Thanks for the valian effort guys... Although I don't think i have an answer yet.

Brailing II is correct though. He grows a snout and a tail at the end. He transforms into an alien to adapt to the planet's neeeds.

It is a short story.

anyone? anyone?

This is what I have done in the past with these story IDs and still hope to do again whenever I have time, (which I MUST tell myself I will...someday...but it won't happen this year!) but in the meantime it REALLY helps if people do their own.

1. Go to the Abebooks forums. After registering, make sure you are in the "Booksleuth" forum, as it will bounce you back to the "Community" forum. http://forums.abebooks.com/abesleuthcom Post under "Science Fiction." If I were you, I wouldn't crosspost there, although some stories fall into more than one category, i. e. Children's and Science Fiction. This forum houses the most friendly, helpful, useful, knowledgeable, KINDHEARTED folks I've been able to find online--besides Bradbury's own forum, of course.

2. Go to Google Groups (or, if you REALLY MUST, Usenet--same groups in a different form, only Usenet preferers seem to have a less efficient system coupled with a superior, know-it-all attitude.) Start with this one: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.books.isaac-asimov?lnk=lr because Asimov is the author most frequently mistaken for Bradbury. Even if the story isn't one of Dr. Asimov's, his fans are polite, helpful, and widely read in other Science Fiction. When you post there, crosspost to the following groups: rec.arts.books, rec.arts.books.childrens, and rec.arts.sf.written The worst that will happen is some obnoxious troll, most likely on rec.arts.books.childrens where a number of them have taken up semipermanent residence, who has nothing better to do, will call you rude for crossposting (WHY, I have never determined and refuse to argue it with them.) The best that will happen is you only have to type your question (or copy and paste the one you already typed) once, and it will simultaneously appear in all four groups. If the people who answer just hit "reply" without stripping out the other addresses, all answers will appear in all those groups, so you only have to check one instead of opening up four groups separately. Usenet has a smattering of knowledgeable and helpful folks along with a community of idiots with too much time on their hands, but a lot of people see questions posted there and you may receive semidecent answers.

3. If all these free sources fail, go to: http://www.logan.com/loganberry/stump.html They are the ultimate authority and if the question can be solved nowhere else, it is well worth the $2.00 they charge to have it posted to their site, where it will stay on the unsolved pages until solved, without getting "bumped down" the way things do in message board format. It will then go permanently to the solved pages in case anyone else ever has the same question.

4. Lastly, most important! When you get your answer, whether it be right away or months or years later, PLEASE come back and post it here! If your post is no longer near the top, you can find it by clicking "Find" at the top of the page and searching for your username or some other unusual or distinctive phrase. It would also be nice to mention from what source the answer came. If it's not posted here, it will end up on my "unsolved" list if and when I do get time to go back through all these, and I'll end up doing all of the above unnecessarily (except for paying for other peoples' stumpers, at which I draw the line)! Thanks!

Hope this helps!

quote:

Brailing II is correct though. He grows a snout and a tail at the end. He transforms into an alien to adapt to the planet's neeeds.

Ah, this is a memorable story, isn't it? One I never forgot, anyway! And it has been asked about on the ABE boards a number of times. It is called "Enchanted Village" by A. E. van Vogt. It has been printed in quite a few books; you can try some of the books listed below. (information provided by the ever-helpful Internet Speculative Fiction Database: ISFDB )

As always, most older out-of-print books can be easily located by using this search engine:
Addall Book Search

Variant Titles:

* The Sands of Mars (1950) - A. E. van Vogt
* The Enchanted Village (1950) - A. E. van Vogt

Publications:

* Other Worlds Science Stories, July 1950, (Jul 1950 , Raymond A. Palmer, Clark Publishing Company, $0.35, 164pp, Digest, magazine) Cover: Malcolm Smith

* Possible Worlds of SF, (1951 , Groff Conklin, Vanguard, $2.95, 372pp, hc, anth)

* Destination: Universe!, (1952 , A. E. van Vogt, Pellegrini Cudahy, $3.50, 309pp, hc, coll) Cover: Boris Dolgov

* Possible Worlds of SF, (1952 , Groff Conklin, Grayson, 9/6, 254pp, hc, anth)

* New Worlds, March 1952, (1952 , John Carnell, Nova Publications, Ltd; London, England, 2s, 96pp, 5½" x 8½", magazine) Cover: Bob Clothier

* Destination: Universe!, (Mar 1953 , A. E. van Vogt, Signet, #1007, 160pp, pb, coll)

* Possible Worlds of Science Fiction, (Jul 1955 , Groff Conklin, Berkley, #G-3, $0.35, 189pp, pb, anth)

* The Sands of Mars and Other Stories, (1958 , Anonymous, Sydney: Jubilee, #213, 2/-, 114pp, pb, anth)

* Possible Worlds of Science Fiction, (Nov 1960 , Groff Conklin, Berkley Medallion, #G471, $0.35, 188pp, pb, anth) Cover: Richard Powers

* Asleep in Armageddon, (Jun 1962 , Michael Sissons, Panther, #1379, 2/6, 189pp, pb, anth)

* Destination: Universe!, (1964 , A. E. van Vogt, Berkley, #F893, $0.50, 160pp, pb, coll)

* Modern Masterpieces of Science Fiction, (1965 , Sam Moskowitz, World Publishing Co., $6.00, 518pp, hc, anth)

* Microcosmic God, (1965 , Sam Moskowitz, MacFadden-Bartell, #60-335, $0.60, 142pp, pb, anth)

* Monsters, (1965 , A. E. van Vogt, Pocket, #52515, $0.50, 154pp, pb, coll)

* Science Fiction Monsters, (1967 , A. E. van Vogt, Pocket, #52-555, $0.50, 154pp, pb, coll)

* Monsters, (1970 , A. E. van Vogt, Corgi, 0-552-08570-7, £0.25, 190pp, pb, coll)

* Destination: Universe!, (Nov 1970 , A. E. van Vogt, Berkley, #425-01912-8, $0.75, 160pp, pb, coll)

* Science Fiction, (1973 , Sylvia Z. Brodkin, Elizabeth J. Pearson, Littell & Co., tp, anth)

* Destination: Universe!, (1973 , A. E. van Vogt, Panther, 0-586-02484-0, £0.30, 172pp, pb, coll)

* Hot & Cold Running Cities, (1974 , Georgess McHargue, Rinehart & Winston, hc, anth)

* Anthropology Through Science Fiction, (1974 , Carol Mason, Martin Harry Greenberg, Patricia Warrick, St. Martin's, #LCC# 7392060, 387pp, hc, anth)

* Modern Science Fiction, (1974 , Norman Spinrad, Anchor Press, pb, anth)

* Microcosmic God, (1975 , Sam Moskowitz, Manor, #12328, $1.25, 193pp, pb, anth)

* Modern Science Fiction, (1976 , Norman Spinrad, Gregg Press, 0-8398-2339-8, $25.00, 540pp, hc, anth)

* Shape Shifters, (1978 , Jane Yolen, Seabury Press, 0-8164-3212-0, 181pp, hc, anth)

* Science Fiction, (1979 , Sylvia Z. Brodkin, Elizabeth J. Pearson, Littell & Co., 0-88343-164-5, 254pp, tp, anth)

* The Great SF Stories 12 (1950), (Sep 1984 , Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, DAW, 0-87997-953-4, $3.50, 319pp, pb, anth) Cover: Dino Marsan

* Isaac Asimov Presents the Golden Years of Science Fiction: Sixth Series, (1988 , Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, Crown/Bonanza, 0-517-65754-6, $8.95, 624pp, hc, anth)

* Nebula Awards 31, (1997 , Pamela Sargent, Harcourt Brace, 0-15-600114-4, $13.00, 334pp, tp, anth)

* The Science Fiction Century, (Nov 1997 , David G. Hartwell, Tor, 0-312-86338-1, $40.00, 1005pp, hc, anth) Cover: John Harris

* The Science Fiction Century, (May 1998 , David G. Hartwell, Quality Paperback Book Club, 0-9658501-3-7, $21.95, 1005pp, tp, anth) Cover: John Harris

* Nebula Awards 31, (1999 , Pamela Sargent, Harcourt Brace/Harvest, 0-15-600114-4, $19.00, 334pp, tp, anth)

* Futures Past: The Best Short Fiction of A. E. van Vogt, (Oct 1999 , A. E. van Vogt, Tachyon Publications, 1-892391-05-8, $17.00, 203pp, tp, coll) Cover: Michael Dashow

* Futures Past: The Best Short Fiction of A. E. van Vogt, (Oct 1999 , A. E. van Vogt, Tachyon Publications, 1-892391-04-X, $50.00, 203pp, hc, coll) Cover: Michael Dashow

This message has been edited. Last edited by: theoctobercountry,

Zowie!

zowie! zap! zamm! kapow! boff! biff!

Zowie is a good word, or at least a useful one at times.

Thanks for clearing this up.

I just hope the original poster comes back to see that the story has been located!

This was an easy story for me to identify, because I had looked it up to answer a query on the ABE board just a couple of months ago. I have a copy of it in The Great SF Stories 12.

Speaking of which... I think just about everyone on this board appreciates classic science fiction, and I'd like to put in a recommendation for that series of books. This was a mass-market paperback series edited by Asimov and Martin Greenberg, titled Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories. I believe there were 25 books in the series, with each book covering the best stories of one year. Really, for anyone wanting a good grounding in classic SF from the golden age, this is a fantastic introduction to the genre.

The series was partially re-printed in a nice hardcover format; same content as the paperbacks, but with a different title: Isaac Asimov Presents the Golden Years of Science Fiction. Each of these hardcovers contains the content of two of the paperbacks; I believe there were six volumes in this series, thus the contents of the first twelve paperbacks were also available in this alternate form. (I don't think the remainder of the series was ever reprinted in hardcover, though...) Again, anyone who may wish to look for these books (now out of print) can find them through Addall Used Book Locater.

But I'm getting off topic here.... "Enchanted Village" was a great story; one of those that I always remembered, ever since first reading it as a teen...

I just finished Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land - for the third time in this life. I visited a friend who was recovering from brain tumor surgery and we got to talking and he mentioned that he had enjoyed that book in the early '60s. It was the essential anthem of the period predating the free-love and flower child era. I found the extended version uncut that is some 520 pages and had it shipped to him from Amazon, that was actually cheaper than packaging up my copy and shipping it off to him. So, I started to reread the story and could not put it down. Much in the work to re-invirogate the spirit that can become more perfect Humans and learn to live together without fear. Gee, maybe it will become the anthem of the next period.