set during the course of the story.)
There are two intelligent races native to Io: first are the loonies, a humanoid race of only moderate intelligence with large balloonlike heads at the end of long, slim necks; second are the slinkers, small and ratlike with nasty tempers. (Members of the Harrison Expedition to Mars
ran across a slinker in the ruins of a Martian city in the story "Valley of Dreams
".) Another Ionan life-form is the parcat, a cat-sized animal with a single hind leg and the ability to mimic sounds, including snippets of human conversation. Ionan flora includes ferva leaves, which are used by pharmaceutical companies on Earth to create medicinal alkaloids; bleeding-grass, which oozes red sap; and stinging palms, whose barbs can cause infection among humans if not treated.
One day, while suffering an attack of white fever and its attendant hallucination
s, Calthorpe follows Oliver out of his shack and into the Ionan jungle. There he finds Lee Neilan, daughter of the owner of Neilan Drug, who also appears to be suffering from white fever. The two of them have an odd, pleasant conversation in which each assumes the other is a hallucination. Neilan warns Calthorpe about a newly-built slinker village, and it isn't until he comes across it while returning to his shack that he realizes that she isn't a hallucination after all. He returns to Neilan, chases off two slinkers who are slicing up her dinner gown, and brings her to his shack. He gives her medication for her white fever, and learns that she had been flying a jet plane from her father's home in Junopolis to a party in Herapolis. Coming upon the Idiots' Hills, she tried to hurdle over them where they left the atmosphere, and wound up crashing near Calthorpe's shack.
When a party of slinkers undermines the shack, Calthorpe and Neilan are forced to flee. The two make their way up towards the peaks of the Idiots' Hills, hoping the slinkers won't be able to follow them into the rarefied atmosphere. Thousands of slinkers do follow them, though, as do four loonies. When Calthorpe and Neilan enter a narrow valley between two of the peaks, they find a deserted city. At first they assume it was built by slinkers, but then realize by its proportions and artwork that it was actually built by loonies, who are evidently the degenerate remains of a once great race. The loonies who accompanied them fight off the slinkers, clearly determined to keep them from entering the city. The mob of slinkers crowds into the pass leading to the valley, and Calthorpe uses his flame pistol to blast them.
The light and noise from the flame pistol's discharge attracts the notice of a passing rocket plane. The plane lands in the valley, and Neilan's father Gustavus Neilan emerges. In gratitude to Calthorpe for saving his daughter, Gustavus offers to place him in charge of a ferva plantation he has begun near Junopolis, and Lee tells him that she wants to be his wife.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
by Stanley G. Weinbaum
Stanley G. Weinbaum
Stanley Grauman Weinbaum was an American science fiction author. His career in science fiction was short but influential...
that first appeared in the December 1935 issue of Astounding Stories. As was the case with his earlier stories "A Martian Odyssey
A Martian Odyssey
"A Martian Odyssey" is a science fiction short story by Stanley G. Weinbaum originally published in the July 1934 issue of Wonder Stories. It was Weinbaum's first published story, and remains his best known. It was followed four months later by a sequel, "Valley of Dreams"...
" and "Parasite Planet
Parasite Planet
"Parasite Planet" is a science fiction short story by Stanley G. Weinbaum originally published in the February 1935 issue of Astounding Stories. It was Weinbaum's fourth published story, and the first to be set on Venus...
", "The Mad Moon" showcases Weinbaum's talent for creating alien ecologies. "The Mad Moon" was the only Weinbaum story set on Io
Io (moon)
Io ) is the innermost of the four Galilean moons of the planet Jupiter and, with a diameter of , the fourth-largest moon in the Solar System. It was named after the mythological character of Io, a priestess of Hera who became one of the lovers of Zeus....
.
Weinbaum's Io
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
, Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
radiates enough heat to create Earthlike environments on the Galilean moons
Galilean moons
The Galilean moons are the four moons of Jupiter discovered by Galileo Galilei in January 1610. They are the largest of the many moons of Jupiter and derive their names from the lovers of Zeus: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Ganymede, Europa and Io participate in a 1:2:4 orbital resonance...
. Io, the innermost Galilean satellite, has a tropical climate, so that the two human settlements are located at the poles, Junopolis in the north and Herapolis in the south. Extending partway around the equator are the Idiots' Hills, whose peaks extend beyond Io's dense but shallow atmosphere. (Weinbaum apparently didn't realize that Io is tidally locked
Tidal locking
Tidal locking occurs when the gravitational gradient makes one side of an astronomical body always face another; for example, the same side of the Earth's Moon always faces the Earth. A tidally locked body takes just as long to rotate around its own axis as it does to revolve around its partner...
, since he has Jupiter rise and set during the course of the story.)
There are two intelligent races native to Io: first are the loonies, a humanoid race of only moderate intelligence with large balloonlike heads at the end of long, slim necks; second are the slinkers, small and ratlike with nasty tempers. (Members of the Harrison Expedition to Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
ran across a slinker in the ruins of a Martian city in the story "Valley of Dreams
Valley of Dreams
Valley of Dreams is a science fiction short story by Stanley G. Weinbaum originally published in the November 1934 issue of Wonder Stories...
".) Another Ionan life-form is the parcat, a cat-sized animal with a single hind leg and the ability to mimic sounds, including snippets of human conversation. Ionan flora includes ferva leaves, which are used by pharmaceutical companies on Earth to create medicinal alkaloids; bleeding-grass, which oozes red sap; and stinging palms, whose barbs can cause infection among humans if not treated.
Plot summary
Grant Calthorpe is a young sportsman who lost his fortune in a gold crisis in 2110. Two years later, he is on Io, collecting ferva leaves for the Neilan Drug Company. Calthorpe has a shack just south of the Idiots' Hills, which he shares with a parcat named Oliver. Due to the presence of stinging palms in the Ionan jungle, he has to rely on loonies to collect the ferva leaves for him, trading chocolate to them for the leaves.One day, while suffering an attack of white fever and its attendant hallucination
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
s, Calthorpe follows Oliver out of his shack and into the Ionan jungle. There he finds Lee Neilan, daughter of the owner of Neilan Drug, who also appears to be suffering from white fever. The two of them have an odd, pleasant conversation in which each assumes the other is a hallucination. Neilan warns Calthorpe about a newly-built slinker village, and it isn't until he comes across it while returning to his shack that he realizes that she isn't a hallucination after all. He returns to Neilan, chases off two slinkers who are slicing up her dinner gown, and brings her to his shack. He gives her medication for her white fever, and learns that she had been flying a jet plane from her father's home in Junopolis to a party in Herapolis. Coming upon the Idiots' Hills, she tried to hurdle over them where they left the atmosphere, and wound up crashing near Calthorpe's shack.
When a party of slinkers undermines the shack, Calthorpe and Neilan are forced to flee. The two make their way up towards the peaks of the Idiots' Hills, hoping the slinkers won't be able to follow them into the rarefied atmosphere. Thousands of slinkers do follow them, though, as do four loonies. When Calthorpe and Neilan enter a narrow valley between two of the peaks, they find a deserted city. At first they assume it was built by slinkers, but then realize by its proportions and artwork that it was actually built by loonies, who are evidently the degenerate remains of a once great race. The loonies who accompanied them fight off the slinkers, clearly determined to keep them from entering the city. The mob of slinkers crowds into the pass leading to the valley, and Calthorpe uses his flame pistol to blast them.
The light and noise from the flame pistol's discharge attracts the notice of a passing rocket plane. The plane lands in the valley, and Neilan's father Gustavus Neilan emerges. In gratitude to Calthorpe for saving his daughter, Gustavus offers to place him in charge of a ferva plantation he has begun near Junopolis, and Lee tells him that she wants to be his wife.
Collections
"The Mad Moon" appears in the following Stanley G. Weinbaum collections:- The Dawn of Flame (1936)
- A Martian Odyssey and OthersA Martian Odyssey and OthersA Martian Odyssey and Others is a collection of science fiction short stories by author Stanley G. Weinbaum. It was first published in 1949 by Fantasy Press in an edition of 3,158 copies...
(1949) - A Martian Odyssey and Other Science Fiction Tales (1974)
- The Best of Stanley G. Weinbaum (1974)
- Interplanetary Odysseys (2006)