Blood lands by Alfred Coppel
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Blood lands by Alfred Coppel is a science fiction short story written in the mid-20th century. The story explores a repatriation mission to a forgotten colony whose people have forged a horrifying symbiosis with their world, confronting themes of colonization, alien intelligence, and the cost of survival. A three-man team—Kenyon, Bothwell, and Grancor—lands on Kana to relocate its red-haired, ritual-bound inhabitants. Kenyon’s clandestine meetings with the native woman Elyra lead him into
the plume-forests, where drums, trance, and a “father” deity reveal the truth: the islands themselves are a vast, sentient organism that feeds the people with blood through the soil and, in turn, devours them. Captured and forced to witness a man swallowed alive, Kenyon realizes the living land claims all who touch it. He escapes back to the ship, but the “father” closes upon the scorched landing ground and begins to ingest the vessel as the silent tribe watches, leaving the team trapped, sinking into the hungry, alien earth. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Coppel, Alfred, 1921-2004 |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Ross, Leslie (A. Leslie), 1910-1989 |
| Title | Blood lands |
| Original Publication | Holyoke, Mass.: Columbia Publications, Inc., 1952. |
| Series Title | Produced from Dynamic Science Fiction, December 1952 (Vol. 1, No. 1.). |
| Credits | Tom Trussel (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Science fiction |
| Subject | Short stories |
| Subject | Life on other planets -- Fiction |
| Subject | Space colonies -- Fiction |
| Subject | Space travelers -- Fiction |
| Subject | Regression (Civilization) -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 78726 |
| Release Date | May 22, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 2656 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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