“The Hated” is a 1958 science fiction short story by Frederik Pohl (writing as Paul Flehr). It is about an astronaut who has returned from Mars and the psychological problems he is trying to work out.
Is There A Chip On Your Shoulder?
Have you ever hated somebody? I mean really despised them – to the point that you wanted to physically harm them? Or even kill them? I’m sure there are loads of things in life that could cause people to hate each other so badly, but this story is about the feelings of returned astronauts and how they might be dealt with.
Non-spoiler Summary in a Nutshell
Byron went to Mars. Sounds cool huh? The problem is that he went to Mars with 5 other men – and they were all confined to the same car-sized living space for the entire journey! Wow – and you thought living with your room-mate was bad, how would you like to go through that ordeal? Anyway, after returning from Mars he and the other astronauts are assigned to separate sections of the country so they don’t kill each other. But Byron has had enough, and he is ready to track down the man with the annoying sneeze and kill him, and he just might be able to pull it off!
My Two Cents…
- There is a very informal style in the telling of this story – something which I quite enjoyed.
- The ending was quite neat. (It was similar to the ending of Pohl’s novel Gateway – if you’ve read that one.)
- I love stories that were written when people still believed there might actually be aliens living on Mars. Ah… the good ol’ days!
Interesting Tidbits About This Story:
- Page Count: 10
- Word Count: 4,015
- Special thanks to Blue Tyson at Free SF Reader for pointing out this great story.
- Did you know that Frederik Pohl has done it all when it comes to science fiction writing? He’s been a fan, critic, agent, editor and much more in the field. You can learn more about this amazing science fiction author by reading the biography page on his web site.
Where You Can Find The Hated:
- This story was originally published in the January 1958 edition of Galaxy Science Fiction – a magazine that Pohl later edited – could that be the reason for the pen name perhaps? Hmmm?
- It was also included in the short story collection The Best of Frederik Pohl. (This book is out of print, but you can still find used copies for sale at Amazon.com
or on eBay
.)
- You can read a free online version of “The Hated” at Project Gutenberg.
Craving More Stories?
If you liked “The Hated” then you’ll probably also enjoy The Day the Martians Came – also by Frederik Pohl.
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Have you ever taken a look at Project Gutenberg (gutenberg.org)’s collection of sci-fi stories and books? It’s kind of hard (if not impossible) to find any sort of grouping of them, but if you look up individual authors you should be able to find some. I subscribe to their RSS feed of newly posted etexts and see some sci-fi stuff now. I also do some proofreading of what later become Project Gutenberg ebooks over at distributed proofreaders and I’ve seen a number of sci-fi short stories and novels come through there. It’s not all pre-1923 stuff, either; quite a few stories from the 60s. For instance, just last night they posted THE DEMI-URGE by Thomas Michael Disch from a 1960s issue of Amazing Stories. Lots of Mack Reynolds novels, too.
Something to consider!
Oh my
I see you mentioned PG in THIS very post! My apologies 
Great site, keep up the good work!
Schalken,
Thanks for the info – Project Gutenberg is wonderful resource which I highly recommend!
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Whoa, that was pretty intense. I can only imagine the claustrophobia of being in that kind of confined space, and the annoyance of having to share it with others. I think I would have murderous intentions as well.
“I love stories that were written when people still believed there might actually be aliens living on Mars. Ah… the good ol’ days!”
Me too. There is a different sense of wonder and awe associated with those stories and I always enjoy them a little bit more because of that.
Thanks for reviewing this one, my first experience reading Pohl. I hope to get to Gateway soon.
Carl,
Yeah, there were some intense feelings in this story. And I think if that happened to me I might feel the same way!
I agree about the sense of wonder in some of these older stories, and in a way it does make them more enjoyable.
Definitely check out Gateway – it is a very cool book!
Picked up a nice trade copy of it at BN today! And spent a whopping $1.54 at Half Price books picking up a copy of Asimov short stories, and a copy of Currents of Space and a copy of The Death Dealers, also by Asimov. Score!!!
That’s great Carl!
Wow – that is quite the score… were you looking for those, or did you just happen into the good deal? Either way, I’m jealous!
Just happened to see them just as I was deciding to go ahead and leave. I remembered that I hadn’t checked for anything by Asimov and came up with these three books.