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"Killdozer!" is a science fiction/horror novella by American writer Theodore Sturgeon, originally published in the magazine Astounding (November 1944) and revised for the 1959 collection Aliens 4.
This story represents Sturgeon's sole output between the years 1941 and 1945. Everything else that was published during this time had been written before. Sturgeon suffered from long bouts of writer's block, but was somehow able to produce this story in 9 days. It is one of his most famous stories, and was his most financially successful during the first decade of his career. [1]
The story inspired a 1974 TV-movie and a Marvel Comics adaptation by Gerry Conway and Richard Ayers in Worlds Unknown #6 (April 1974).
The story opens with a short explanation of Earth's ancient history. The Earth was once populated by a great empire that was at war with an alien race of pure energy. The enemy attacked with weapons that took over metal machinery and turned it against its builders. Earth finally gains the upper hand with a new weapon, but it runs out of control and the planet is destroyed. Only a single example of the enemy weapons survives, falling into slumber in a shelter as no Earth machines remain to possess. After countless years, humanity arises.
An eight-man construction crew is building an airstrip and related facilities on a small Pacific island during the course of World War II. As part of their construction equipment, they have a Caterpillar D7 bulldozer. It has been nicknamed "Daisy Etta" by one of the workers, a mispronunciation of De-Siete, D7 in Spanish. To build the airstrip, they plan on filling a swamp with stone from an outcrop at the top of a nearby hill. Daisy Etta is sent to break up the stone, which the foreman realizes is unlike anything he has seen before.
As they dig, they break open the ancient shelter, releasing the enemy weapon which possesses the bulldozer. It goes on a rampage, hunting down the crew and killing them. Ultimately, only three of the original crew remain and one of them goes insane. The two remaining men review what they have seen and realize that there was a brief lull in the action after the bulldozer was hit by an arc welder. They lure the dozer into water that is connected to the welder power supply, electrocuting the being.
While trying to write a report on what happened, the two sane workers are despairing of anyone believing them. Then, a Japanese air raid bombs the whole area below them, including the places that the bulldozer damaged and the graves of their fellow workers. One worker tears up the report he was writing and throws it in the air, thrilled that an explanation is now available — enemy action in wartime.
In 2020, Killdozer! won the 1945 Retro-Hugo Award for Best Novella. [2]
In the TV-movie version, the alien energy is contained in a meteor found by the crew's excavation. In the Marvel Comics version, the alien being's origin more closely follows Sturgeon's original story.
In 2004, Marvin Heemeyer used a modified bulldozer to destroy several buildings in Colorado. Although no one died except Heemeyer, by suicide, several media reports referred to the vehicle as a "Killdozer".
John Wood Campbell Jr. was an American science fiction writer and editor. He was editor of Astounding Science Fiction from late 1937 until his death and was part of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Campbell wrote super-science space opera under his own name and stories under his primary pseudonym, Don A. Stuart. Campbell also used the pen names Karl Van Kampen and Arthur McCann. His novella Who Goes There? was adapted as the films The Thing from Another World (1951), The Thing (1982), and The Thing (2011).
Katherine Anne MacLean was an American science fiction author best known for her short fiction of the 1950s which examined the impact of technological advances on individuals and society.
Theodore Sturgeon was an American fiction author of primarily fantasy, science fiction, and horror, as well as a critic. He wrote approximately 400 reviews and more than 120 short stories, 11 novels, and several scripts for Star Trek: The Original Series.
Foundation is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov. It is the first book in the Foundation Trilogy. Foundation is a cycle of five interrelated short stories, first published as a single book by Gnome Press in 1951. Collectively they tell the early story of the Foundation, an institute founded by psychohistorian Hari Seldon to preserve the best of galactic civilization after the collapse of the Galactic Empire.
Foundation and Empire is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov originally published by Gnome Press in 1952. It is the second book in the Foundation series, and the fourth in the in-universe chronology. It takes place in two parts, originally published as separate novellas. The second part, "The Mule," won a Retro Hugo Award in 1996.
John Stewart Williamson, who wrote as Jack Williamson, was an American science fiction writer, one of several called the "Dean of Science Fiction". He is also credited with one of the first uses of the term genetic engineering. Early in his career he sometimes used the pseudonyms Will Stewart and Nils O. Sonderlund.
Killdozer! is a 1974 made for TV science-fiction horror movie, adapted from a 1944 novella of the same name by Theodore Sturgeon. A comic book adaptation appeared the same year, in Marvel Comics' Worlds Unknown #6. The film has since gained a cult following.
Charles Leonard Harness was an American science fiction writer.
Raymond Fisher Jones was an American science fiction author. He is best known for his 1952 novel This Island Earth, which was adapted into the eponymous 1955 film.
"Story of Your Life" is a science fiction novella by American writer Ted Chiang, first published in Starlight 2 in 1998, and later in 2002 in Chiang's collection of short stories, Stories of Your Life and Others. Its major themes are language and determinism.
"Un-Man" is a science fiction novella by American writer Poul Anderson, first published in the January 1953 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It was included in the 1962 collection Un-Man and Other Novellas, and the 1981 collection The Psychotechnic League. As a component of the Psychotechnic League future history, "Un-Man" takes place in the year 2004, between "Marius" and "The Sensitive Man".
The 4th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), also known as Pacificon I, was held on 4–7 July 1946 at the Park View Manor in Los Angeles, California, United States.
"The Big Front Yard" is a science fiction short story by American writer Clifford D. Simak which won a 1959 Hugo Award for Best Novelette. It was also included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two (1973) after being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965.
The Legion of Time is a novella by the American writer Jack Williamson. It was originally serialized in Astounding Science-Fiction from May to July 1938, and was subsequently reissued by Fantasy Press (along with another novella, in a 1952 edition of 4,604 copies. Despite the title Legion of Time, the stories do not in fact feature an organization with such a name. The title story was originally announced as "The Legion of Probability".
Clifford Donald Simak was an American science fiction writer. He won three Hugo Awards and one Nebula Award. The Science Fiction Writers of America made him its third SFWA Grand Master, and the Horror Writers Association made him one of three inaugural winners of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement. He is associated with the pastoral science fiction subgenre.
"Giant Killer" is a science fiction short story by A. Bertram Chandler. It was first published in the October 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, and later included in many science fiction anthologies, including World of Wonder edited by Fletcher Pratt. In 1996 it was shortlisted for a Retro Hugo Award for Best Novella.
Dexter Gabriel, better known by his pen name Phenderson Djèlí Clark, is an American speculative fiction writer and historian, who is an assistant professor in the department of history at the University of Connecticut. He uses a pen name to differentiate his literary work from his academic work, and has also published under the name A. Phenderson Clark. This pen name, "Djèlí", makes reference to the griots – traditional Western African storytellers, historians and poets.
The Miracle-Workers is a science fiction novella by Jack Vance published in 1958. It was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in the July 1958 edition. It is about humans on an Earth-like planet which was colonized by space travellers many centuries ago. In the intervening years, the inhabitants have lost their understanding of science and have regressed to a Medieval state of technology, aided by their use of voodoo, telepathy, and magic. Change is set in motion when a maverick apprentice Jinxman starts to rediscover the scientific method and learn about science.
The Best of Murray Leinster is the title of two collections of science fiction short stories by American author Murray Leinster. The first, a British edition edited by Brian Davis, was first published in paperback by Corgi in December 1976. The second, an American edition edited by J. J. Pierce, was first published in paperback by Del Rey/Ballantine in April 1978 as a volume in its Classic Library of Science Fiction. The American edition has since been translated into German and Italian.
The Best of Raymond Z. Gallun is a collection of science fiction short stories by American author Raymond Z. Gallun, edited by J. J. Pierce. It was first published in paperback by Del Rey/Ballantine in August 1978 as a volume in its Classic Library of Science Fiction.