Skip to main content

story identification - Science fiction novel with the title "T" (which is also the name of the protagonist)


I'm pretty sure the title was "T". It's about an alien race at war with humans. They decide to end the human race by destroying Earth before humans evolve. They send some humans through space and back in time to do the job.


I think the humans have single letter names (A, B, C, etc) They have raised/cloned the humans just for the job and to save space in their ships they have only a head, a body and one arm. Most don't make it.


The aliens don't know that there were 2 more planets in the past and they count the planets in from Pluto. One human hits a planet and completely destroys it and T hits a glancing blow and just breaks up his target forming the asteroid belt.



Answer



This is Brian Aldiss's "T" from 1956.


Amazon Review:




`T' (1956) (7 pages) 3.75/5 (Good): In the distant future a strange alien mutant with one arm is breed to navigate an interstellar missile. Pumped with nutrients and subjected to periodic propaganda, it steers its deadly bulk towards Earth. The story is weakened by a silly -- but funny -- time travel ending. The visceral image of a mutated one-armed barely sentient alien on a suicide mission that takes thousands of years to reach its target all the while listening to the same propaganda message over and over is an incredibly disturbing vision...



I found it by doing an ISFDB search for stories with a title of exactly "T" and then started searches by a combination of that title, the author's name, and publication date. That brought up the Amazon page when I looked for Brian Aldiss "T" 1956 and I looked to see if the reviews had more details, which one did. Seeing the "one arm" bit clinched it for me.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...