User:DoctorWho42/Sundance

"Sundance" is a short story by American author Robert Silverberg. It was first published in the June 1969 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Background
In the 1970 collection The Cube Root of Uncertainty, Silverberg wrote in the Introduction: "Grim tales include "Passengers" and "Sundance". It is told in the first person, second person, and third person present tenses.

Publication history
"Sundance" was first published in the June 1969 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. It reappeared in the books The Aliens (1976); The Arbor House Treasury of Modern Science Fiction (1980) edited by Robert Silverberg and Martin Harry Greenberg; The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: Nineteenth Series (1971) edited by Edward L. Ferman; The Best of Robert Silverberg, vol. 1 (1976); Beyond Tomorrow (1976) edited by Lee Harding; The Cube Root of Uncertainty (1970); On Our Way to the Future (1970) edited by Terry Carr; A Spectrum of Worlds (1972) edited by Thomas D. Clareson; Speculations (1973) edited by Thomas E. Sanders; Sundance and Other Science Fiction Stories (1976); Those Who Can (1973) edited by Robin Scott Wilson; Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (1969) edited by Bonnie L. Heintz, Frank Herbert, Donald A. Joos, and Jane Agorn McGee.

Plot summary
Tom Two Ribbons exterminates Eaters. Herndon asks if Eaters were people. Tom has bad dreams. He drops neural pellets which poisons and dissolves them. Tom considers memory editing but reconsiders it. His family was self-destructive. Ellen kisses him. The Eaters will be gone when the settlers arrive. Ellen remembers Tom's father lost everything to editing. The Eaters nibble at oxygen-plants. Tom accidentally inhales its sweet gases. They are slow, spherical, have orange fur and thin scaly legs. The herd circles, look sunward then themselves, neigh, sunward again, and eat. Tom observes their prayer. Their round eyes stare at him. They killed two million. Tom acts carefully lest he be drugged and edited. He talks with Herndon. Herndon affirms their unintelligence. Tom's personality was reconstructed after a breakdown. He refuses to drop neural pellets, will live among them and learn their culture. Tom dances with them. They understand his footsteps. Their language is soft sounds. Hundreds then thousands watch. The Eaters sing and show him oxygen-plants. Tom inhales their sweet gases. He learns their history and religion. They dance. Tom hears a copter. The copter drops neural-pellets. The Eaters consume them. The copter leaves. The Eaters lie still then dissolve. Thousands melt into the prairie. At night, Tom dances alone. The copter returns for Tom. Tom tells them the Eaters shouldn't be exterminated. They smile, nod, and tell him not to worry. After a deintoxicant, he feels exhaustion and grief. Ellen comforts Tom. Tom tells them he didn't imagine thousands of Eaters melting away. They could flyover and show him the millions of Eaters. They're here to study the Eaters and won't hurt them. Tom implores them to edit his memories. Michaelson tells Tom he was under the influence of drugs. Tom's delusion was part of his personality reconstruct. He had felt resentment due to the Sioux extermination. His therapist implanted the participation of an imaginary extermination. Tom takes a copter to see the Eaters. He dances with the Eaters. It is warmer today and there are more of them. He knows the Eaters. They commune and dance together. His great-grandfather and the rest of his family join and they consume oxygen-plants. He sees his own people. They perform rituals and dance. They come back with a copter to get Tom. They drain the drugs from his body. Ellen and his friends comfort him. Tom wonders what is real.

Reception
In 1971, SF Commentary's Barry Gillam noted "a quite successful experiment." The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction's Joanna Russ appraised "the best of the lot, achieves a playing with reality that is often aimed at in science fiction but seldom realized." In 1972, Vector's John Bowles compared it to "Passengers" "[i]n many ways it's a greater achievement [...], but it isn't quite as effective a story."