The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use

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"The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use"
Author	Isaac Asimov
Country	USA
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science fiction short story
Published in	Amazing Stories
Publication type	Periodical
Publisher	Ziff-Davis
Media type	Print (Magazine, Hardback & Paperback)
Publication date	May 1939

"The Weapon Too Dreadful To Use" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the May 1939 issue of Amazing Stories and reprinted in the 1972 collection The Early Asimov. "The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use" was the eleventh story written by Asimov, and the second to be published.

[edit] Plot summary

The people of Earth have colonised Venus, despite the intelligent species native to the planet, who are treated as inferiors with no rights (reminiscent of apartheid and Jim Crow on Earth).

One of the Venusians shows his Earthman friend the ruins of an ancient city, where they discover details of an ancient weapon, apparently abandoned eons before as being too dreadful to actually use, but, as the domination by the colonists increases, elements of the Venusian resistance obtain the weapon and use it on the colonial cities and their population. The weapon works by disconnecting the brain from the mind, and within a short time, the Venusians take back control of their planet from the defenseless colonists.

Earth surrenders and signs a peace treaty with Venus. The Venusians then destroy the weapon.

[edit] Story notes

In The Early Asimov, Asimov speculates that Amazing editor Raymond A. Palmer might have bought the story because he needed a story quickly, since "The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use" was accepted in February 1939 and published in the May issue. Frederik Pohl pointed out to Asimov that after the Venusians destroyed the weapon Earth would be free to reconquer Venus. Pohl also pointed out that the weapon too dreadful to use had in fact been used. According to Asimov, this helped to sour him on long, elaborate titles.

v • d • e The Early Asimov by Isaac Asimov The Callistan Menace • Ring Around the Sun • The Magnificent Possession • Trends • The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use • Black Friar of the Flame • Half-Breed • The Secret Sense • Homo Sol • Half-Breeds on Venus • The Imaginary • Heredity • History • Christmas on Ganymede • The Little Man on the Subway • The Hazing • Super-Neutron • Not Final • Legal Rites • Time Pussy • Author! Author! • Death Sentence • Blind Alley • No Connection • The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline • The Red Queen's Race • Mother Earth