The Right to Arm Bears

Last updated
The Right to Arm Bears
Armbears-cover.jpg
Author Gordon R. Dickson
Cover artistRichard Martin
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Science fiction
Publisher Baen Books
Publication date
December 2000
Media typePrint (paperback)
Pages431 (paperback edition)
ISBN 0-671-31959-0 (paperback edition)
OCLC 45431591

The Right to Arm Bears is a collection of two science fiction novels and one novelette by American writer Gordon R. Dickson. They are set on the planet Dilbia, where humans and an alien race known as Hemnoids are trying to win the support of the native bear-like population.

Contents

Plot summary

The planet Dilbia is in a vital spot for both human and Hemnoid space travel. Both are trying to persuade the Dilbians to work with them to use the planet as a way station.

Spacial Delivery

In the first novel (originally published in 1961) a biologist is drafted into the diplomatic corps to aid the human ambassador to Dilbia. He sends John Tardy (Half-Pint Posted) to hunt down a Dilbian, the Streamside Terror, who has kidnapped Ty Lamorc (Greasy Face), another human. While being delivered by stalwart Dilbian postman Hill Bluffer, Tardy learns more of the situation, and is attacked and eventually captured by Boy Is She Built (Streamside Terror's girlfriend) and the Hemnoid Tark-ay. Tardy gets free, and learns that things aren't quite as they seem on the planet or with the situation. As he solves the dilemma of rescuing Lamorc, he gains a victory for humanity over the Hemnoids, and a deeper insight into the Dilbians for humanity's future dealings.

Spacial Delivery is an expanded version of "The Man in the Mailbag", a novelette published in 1959 in Galaxy magazine.

Spacepaw

In Spacepaw, a novel originally published in 1969, Bill Waltham is a terraforming specialist sent to Muddy Nose village on Dilbia to teach the natives to use basic farming tools. When he arrives, the agricultural group leader and assistant are missing. The assistant, Anita Lyme, has been kidnapped by a local group of bandits led by Bone Breaker. Hill Bluffer returns as a freelance consultant to help Bill (Pick-and-Shovel) continue the Shorty tradition of overcoming tough Dilbian customers. The outlaws are holed up in a valley, and Bill discovers, upon visiting, that Anita is a "guest". The whole story is a plan by Bone Breaker to get beaten by a human, but not lose face, so that he can retire from being an outlaw.

"The Law-Twister Shorty"

In the novelette "The Law-Twister Shorty" (originally published in 1971), high school student Malcolm O'Keefe is sent in to avoid a diplomatic incident as Gentle Maiden attempts to adopt some stranded human tourists. Village law allows her to do this, and Malcolm must defeat Iron Bender in order to have them released. Instead, he is able to make new laws by moving the Stone of the Mighty Grappler.

Characters

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Aldiss</span> British science fiction writer (1925–2017)

Brian Wilson Aldiss was an English writer, artist and anthology editor, best known for science fiction novels and short stories. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss, except for occasional pseudonyms during the mid-1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Anning</span> British fossil collector and palaeontologist (1799–1847)

Mary Anning was an English fossil collector, dealer, and palaeontologist who became known around the world for the discoveries she made in Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs along the English Channel at Lyme Regis in the county of Dorset in Southwest England. Anning's findings contributed to changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history of the Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murray Leinster</span> American science fiction writer

Murray Leinster was a pen name of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an American writer of genre fiction, particularly of science fiction. He wrote and published more than 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marion Zimmer Bradley</span> American author (1930−1999)

Marion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley was an American author of fantasy, historical fantasy, science fiction, and science fantasy novels, and is best known for the Arthurian fiction novel The Mists of Avalon and the Darkover series. Noted for the feminist perspective in her writing, her reputation has been posthumously marred by multiple accusations of child sexual abuse by her daughter Moira Greyland, and for allegedly assisting her second husband, convicted child abuser Walter Breen, in sexually abusing multiple unrelated children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex and sexuality in speculative fiction</span>

Sexual themes are frequently used in science fiction or related genres. Such elements may include depictions of realistic sexual interactions in a science fictional setting, a protagonist with an alternative sexuality, a sexual encounter between a human and a fictional extraterrestrial, or exploration of the varieties of sexual experience that deviate from the conventional.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon R. Dickson</span> Canadian-American science fiction writer (1923–2001)

Gordon Rupert Dickson was a Canadian-American science fiction writer. He was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2000.

Terror of the Autons is the first serial of the eighth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 2 to 23 January 1971.

<i>Android</i> (film) 1982 science fiction film directed by Aaron Lipstadt

Android is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Aaron Lipstadt and starring Don Keith Opper and Klaus Kinski. The film tells the story of a scientist and his assistant who are working on an illegal android program in their laboratory on a space station in deep space.

<i>The Ashes of Eden</i>

The Ashes of Eden is a Star Trek novel co-written by William Shatner, Judith Reeves-Stevens, and Garfield Reeves-Stevens as part of the "Shatnerverse" series of novels. This is Shatner's first Trek collaboration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morris Ankrum</span> American actor (1896–1964)

Morris Ankrum was an American radio, television, and film character actor.

The Alliance–Union universe is a fictional universe created by American writer C. J. Cherryh. It is the setting for a future history series extending from the 21st century into the far future.

Bone Chillers is a series of children's horror fiction novels and a TV show created and authored by Betsy Haynes.

The complete bibliography of Gordon R. Dickson.

The following is a list of works by Johnston McCulley (1883–1958). Stories featuring his more popular pulp fiction characters, including Zorro, have been allotted independent lists. These lists are presented chronologically. The list of his other works is presented alphabetically.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clifford D. Simak</span> American writer (1904–1988)

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.

<i>Carnival</i> (Bear novel) 2006 novel by Elizabeth Bear

Carnival is a 2006 science fiction novel by Elizabeth Bear. It was nominated for a Philip K. Dick Award, a Locus Award and a Lambda Literary Award.

Depending on the counting convention used, and including all titles, charts, and edited collections, there may be currently over 500 books in Isaac Asimov's bibliography—as well as his individual short stories, individual essays, and criticism. For his 100th, 200th, and 300th books, Asimov published Opus 100 (1969), Opus 200 (1979), and Opus 300 (1984), celebrating his writing.

Caesar (<i>Planet of the Apes</i>) Fictional character

Caesar is a fictional character in the Planet of the Apes franchise. He is the leader of the apes in both the original and reboot series. Caesar is portrayed by Roddy McDowall in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1971) and Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973). Later on Andy Serkis portrays the character in the reboot series consisting of Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017).