Thursday, September 21, 2017

On Plagiarism and Katniss Everdeen.

I read a lot of the old so-called 'Pulp' Science Fiction and Fantasy magazines mainly from the 1950's and 1960's.  They go back much longer than that and some are still going today but that's another story for another day.

Anyway, at the minute i'm about half way through the May-June 1974 issue of Worlds of IF.
It contains a short story by Fred Saberhagen  called Berserker's Planet and the plot seemed somewhat familiar to me.

Part of the back story in the first chapter goes something like this -

'The God was pleased to grant to humankind the privilege of fighting for a seat at his right hand, the competition being open to the sixty-four finest heroes of the age.  To accomplish this purpose the inhabited world had been arbitrarily divided into 64 districts, and the local rulers of every district where invited to send - the details of the selection process being left largely up to them-their mightiest warrior.  All but one of the contestants was expected to die in the Tournament, and that one, the winner, would be granted the status of a demi-god and would take his seat at God's right hand'.

Ummmm...
Yep.  Me too.