2

I was writing a comment in Worldbuilding SE about alien music, and it reminded me of a short story, which I can't recall the title.

Here is the pitch :

  • An astronaut is the only survivor of the crash of its ship on Mars, he only has some food rations and a bottle of water
  • He finds an abandoned village
  • The village is absolutely unfriendly with the astronaut
  • There is a high-pitched sound playing from nowhere. Later in the story the astronaut realizes that it is some sort of music aliens would enjoy
  • The sinks in the houses produces some sort of goo. When the character tries to eat it he becomes sick, even shower throw some sort of acid water
  • The astronaut tries to sleep on the ground of a house but he sweats a lot
  • He then realizes the village is learning from him to suit its needs, but the village is self destroying

This story was in a short story collection book, which was quite old so I suppose it was written before 1980.

|improve this question
  • 1
    "Enchanted Village" by A. E. Van Vogt. – user14111 Nov 8 '16 at 9:03
  • See this question. – user14111 Nov 8 '16 at 9:05
  • You can read it at archive.org. – user14111 Nov 8 '16 at 9:06
  • Ok for duplicate ;) My god I couldn't imagine he was transforming into an alien! – Goufalite Nov 8 '16 at 9:08
  • You left out the twist at the end: Instead of the Martian village adapting to the astronaut's needs, it – user14111 Nov 8 '16 at 9:09