Skip to main content

Short story collection with one story about a fictional drug



I am trying to located a sci-fi short story book that I read when I was a child. One of the stories was about an undercover agent (in the future I guess) who poses as a customer (for a most dangerous drug) to infiltrate the criminal network which distributes or produces this drug. After he is injected with the drug by the nurse or one of the drug people, police raid the building and capture the criminals. The agent has a happy life after that until his 80th birthday when he wakes up and find himself that he is still in bed where he got the drug (that is, whatever he saw until 80th birthday was a dream), the police raid and this time the criminals get away. Again so many years later he wakes up to find himself in the same place (the room where he got the drug). This keeps going on (his life is a continuous waking up from dreams) as the result of taking the drug ... there were other stories too like a chimp who has become as intelligent as a human thanks to a drug or treatment and since the effect of the drug was wearing off he is going back to being a stupid chimp again ... I read it in the 1980s so my guess is that the original book must be from 1960s or 1970s.


The first story has some similarity with A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick but is different.


Any idea which book these stories might be from?



Answer



I believe the first short story is "Mind Partner" by Chris Anvil. You can obtain a copy from Baen books at:


Baen Books - The Trouble with Aliens


Points that match are:


One of the stories was about an undercover agent (in the future I guess) who poses as a customer (for a most dangerous drug) to infiltrate the criminal network which distributes or produces this drug.



Protagonist goes undercover to find drug




After he is injected with the drug by the nurse or one of the drug people, police raid the building and capture the criminals. The agent has a happy life after that until his 80th birthday when he wakes up and find himself that he is still in bed where he got the drug (that is, whatever he saw until 80th birthday was a dream), the police raid and this time the criminals get away.



In the first life he lives as a Private investigator, works with his son, etc. In a second life he dies destitute, in a third he is a painter, etc. The interesting thing is that he remembers every life with perfect detail.



Again so many years later he wakes up to find himself in the same place (the room where he got the drug). This keeps going on (his life is a continuous waking up from dreams) as the result of taking the drug



we eventually learn that it is not actually a drug that is causing the dreams, but an alien that works as a "Mind Partner" to help humans experience such lives.



This was anthologized in a number of locations. I have listed some below. You might recognize the other story from one of them.




The Trouble With Aliens (2006): Reprints the "War With the Outs" stories along with three short stories retroactively rewritten to fit the in-universe chronology and a new conclusion to the sequence. The volume also includes other stories on theme of human contact with aliens, from the human perspective.



Includes "The Prisoner", "Seller's Market", "Top Rung", "Symbols", "Foghead", "The Ghost Fleet", "Cargo For Colony 6", "Achilles's Heel", "Of Enemies and Allies", "The Kindly Invasion", "Mission of Ignorance", "Brain's Isn't Everything", "The Captive Djinn", "The Uninvited Guest", "Sabotage", "Mind Partner", "A Question of Identity" and "Advance Agent".


Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections



Mind Partner and 8 Other Novelets from Galaxy ed. Horace L. Gold (Doubleday, 1961, hc)



◦Mind Partner · Christopher Anvil · nv Galaxy Aug 1960 ◦The Lady Who Sailed the Soul · Cordwainer Smith · nv Galaxy Apr 1960 ◦The Stentorii Luggage · Neal Barrett, Jr. · nv Galaxy Oct 1960 ◦Snuffles · R. A. Lafferty · nv Galaxy Dec 1960 ◦The Sly Bungerhop · William Morrison · nv Galaxy Sep 1957 ◦Blacksword · Andrew J. Offutt · nv Galaxy Dec 1959 ◦The Civilization Game · Clifford D. Simak · nv Galaxy Nov 1958 ◦The Hardest Bargain · Evelyn E. Smith · nv Galaxy Jun 1957 ◦With Redfern on Capella XII · Charles Satterfield (by Frederik Pohl) · nv Galaxy Nov 1955


Comments

Post a Comment

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.
Post a Comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more