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I'm trying to find the title of a story where a spaceship lands on a planet and find lots of people in suspended animation. The manage to reawaken one (after a few failures) and find that they were put into suspended animation when the population was struggling, with the promise to reawaken them when things got better, but it never happened (and the rest of the population were killed somehow)

My best guess from what I remember of the way the short story was written would be that it was written around 1960, give or take a decade or so, and that I read it in a collection of short stories in the late 1970s.

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  • What happens after they wake the person up?
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Aug 5 at 14:43
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    This sounds like the plot a sci-fi episode... you sure it was a book?
    – Questor
    Commented Aug 5 at 15:02
  • @Organic Marble: I think one of the failures, who died when they tried to wake her up, was the significant other of the (first) person who they actually managed to awaken. He then wanted to take revenge on the people responsible. I think they may then have awoken others, who explained the situation.
    – quantropy
    Commented Aug 5 at 15:58
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    @quantropy Wyndham recycled some of the plot elements for "The Sleepers of Mars". Could it be a possibility?
    – Clara Díaz Sanchez
    Commented Aug 7 at 8:42
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    @ Clara Diaz Sanchez. Yes, the later parts of "The Sleepers of Mars" do look very much like what I remember reading, so it is probable that it is what I am thinking of. I don't remember the other details, but then it was a long time ago that I read it. I do wonder though whether Wyndham might have recycled the same plot for a short story.
    – quantropy
    Commented Aug 7 at 13:23

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The question describes the work as a short story, and so I propose the novella Sleepers of Mars by John Wyndham, writing under the pen-name John Beynon, and first published in the pulp magazine Tales of Wonder in 1938. It has been anthologised a few times in collections of Wyndham's work, including the eponymously named Sleepers of Mars collection in1973, consistent with the OP's recollection of reading it in the 1970s.

It can be read as a standalone story, but is actually a sequel to Wyndham's previous short story Stowaway to Mars, in which a Soviet and a British expedition landed on Mars. The Soviets discover an installation filled with tens of thousands of lifeless bodies - the "sleepers" of the title - which are actually Martians in suspended animation. Their first effort to wake a sleeper fails, and the Martian dies, but a rogue member of the crew successfully manages to resurrect an army of them.

The full story is available at the Internet Archive.

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If this is a short Story, it might possibly be "The Red Death of Mars" by Roger Moore Williams, Astounding Science Fiction July, 1940. It has been included in some anthologies.

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?45408

It is true the question has a "novel" tag, but if others suggest tv episodes I can suggest a short story.

In the story an expedition from Earth finds Martians in suspended animation and awake at least one during the course of the story. But the expedition also encounters the menace the Martians went into suspended animation to avoid.

"The Red Death of Mars" can be read at:

https://archive.org/details/TheRedDeathOfMars/page/n3/mode/2up

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This is a really long shot but is it possible you're remembering the radio show "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy", series 2, episode 6, sometimes called Fit the Twelfth as it's the twelfth episode overall?

Scene 3. Int. Ancient Spaceship

FORD: Passengers!

ZAPHOD: Yeah.

FORD: But alive!

ZAPHOD: Sleeping.

FORD: For all these years?

ZAPHOD: Suspended animation.

FORD: And the voice we heard?

ZAPHOD: Android stewardess! Look, here she comes now.

STEWARDESS: Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for bearing with us during this slight delay. We will be taking off as soon as we possibly can. If you would like to wake up now, I will serve you coffee and biscuits. Wake up now.

[A bell sounds]

ZAPHOD: Run man!!

PASSENGERS: I demand…I refuse… What kind of ship… When… Slight delay... Where is it... What do you mean…! [More shouting and alarmed protesting]

[Running footsteps]

ZAPHOD: [Panting] U. Hey, what gives man? What gives, what gives, what gives? What gives?

FORD: I mean they woke up! They-they all woke up! I was- I- I’ve never- I wa -

AUTOPILOT: Passengers are not allowed on the flight deck. Please return to your seats and wait for the ship to take off. Coffee and biscuits are being served. This is your Autopilot speaking. Please return to your seats.

ZAPHOD: Go back in there?

FORD: We’re not passengers.

AUTOPILOT: Please return to your seats.

ZAPHOD: No, we’re not passengers.

AUTOPILOT: Please return to your seats.

ZAPHOD: We’re not… Hello? Can you hear me?

FORD: What’s happening on this hell ship?

AUTOPILOT: There has been a delay. The passengers are kept in temporary suspended animation for their comfort and convenience. Coffee and biscuits are served every ten years, after which passengers are returned to suspended animation for their comfort and convenience. Departure will take place when flight stores are complete. We apologise for the delay.

FORD: Delay? Have you seen the world outside this ship? It’s a wasteland. A desert. Civilisation’s been and gone. It’s over. There are no lemon-soaked paper napkins on the way from anywhere.

AUTOPILOT: The statistical likelihood is that other civilisations will arise. There will one day be lemon-soaked paper napkins. ‘Till then, there will be a short delay. Please return to your seats.

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    No, it definitely wasn't Douglas Adams, although this answer is useful in my search for stories illustrating the problems of suspended animation. My best guess from what I remember of the way the short story was written would be that it was written around 1960, give or take a decade or so, and that I read it in a collection of short stories in the late 1970s
    – quantropy
    Commented Aug 6 at 16:51
  • @quantropy I've added that information to your question as it could easily help someone ID the story.
    – Moriarty
    Commented Aug 6 at 21:23
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sounds like episode of the original TWILIGHT ZONE ..crew of space travelers find a planet with people in suspended animation in an idealized town reminiscent in style and architecture of turn of the century America...the frozen populace tended to by one custodian caretaker who at the end freezes the space travelers.

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    Hi, welcome to SF&F. You could improve your answer by identifying the specific episode of The Twilight Zone you're remembering.
    – DavidW
    Commented Aug 7 at 2:27
  • I think "Elegy" is the episode, but the residents (and eventually astronauts) are in fact dead and have set up an android to tend to their eternal death display.
    – Cristobol Polychronopolis
    Commented Aug 7 at 18:44

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