They Twinkled Like Jewels by Philip José Farmer

“They Twinkled Like Jewels” is a 1954 science fiction short story by Philip José Farmer. It is about a transient man who is taken to a government camp where he meets a strange fellow from his past.

Non-Spoiler Summary In A Nutshell:

Jack Crane is trying to evade the authorities, but he isn’t succeeding too well. When he is finally arrested because of his homelessness, he is forced to go to a federal rehabilitation camp. Along the way he meets an educated transient who explains to him about the high rate of schizophrenia and transients in the world. But the real problems start when he reaches the camp and comes into contact with a man who possesses something that Jack very much desires!

For a while his heart had knocked so loudly that he had been sure he would not be able to hear his pursuers if they did get close. It seemed inevitable that they would track him down. A buddy had told him that a new camp had just been built at a place only three hours drive away from the town. This meant that Bohas would be thick as hornets in the neighborhood. But no black uniforms had so far appeared. And then, lying there while the passionate and untiring sun mounted the sky, the bang-bang of his heart was replaced by a noiseless but painful movement in his stomach.

My Two Cents:

• The good:

• This is the first story I have ever read by Philip José Farmer, and I found myself enjoying his very descriptive writing style. I thought the way he compared hunger to a tiger in his belly was pretty dang cool!
• Wasps – literally and metaphorically these insects were put to good use in this story!
• There were some really interesting characters in this story. I totally liked Jack, the educated transient and the albino.

• The bad:

• Some of the story concepts are pretty abstract, and I found myself having to re-read sections in order to figure out what was going on.

Fact Sheet:
• Page Count: 11
• Word Count: 6,629
• “They Twinkled Like Jewels” garnered the following awards:

• Although this story didn’t win any trophies, Philip José Farmer has been honored with many science fiction awards.

Where you can find “They Twinkled Like Jewels”:

• This short story first appeared in the January 1954 issue of Fantastic Universe.
• “They Twinkled Like Jewels” is included in The Cache.
• You can read a very nice free version of this story at the Project Gutenberg web site.

Some Interesting Links:

• Did you know that Philip José Farmer worked in a steel mill before earning a bachelor’s degree in English? Yep. You can learn more about this ground-breaking science fiction author at Wikipedia.
• If you like Philip José Farmer’s short stories, be sure to check out his award winning collection The Best of Philip Jose Farmer.
• Special thanks to Dave at QuasarDragon for pointing out this excellent story.

Craving More Stories?
If you enjoyed this story then you might also like Alien Offer, about an alien fleet who offers to evacuate the world’s children after learning of Earth’s impending doom, by Al Sevcik.

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