Other editions of book The Thing in the Attic by James Blish, Science Fiction, Fantasy

"The Thing in the Attic" is a sci-fi story by James B. Blish, published in 1954. "Honath and his fellow arch-doubters did not believe in the Giants, and for this they were cast into Hell. And when survival depended upon unwavering faith in their beliefs, they saw that there were Giants, after all..." A classic and exotic tale of survival against all odds and amongst - yes - real space giants!

It is written that after the Giants came to Tellura from the far stars, they abode a while, and looked upon the surface of the land, and found it wanting, and of evil omen. Therefore did they make men to live always in the air and in the sunlight, and in the light of the stars, that he would be reminded of them. And the Giants abode yet a while, and taught men to speak, and to write, and to weave, and to do many things which are needful to do, of which the writings speak. And thereafter they departed to the far stars, saying, Take this world as your own, and though we shall return, fear not, for it is yours.—THE BOOK OF LAWS

Suddenly, Honath lost his temper. "Lose it, then!" he shouted. "Let us unlearn everything we know only by rote, go back to the beginning, learn all over again, and continue to learn, from our own experience. Spokesman, you are an old man, but there are still some of us who haven't forgotten what curiosity means!" "Quiet!" the Spokesman said. "We have heard enough. We call on Alaskon the Navigator." "Much of the Book is clearly untrue," Alaskon said flatly, rising. "As a handbook of small trades it has served us well. As a guide to how the universe is made, it is nonsense, in my opinion; Honath is too kind to it. I've made no secret of what I think, and I still think it." "And will pay for it," the Spokesman said, blinking slowly down at Alaskon. "Charl the Reader." "Nothing," Charl said, without standing, or even looking up. "You do not deny the charges?" "I've nothing to say," Charl said, but then, abruptly, his head jerked up, and he glared with desperate eyes at the Spokesman. "I can read, Spokesman. I have seen words in the Book of Laws that contradict each other. I've pointed them out. They're facts, they exist on the pages. I've taught nothing, told no lies, preached no unbelief. I've pointed to the facts. That's all." "Seth the Needlesmith, you may speak now." The guards took their hands gratefully off Seth's mouth; they had been bitten several times in the process of keeping him quiet up to now. Seth resumed shouting at once. "I'm no part of this group! I'm the victim of gossip, envious neighbors, smiths jealous of my skill and my custom! No man can say worse of me than that I sold needles to this pursemaker—sold them in good faith! The charges against me are lies, all lies!" Honath jumped to his feet in fury, and then sat down again, choking back the answering shout almost without tasting its bitterness. What did it matter? Why should he bear witness against the young man? It would not help the others, and if Seth wanted to lie his way out of Hell, he might as well be given the chance. The Spokesman was looking down at Seth with the identical expression of outraged disbelief which he had first bent upon Honath. "Who was it cut the blasphemies into the hardwood tree, by the house of Hosi the Lawgiver?" he demanded. "Sharp needles were at work there, and there are witnesses to say that your hands held them." "More lies!"

It is written that after the Giants came to Tellura from the far stars, they abode a while, and looked upon the surface of the land, and found it wanting, and of evil omen. Therefore did they make men to live always in the air and in the sunlight, and in the light of the stars, that he would be reminded of them. And the Giants abode yet a while, and taught men to speak, and to write, and to weave, and to do many things which are needful to do, of which the writings speak. And thereafter they departed to the far stars, saying, Take this world as your own, and though we shall return, fear not, for it is yours.—THE BOOK OF LAWS

The Thing in the Attic Honath the Pursemaker was hauled from the nets an hour before the rest of the prisoners, as befitted his role as the arch-doubter of them all. It was not yet dawn, but his captors led him in great bounds through the endless, musky-perfumed orchid gardens, small dark shapes with crooked legs, hunched shoulders, slim hairless tails carried, like his, in concentric spirals wound clockwise. Behind them sprang Honath on the end of a long tether, timing his leaps by theirs, since any slip would hang him summarily. He would of course be on his way to the surface, some 250 feet below the orchid gardens, shortly after dawn in any event. But not even the arch-doubter of them all wanted to begin the trip--not even at the merciful snap-spine end of a tether--a moment before the law said, Go. The looping, interwoven network of vines beneath them, each cable as thick through as a man's body, bellied out and down sharply as the leapers reached the edge of the fern-tree forest which surrounded the copse of fan-palms. The whole party stopped before beginning the descent and looked eastward, across the dim bowl. The stars were paling more and more rapidly; only the bright constellation of the Parrot could still be picked out without doubt. "A fine day," one of the guards said, conversationally. "Better to go below on a sunny day than in the rain, pursemaker." Honath shuddered and said nothing. Of course it was always raining down below in Hell, that much could be seen by a child. Even on sunny days, the endless pinpoint rain of transpiration, from the hundred million leaves of the eternal trees, hazed the forest air and soaked the black bog forever.

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The Thing in the Attic is a pretentious sci-fi story that, in the hand of any other author, may have ended up a much more poorly written story. James Blish, however, is not only successful in bringing to life a world that is far removed from anything fiction writers were able to conjure up before that point in time, but also does a great job of presenting his points and concepts as part of a fun, interesting short story that has all the makings of great entertainment. The book is part of Blish's Pantropy stories, dealing with the solutions humankind might devise in our drive toward populating the stars sometime in the distant future. This story features a group of modified human intellectuals who live in a society that has evolved to survive on treetops. The group is soon banished for heresy, and need to learn to survive on their planet's harsh surface, battling monsters and dealing with the difficult task of having to adapt to a whole new life. Although ideas such as these have not been completely new in the world of science fiction, James Blish added an original spin to them that spawned a new type of sci-fi story. Even though The Thin in the Attic is somewhat underrated, and literary experts consider that it was written before Blish's most successful period, during which his works displayed the highest level of quality and ingenuity that the author was capable of, it is still quite a fun, entertaining and thought-provoking story that has inspired the past two generations of science fiction writers. First published in IF Magazine in 1954, the story raised quite a few eyebrows, as the genre was not yet used to the idea of the human race terraforming other planets. Although the space program was getting considerable attention at the time, it was up to bold authors like Blish to kindle the imagination of readers and science fiction idealists in seeing the true potential of our future as a civilization.