(Probably Found) Looking for a long forgotten story

[danieljeronimo]

Once i was a child (we all have been there, i guess) and read a sci-fi story that I really liked. The problem is that now i can't remember either the title or the author. I read it in an spanish edition publisehd by Forja, but that particular collection of science fiction stories seems long out of print. All i have to work with is an unclear recollection of the plot. So now that I realize that I won't be able to find this story for myself, and I think it is worth trying here to see if somebody else remembers.
The thing goes like these. A traveller hits the ground (in this planet, I believe) just after a hurricane. He goes for a walk and encounters a tree that has been badly damaged by the storm. He passes out. During the next days, he finds out that his body has changed (improved, indeed). It turns out that the tree belongs to a strange species of conscious trees which reproduce themselves fertilizing with his spores to wandering animals, who in turn will root and become trees. There is a long and very engaging description of the way the tree fights the hurrican. The rest of the story deals with the acceptation of this situation by the human.
Well, if anyone knows which story is this, I'd really appreciate the helping hand.


PS. I'm sorry if my english is a bit akward.

 

[jackokent]

Welcome to Chronicles danieljeronimo. You're english seems find to me

Can't help with the story however, sorry

 

[danieljeronimo]

Thanks for the welcome. I'm sorry you don't know the story, but its always comforting to see that there's people out there actually willing to help you. I've been reading some of the other threads and realize that this is a very friendly community, at least when it comes to problems like mine.

 

[j d worthington]

I get the feeling that I have read this story sometime in the past, but I'll be darned if I can remember either title or author. However, I'll keep trying.

In the meantime, I'll second the welcome to the Chronicles, and hope that someone will soon be able to provide the information you're seeking.

 

[danieljeronimo]

Thanks again. I remember something else that can be helpful. The spanish translation I read came in a an anthology which included "Letter to a Phoenix", "Arena", and I think "Martians go home" by Brown, some of the short stories form Bradbury's "The Martian cronicles", as well as some short stories by Asimov and a some others I can't remember. It was a quite good selection, anyway. I guess maybe the spanish editors just translated an american or english selection and in that case somebody may know the english version of that collection. By the way, it was a four volumes collection called, in spanish, "Los mejores cuentos y relatos", and each volume was devoted to a different genre: science fiction, horror, romance and policial. The fact that I have all this information just frustrates me a little bit more.

 

[T5.2]

Have you tried contacting the spanish publisher?
They will certainly be happy to help.

 

[danieljeronimo]

The publisher seems to have gone out of bussines... So it's rather unrealistic to expect help from them.
Thanks anyway.

 

[gishmilish]

Here is a link that may help, if you are still looking, five years later!

"www" dot "ciencia-ficcion" dot "com" slash "opinion" slash "op01096" dot "htm"

It is the book you are talking about, and gives a (complete, I think) table of contents, and maybe even a few plot synopses.

(It's in Spanish, which I am really lousy at, so I leave it to you to try to figure out whether the story you want is there.)

UPDATE (5 minutes later):

Thanks to the magic of google translate, I have almost 100% determined that the story is Keith Laumer's "Hybrid".

 

[Ravensquawk]

Only a part of this story matches what you're looking for. No hurricane, no tree, but an intelligent plant that evolves to fight any threat to it. The description makes it sound like a cactus or succulent with eyes that can follow an intruder. It grabs a man with a tendril or liana, and infects him, and kills off the distant descendant of the human race, now a mean, squatty little critter called the Itorloo. It eventually takes over the earth, allowing animals that it doesn't perceive to be a threat to live. (Nice of it, huh?) The likeness to your description was just eerie enough to suck me in.

That story is "Seeds of the Dusk" by Raymond Z. Gallun.

No trees or hurricanes, though. And the humans don't survive to accept the plant. So you may well be looking for a different story. If you find that story, please post it, because I want to read it.

 

[otistdog]

It's probably unlikely that the original poster will see these new responses, but, just in case...

If you can remember other stories in the collection, the Internet Science Fiction Database (ISFDB) is probably a good way to zero in on the one you want. Stories are cross-linked to the collections they're published in, and (especially if you can think of two different stories in the same collection), this can make it easy to narrow down the candidates by title.

 

[Ravensquawk]

I now know that this story is "Hybrid" by Keith Laumer!

I read it two days ago because it was in this question here on the Chronicles.

Although it didn't match that question, it exactly matches this one.

Question quote:

"There is a long and very engaging description of the way the tree fights the hurrican."

Story text:

Instantly, it assessed the situation. A storm was moving in off the sea — a major typhoon. It was too late for effective measures. Ignoring the pain of unaccustomed activity, the tree sent out new shock roots — cables three inches in diameter, strong as stranded steel — to grip the upreared rock slabs a hundred yards north of the tap root.
There was nothing more the tree could do. Impassively, it awaited the onslaught of the storm.

Question quote:

"He goes for a walk and encounters a tree that has been badly damaged by the storm. He passes out. During the next days, he finds out that his body has changed (improved, indeed)."

Story text:

At once, the Yanda mind initiated sweeping rearrangements at the submolecular level.
First, cell-regeneration, stitching up the open lesions on arm and head. Antibodies were modified in vast numbers, flushed through the system. Parasites died.
Maintain this process, the tree-mind directed.

Story text:

The Yanda worked over the body of Pantelle, adjusting, correcting, reinforcing, discarding a useless appendix or tonsil here, adding a reserve air storage unit there. A vestigal eye deep in the brain was refurbished for sensitivity at the radio frequencies, linked with controls. The spine was deftly fused at the base; additional mesenteries were added for intestinal support. Following the basic pattern laid down in the genes, the tree-mind rebuilt the body.

Question quote:

"It turns out that the tree belongs to a strange species of conscious trees which reproduce themselves fertilizing with his spores to wandering animals, who in turn will root and become trees. . . . The rest of the story deals with the acceptation of this situation by the human."

Story text:

"Well," Pantelle coughed. "That's where my part of the deal comes in. A host creature transmits the spores through the normal mating process. The offspring gets good health and a long life before the metamorphosis. That's not so bad — to live a hundred years, and then pick a nice spot to root and grow and watch the seasons turn . . ."

It's an exact match to answer the question.
It was fun to read a story that sounded interesting in another question on the forums, and come back to this question and know the story to answer it.

Even if it was asked in 2006.

 

[PaulMmn]

"Even if it was asked in 2006."

We're determined, if not fast!

 

[Boaz]

Too bad that the original poster was not looking for… Tenacity by Ravensquawk.

 

[Ravensquawk]

I would love to have @danieljeronimo the OP come back and be able to find the original Spanish book!

It was rediscovered in gishmilsh's link; I searched for it; even with publisher Forja gone out of business, it should not be so absurdly obscure online; admire my semicolons, ha.
But it was surprisingly hard to find in an age of online records.

Scribd has the information on it, a cover photo, and better yet, a means to download it!

(Maybe we'd better before it vanishes, eh?)

For the (Preservation) of The Record:

Los Mejores Cuentos y Relatos de Horror - Editorial Forja

"And For the Preservation of the Record In Case The Link Dies, The Cover:"

And, for an easier find, and also For Preservation, Furtherance and Cultivation of The Records, Keith Laumer's "Hybrid" on the Internet Archive.