Skip to main content

Looking for sci-fi short story anthology with a particular story of an Earth/Mars war children inheriting the surface


I read this in the early to mid 80's. It was a textbook sized hardcover anthology with color illustrations throughout. Each story had a few images, some were full page illustrations.


The particular story I remember the most involved Earth survivors living underground. Robots controlled the war from the surface. A teenage girl and boy decided to sneak away to the surface as no one had been up there in a long time.


The kids discover greenery and a healthy environment, with rusted robot guardians. The robots had been keeping the humans fooled that the war was still going on, and had kept them under the surface. Mars had been wiped out from nearly the first volleys of missiles.


The robots judge the teenagers as worthy and let them remain on the surface. The kids had silver jumpsuits that dissolved when they got wet.



The robot illustrations were blocky, almost weathered stone-like statues. They had nearly spherical feet and square simple heads. The faces had eyes and simple mouths.


-edit- The robots were similar in shape to the one in this picture, but smoother, and no arms. The illustrations with them had the robots being several stories tall. I kind of remember that the kids emerged from the belly of one or something like that. enter image description here



Answer



As per Ayshe's comment, this is probably "The Children" by Malcom Hulke, as answered here, which apparently only showed up in Galactic Adventures, also known as Purnell's Book of Adventures in Space. Unfortunately, there is no online summary or review for me to quote, but at the time of that that I helped improve the answer, I read all of the stories in the volume, and your memory is essentially correct, a pair of children emerging from underground, learning that the war has long since been over, and their jumpsuits do dissolve, leaving them "naked in the Garden" as the phrase goes.


From the other question



Two children who escape an underground city to find giant robots launching missiles into the desert so humans think war is still occurring.



Another question which was answered with the same book includes a story which might have been the mash-up of multiple stories, which mentions the jumpsuits.




A story of two people who get on a spacecraft or rocket that sends them to a planet filled with nature with no other humanoids. For some reason, water causes their tunics and other clothes to melt away. Their craft cannot be used anymore so they are stranded on this planet. It is then revealed that they are Adam and Eve.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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.

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...

tolkiens legendarium - Difference between elves and dwarves blacksmithing in the Lord of the Rings

Both the elves and the dwarves were famous for their metal work in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but what is the difference between what they made, and which one had the better skill of making amours and swords? Answer James Christopher's answer sums up the second part of your question well, but as to the difference in what they made, a little more detail is needed. Once the Elves learned to forge with steel, the shape of the sword changed, now being able to take on the form of a great broadsword or a light and agile curved sword. Additionally, they took great pride in decorating their swords. As we see in the Lord of the Rings , some swords like Sting had magical properties such as glowing blue when orcs are near. As far as the use of Mithril, lotr.wikia has two contradictory passages: Thus, Elven blades became renowned as great weapons, capable of performing deeds beyond the skill of their handlers and were even more glorious when the use of Mithril was allowed to the Elves. ...

game of thrones - Is Syrio Forel dead?

In the episode 'The Pointy End' (Season 1 Episode 8) when Arya runs from the Lannister guards you hear the sound of a sword being dropped (around 4:56): [embedded content] After that neither Syrio or Ser Meryn Trant is never mentioned or seen in the show again, except when Arya mentions to the Hound that Ser Meryn Trant killed Syrio. Is there any mention in the books that Syrio actually dies?