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"It's hard to tell stories about critters that are not human. John W. Campbell tried it, in "Twilight," and everybody says it's a wonderful story, and nobody ever reads it twice."
- Jerry Pournelle
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| Atomic Automatic | ||
| Fires a special, rocket-like bullet. |
It fires a "steam bullet" which makes a "screaming hiss" as it goes by.
| He turned to face one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen - a golden-haired bit of femininity whose shapely form was further accentuated by a range costume, consisting of a tight-fitting pair of breeches and a glistening shirt made of glass cloth. Strapped to her feet were large discs which, Conavan judged, were to give her better support on this planet of uncertain footing and weak gravitational attraction.
In her hand she held an atomic automatic,* still smoking. * This gun is not unlike the old-time Colt automatic of the year 1940. The atomic gun, however, uses a lead bullet of tremendous range. Steam, generated inside the lead pellet and fired through the rear like a rocket-tube blast, gives this gun a range of over a mile. It is equipped with telescopic sights. |
| Technovelgy from Revolt on Io,
by Jack West. Published by Amazing Stories in 1940 Additional resources -
|
Some of them are fancy:
Compare to the electro-bullets from Pirates of the Gorm (1932) by Nat Schachner and the self-guided rocket bullets from The Planet Strappers (1961) by Raymond Z. Gallun and to the smart bullet from Runaway (1985), by Michael Crichton.
The one who had spoken, also a Venusian, was an enormous fat man whose large belly shimmied like gelatin when he shifted his footing. He wore a silver coin-studded black leather belt almost a foot wide. Two ivory handled atomic automatics snuggled in holsters attached to the belt.
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'What would you do,' Eric asked the robot cabdriver, 'if your wife had turned to stone, your best friend were a toad, and you had lost your job?'
'those suits they wear -- call them 'stillsuits' -- that reclaim the body's own water...'
'Now, except for weight and heat, the same conditions prevail in this chamber as in space.'
'there were so many worms and counterworms loose in the data-net...'
'Now, look, let's start with the three fundamental Rules of Robotics...'
'..the synthetic intellects at the Place of Knowledge had far outstripped the minds of men.'
'But after washing and drying clothes had to be smooth - free from fine lines and wrinkles ...'
