MajorMattMason
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2014
- Messages
- 3
I'm trying to remember the author and title of a science fiction story I read decades ago (mid-70's to early-80's). I want to say it's a golden age short story (maybe a novel) but I may be wrong on that point.
The story follows a man who, waking up from a long bout of unconsciousness, finds that he has been transformed into a being of living metallic components. The streets outside his apartment are deserted and look like they have been that way for a very long time. He finds corpses, some of people who seem to have changed completely to solid metal and some who did not complete the change and died half metal, half flesh. He surmises that he was exposed to the changing factor (radiation?) at just the perfect level. His shielding apartment walls plus an open window(?) letting exactly the right amount of radiation in for the proper amount of time. He begins to explore his surroundings. I seem to remember it being a very large, cosmopolitan city.
...and that's were my memory begins to fade.
I think that he finds others like himself and also some people who were shielded enough to still be fully human, but that might be me stirring a different story into the mix.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have so, so many books, a great number still in boxes, that I could be years finding it again without assistance.
(If anyone is wondering what triggered this search. Several weeks ago, I was discussing a recent meteor shower with a co-worker and the radio began to play Iron Man by Black Sabbath. Ever since, I haven't been able to get the story out of my head. Funny how the mind works.)
The story follows a man who, waking up from a long bout of unconsciousness, finds that he has been transformed into a being of living metallic components. The streets outside his apartment are deserted and look like they have been that way for a very long time. He finds corpses, some of people who seem to have changed completely to solid metal and some who did not complete the change and died half metal, half flesh. He surmises that he was exposed to the changing factor (radiation?) at just the perfect level. His shielding apartment walls plus an open window(?) letting exactly the right amount of radiation in for the proper amount of time. He begins to explore his surroundings. I seem to remember it being a very large, cosmopolitan city.
...and that's were my memory begins to fade.
I think that he finds others like himself and also some people who were shielded enough to still be fully human, but that might be me stirring a different story into the mix.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have so, so many books, a great number still in boxes, that I could be years finding it again without assistance.
(If anyone is wondering what triggered this search. Several weeks ago, I was discussing a recent meteor shower with a co-worker and the radio began to play Iron Man by Black Sabbath. Ever since, I haven't been able to get the story out of my head. Funny how the mind works.)
