H ( redux )

[Buglunch]

( OK, I posted this as guest and thought I was logged in for my first post- delete the other one! )

'H' , I think, is the title of the sf short story but I cannot find it; maybe title is wrong: story involves a future soldier who is at front in mountains and all are firing blindly over a pass.
Then he gets leave, so he takes a train down into the valleys and time seems to dilate. When he returns to the front, all returns to the same and it turns out the "enemy" is probably themselves and what they launch over the rige is mirrored back at them.

I think at the front his name is "H" and it lengthens as he decends to valleys and shrinks to "H" when he goes back up.

Published in a 70s anthology, possibly 'Smoe and the Implicit Clay' was in same original collection.

What the heck IS this story and which book was it in??
For my first post here I'd like to solve this huge mystery.

[alakshak]

This story is "Traveler's Rest" by David I. Masson. (I couold have sworn this was a female writer's pseudonym, like James Tiptree Jr. and Idris Seabright, but it seemed real enough when I checked.) As he goes to the lower latitudes on leave, H becomes Had, Hadol, Hadolar, Hadolaris, Hadolarisondamo, Arison. It's one of my favorites.

It haunted my memory for years before I found it again.


Now, if anyone can solve the story that's haunting ME, a memory of huge jewel-green-eyed Easter-Island-like heads in the sand that *gulped* down the scout ship that landed, I'd appreciate it!

[Guest]

Many many thanks!!


Your story does not sound familiar; how old is it?
Older than an Iain Banks work?

I've just started Farmer's To Your Scattered Bodies Go, yay, after decades not finding it; someone made a first episode near Mission, BC and used a lot of CGI.
It was pretty good and played once on Canadian Space channel last fall; it wasn't picked up.......

[Buglunch]

Oops, forgot to log in; that was me.

[alakshak]

I don't know how old it is! If you have information, pass it on!