The Animal-Cracker Plot
"The Animal-Cracker Plot" | |||
---|---|---|---|
Short story by L. Sprague de Camp | |||
Edd Cartier's illustration of the story in Astounding Science-Fiction, Jul. 1949 | |||
Country | United States | ||
Language | English | ||
Genre(s) | Science fiction | ||
Publication | |||
Published in | Astounding Science-Fiction | ||
Media type | Print (Magazine) | ||
Publication date | July, 1949 | ||
Chronology | |||
Series | Viagens Interplanetarias | ||
|
"The Animal-Cracker Plot" is a science fiction short story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, a story in his Viagens Interplanetarias series. It is the second (chronologically) set on the planet Vishnu, and the first to feature the interstellar con-man Darius Koshay. It was first published in the magazine Astounding Science-Fiction in the issue for July, 1949. It first appeared in book form in the collection The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens, published in hardcover by Twayne Publishers in 1953, and in paperback by Signet Books in 1971. The story has been translated into Portuguese, Dutch, and Italian.[1][2]
Plot summary
When Iranian con-man Darius Koshay lands on the planet Vishnu, customs agent Luther Beck, who has tangled with him before, does everything he can to find an excuse to detain him before he can cause more trouble. He can find nothing to pin on the slick Koshay, and is forced to allow him through customs. Koshay's ostensible object is to make and sell crackers to the planet's aborigines, of which he learned they were fond on a previous visit. Vishnu is host to two intelligent native species, the six-limbed, apelike Romeli and the centaurlike Dzlieri, who are mutually antagonistic. All too soon, Beck learns Koshay's scheme is far from innocent; he is playing the Romeli off against the Dzlieri by supplying each with crackers in the form of the other, convincing them the crackers will give them power over their enemies if consumed in conjunction with the proper voodoo-like rites. Beck undertakes to reveal to both alien races Koshay's double-dealing before his machinations can lead to a major war. Ultimately a wary truce is brokered between the two sides and Koshay, finding himself a marked man, finds it expedient to flee Vishnu.
Setting
The planet Vishnu is a tropical world occupying the same star system as Krishna, de Camp's primary setting for the Viagens Interplanetarias series.
As dated in The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens and the 1959 version of de Camp's essay "The Krishna Stories", the action of "The Animal-Cracker Plot" takes place in the year 2120 CE.[3][4]
Relation to other works
One of Koshay's later operations is the subject of the story "Git Along!" set on the planet Osiris.
Notes
- ^ Laughlin, Charlotte, and Levack, Daniel J. H. De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography. San Francisco, Underwood/Miller, 1983, pages 123, 44-45.
- ^ The Animal-Cracker Plot title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- ^ De Camp, L. Sprague (1953). The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens. New York: Twayne Publishers. p. TC.
- ^ De Camp, L. Sprague. "The Krishna Stories Archived 2020-07-28 at the Wayback Machine" (Essay, in New Frontiers, v. 1, no. 1, Dec. 1959, page 6)
- v
- t
- e
Interplanetarias
Krishna |
|
---|---|
Kukulkan |
|
Other |
|
- "The Roaring Trumpet" (1940)
- "The Mathematics of Magic" (1940)
- The Castle of Iron (1941/50)
- The Wall of Serpents (1953)
- The Green Magician (1954)
- Sir Harold and the Gnome King (1990)
- Sir Harold of Zodanga (1995)
- The Tritonian Ring (1951)
- "The Eye of Tandyla" (1951)
- "The Owl and the Ape" (1951)
- "The Hungry Hercynian" (1953)
- "The Stronger Spell" (1953)
- "Ka the Appalling" (1958)
- "The Rug and the Bull" (1974)
- "The Stone of the Witch Queen" (1977)
- The Goblin Tower (1968)
- The Clocks of Iraz (1971)
- "The Emperor's Fan" (1973)
- The Fallible Fiend (1973)
- The Unbeheaded King (1983)
- The Honorable Barbarian (1989)
- The Incorporated Knight (1987)
- The Pixilated Peeress (1991)
speculative
fiction
Novels |
|
---|---|
Short stories |
|
- The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate (1961)
- The Arrows of Hercules (1965)
- An Elephant for Aristotle (1958)
- The Bronze God of Rhodes (1960)
- The Golden Wind (1969)
- The Wolf Leader (1950)
- Swords and Sorcery (1963)
- The Spell of Seven (1965)
- Conan the Warrior (1967)
- The Fantastic Swordsmen (1967)
- Conan the Conqueror (1967)
- Warlocks and Warriors (1970)
- 3000 Years of Fantasy and Science Fiction (1972)
- Tales Beyond Time (1973)
Science and history |
|
---|---|
Lit crit and biography |
|
- The Conan Swordbook (1969)
- The Conan Grimoire (1972)
- To Quebec and the Stars (1976)
- The Blade of Conan (1979)
- The Spell of Conan (1980)
- Demons and Dinosaurs (1970)
- Heroes and Hobgoblins (1981)
- Phantoms and Fancies (1972)
- The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens (1953)
- The Virgin of Zesh & The Tower of Zanid (1983)
- The Incomplete Enchanter (1941)
- Wall of Serpents (1960)
- The Compleat Enchanter (1975)
- The Complete Compleat Enchanter (1989)
- The Enchanter Reborn (1992)
- The Exotic Enchanter (1995)
- The Mathematics of Magic (2007)
- The Tritonian Ring and Other Pusadian Tales (1953)
- The Reluctant King (1985)
- Conan (1967)
- The Conan Chronicles (1989)
- The Conan Chronicles 2 (1990)
- Conan of Aquilonia (1977)
- Conan of Cimmeria (1969)
- Conan the Adventurer (1966)
- Conan the Avenger (1968)
- Conan the Freebooter (1968)
- Conan the Swordsman (1978)
- Conan the Usurper (1967)
- Conan the Wanderer (1968)
- Sagas of Conan (2004)
- Tales of Conan (1955)
- The Treasure of Tranicos (1980)
- Aristotle and the Gun (2002)
- The Best of L. Sprague de Camp (1978)
- Divide and Rule (1948)
- Footprints on Sand (1981)
- A Gun for Dinosaur (1963)
- The Purple Pterodactyls (1980)
- The Reluctant Shaman (1970)
- Rivers of Time (1993)
- Scribblings (1972)
- Sprague de Camp's New Anthology (1953)
- Tales from Gavagan's Bar (1953/78)
- The Undesired Princess (1951)
- The Virgin & the Wheels (1976)
- The Wheels of If (1948)
- Years in the Making (2005)
- GURPS Planet Krishna (1997)
- The Enchanter Completed (2005)