Last week I had such success (in the number of hits) with my post about 5 short stories that contain talking animals that I figured I would continue the series this week. Today’s topic for bizarrely connected stories is 4 Great Science Fiction Stories That Contain Long Walks!
Being an avid hiker myself, I enjoy reading about amazing treks made by story characters – especially when they are such long distances! Here are four awesome science fiction short stories about really, REALLY long walks:
- The Very Pulse of the Machine by Michael Swanwick – an astronaut crashes her rover while exploring the surface of Io, and has to walk back to base.
- A Martian Odyssey by Stanley G. Weinbaum – another crash, but this time the astronaut’s 800 mile walk brings him into contact with loads of really strange life forms.
- Tower of Babylon by Ted Chiang – an ancient copper miner climbs the famed tower all the way to the brink of heaven.
- A Walk In The Sun by Geoffrey A. Landis – the sole survivor of a crash on the moon (another crash… jeez!) has to keep her solar powered suit in the sun until help arrives from Earth.
Which one wins the award for longest trek? Hmm… hard to say… its a toss-up between “Tower of Babylon” in which it takes “a full month and a half” to walk to the top of the tower, and “A Walk In The Sun” where our protaginist walks 12,000 kilometers around the circumference of the moon! I’m gonna have to say that “A Walk In The Sun” wins!
Hooray for long, deadly treks… and blisters.
Enjoy!
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8 users responded in this post
Does Stephen King’s novella “The Long Walk” count?
“Moonwalk” (1952) by H. B. Fyfe
John, Thanks for pointing out The Long Walk. I see that it started in Van Buren, Maine and went to Danvers, Massachusetts. According to MapQuest that is about 412 miles – so yeah, that definitely qualifies!
mmcshrry, I couldn’t find much information about “Moonwalk” – can anybody fill me in on the details?
A lunar tractor is caught in a landslide as it attempts to descend Plato’s inner ringwall to reach the crater floor. The only survivor must walk back to the base established within Archimedes crater— a good 350-400 mile jaunt across the Mare Imbrium.
Thanks mmcshrry! That story sounds like a good one – I’ll have to see if I can find it.
Given the title of your post, I was shocked not to see “Edward Bear and the Very Long Walk” by Ken Scholes on your list. It has the words very long walk in the title. And there’s a spaceship crash. I don’t think the distance will win any awards, but Edward is an anamatronic bear so walking and climbing on a alien planet is very dfficult for him. It’s actually a very moving and emotional story. I listened to it on escapepod: http://escapepod.org/2008/02/21/ep146-edward-bear-and-the-very-long-walk/, and highly recommend it.
Hey SF Fangirl,
Wow – thanks for pointing out that story. I had never heard of it, but it does fit the theme exactly. I’ll definitely add that story to my list.