Seeking short story from a collection I read 89-90, almost dead aliens with vampiric qualities

[MtotheK]

Hi, I came across this forum and I'm hoping someone may remember a science fiction collection likely published in in the 1970's to early 80's.

The details of the story I can remember feature explorers from earth finding what appears to be a quiet and almost dead/abandoned world. The life forms discovered are frail and seem harmless. However this doesn't last, the life forms somehow fed off the visitors, and over a very short period of time, come back from the brink of starvation/death to overwhelm the explorers. I think these life forms had some sort of vampiric quality, maybe they fed off fear?

I remember the entire collection being great. I think this was also the same collection that had a short story about space explorers being changed from their human form to some sort of special genetically engineered creatures, not unlike dogs. A number of switched explorers were sent out and did not return, so the captain goes out after them, switching himself and his dog, and they can communicate for the first time in a shared language.

I realize this is tough, it's a short story in a collection that is all but guaranteed to be hard to find now, but if anyone has any thoughts that would be great!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Hugh]

Hi, I came across this forum and I'm hoping someone may remember a science fiction collection likely published in in the 1970's to early 80's.

The details of the story I can remember feature explorers from earth finding what appears to be a quiet and almost dead/abandoned world. The life forms discovered are frail and seem harmless. However this doesn't last, the life forms somehow fed off the visitors, and over a very short period of time, come back from the brink of starvation/death to overwhelm the explorers. I think these life forms had some sort of vampiric quality, maybe they fed off fear?

I remember the entire collection being great. I think this was also the same collection that had a short story about space explorers being changed from their human form to some sort of special genetically engineered creatures, not unlike dogs. A number of switched explorers were sent out and did not return, so the captain goes out after them, switching himself and his dog, and they can communicate for the first time in a shared language.

I realize this is tough, it's a short story in a collection that is all but guaranteed to be hard to find now, but if anyone has any thoughts that would be great!

Thanks in advance!

The story about the captain and his dog is “Desertion” by Clifford D Simak. If it isn’t I will eat my hat. That narrows the field considerably. It's one of my very favourite stories.

Here's a link to a list of all anthologies containing "Desertion" published up until 1984. If you click on each anthology it will give you a list of the stories it contains. This may ring some bells. This site says that "Desertion" was the fourth equal most anthologised with 23 reprints.

Stories, Listed by Author

And here's a list with the covers of the anthologies that contain "Desertion". You'll need to scroll down. This also may ring some bells.

Clifford D. Simak - The International Bibliography

 

[Matteo]

Sounds intriguing and rings a faint bell...too faintly to remember the story.

Hugh is right about the Simak story and his excellent will help you find it.

Unfortunately, the link he gave is the general link to Ralf's excellent Simak site. If, as Hugh did, you go to the site, find Desertion, then post the link and then click on the link, it will return you to the page giving details for Desertion. Otherwise, going to the link for the first time reverts you to the general page.

Does that make sense??

So, what you need to do is click on the "Type" box (top left) and select "SF & F Stories". You may as well also select "by title" underneath. Then scroll down to and click on Desertion. You can then also limit the search more (Ralf's page is very comprehensive!) by selecting "English" under the Language option and "Anthologies" under the Filter option. Your book will certainly be there.

Remember to come back here with the answer - that "vampire" story is bugging me...

 

[Hugh]

Many thanks indeed @Matteo for clarifying this. I thought I'd checked that the link worked.

And great to find you're about again on this site - I'm sure we know each other from the (mostly sleeping) Simak-fan site.

 

[Matteo]

It does 'work' but only if you've already gone to Ralf's site and then clicked through to find the Desertion info. If you click on it 'cold' it just goes to the main page - which is a bit odd but I'm sure there's a techie answer for it...

I'm around here quite often actually but reading, not often posting. Last Simak I read was Enchanted Pilgrimage and I was a bit disappointed. Have quite a lot (other authors) on my 'to be read' pile at the moment but once that's done I want to make a concerted effort to track down more of his works.

 

[MtotheK]

Thanks Hugh!
You're spot on about "Desertion," which is a huge help!
It's funny, I remembered the key plot points, but definitely didn't have some lines right!

Thanks Matteo for the addition direction with the link, I'm searching now.

Hoping I'm right that they're in a collection together, I'm searching now.