18

I am trying to located a sci-fi short story book that I read when I was a child. One of the stories was about an undercover agent (in the future I guess) who poses as a customer (for a most dangerous drug) to infiltrate the criminal network which distributes or produces this drug. After he is injected with the drug by the nurse or one of the drug people, police raid the building and capture the criminals. The agent has a happy life after that until his 80th birthday when he wakes up and find himself that he is still in bed where he got the drug (that is, whatever he saw until 80th birthday was a dream), the police raid and this time the criminals get away. Again so many years later he wakes up to find himself in the same place (the room where he got the drug). This keeps going on (his life is a continuous waking up from dreams) as the result of taking the drug ... there were other stories too like a chimp who has become as intelligent as a human thanks to a drug or treatment and since the effect of the drug was wearing off he is going back to being a stupid chimp again ... I read it in the 1980s so my guess is that the original book must be from 1960s or 1970s.

The first story has some similarity with A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick but is different.

Any idea which book these stories might be from?

Improve this question
4
  • The chimp story rings a vague bell, though I may be thinking about a completely different story. In the story is the chimp trying to escape from the research lab where he is being studied?
    – John Rennie
    Apr 19, 2015 at 10:18
  • 1
    Possible duplicate / overlap, although no answer was accepted: scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/60779/…
    – K-H-W
    Apr 19, 2015 at 13:23
  • @JohnRennie I think the chimp story you are referring to is "Rachel In Love" by Pat Murphy. There's a decent audio-play production of it at escapepod.org.
    – Lexible
    Aug 6, 2015 at 16:18
  • Thanks everybody for your comments. I did some more research and the short story book I was looking for might be a collection of Sci-Fi stories from Soviet authors. Looks like there are lots of common themes in many Sci-Fi stories.
    – user43696
    Aug 9, 2015 at 2:09

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
16

I believe the first short story is "Mind Partner" by Chris Anvil. You can obtain a copy from Baen books at:

Baen Books - The Trouble with Aliens

Points that match are:

One of the stories was about an undercover agent (in the future I guess) who poses as a customer (for a most dangerous drug) to infiltrate the criminal network which distributes or produces this drug.

Protagonist goes undercover to find drug

After he is injected with the drug by the nurse or one of the drug people, police raid the building and capture the criminals. The agent has a happy life after that until his 80th birthday when he wakes up and find himself that he is still in bed where he got the drug (that is, whatever he saw until 80th birthday was a dream), the police raid and this time the criminals get away.

In the first life he lives as a Private investigator, works with his son, etc. In a second life he dies destitute, in a third he is a painter, etc. The interesting thing is that he remembers every life with perfect detail.

Again so many years later he wakes up to find himself in the same place (the room where he got the drug). This keeps going on (his life is a continuous waking up from dreams) as the result of taking the drug

we eventually learn that it is not actually a drug that is causing the dreams, but an alien that works as a "Mind Partner" to help humans experience such lives.

This was anthologized in a number of locations. I have listed some below. You might recognize the other story from one of them.

The Trouble With Aliens (2006): Reprints the "War With the Outs" stories along with three short stories retroactively rewritten to fit the in-universe chronology and a new conclusion to the sequence. The volume also includes other stories on theme of human contact with aliens, from the human perspective.

Includes "The Prisoner", "Seller's Market", "Top Rung", "Symbols", "Foghead", "The Ghost Fleet", "Cargo For Colony 6", "Achilles's Heel", "Of Enemies and Allies", "The Kindly Invasion", "Mission of Ignorance", "Brain's Isn't Everything", "The Captive Djinn", "The Uninvited Guest", "Sabotage", "Mind Partner", "A Question of Identity" and "Advance Agent".

Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections

Mind Partner and 8 Other Novelets from Galaxy ed. Horace L. Gold (Doubleday, 1961, hc)

◦Mind Partner · Christopher Anvil · nv Galaxy Aug 1960 ◦The Lady Who Sailed the Soul · Cordwainer Smith · nv Galaxy Apr 1960 ◦The Stentorii Luggage · Neal Barrett, Jr. · nv Galaxy Oct 1960 ◦Snuffles · R. A. Lafferty · nv Galaxy Dec 1960 ◦The Sly Bungerhop · William Morrison · nv Galaxy Sep 1957 ◦Blacksword · Andrew J. Offutt · nv Galaxy Dec 1959 ◦The Civilization Game · Clifford D. Simak · nv Galaxy Nov 1958 ◦The Hardest Bargain · Evelyn E. Smith · nv Galaxy Jun 1957 ◦With Redfern on Capella XII · Charles Satterfield (by Frederik Pohl) · nv Galaxy Nov 1955

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    Many thanks @beichst for your detailed and useful answer.
    – user43696
    Aug 9, 2015 at 2:04

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.