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I read a short story while I was in high school back in the late '70s, a science fiction story about earthlings landing on an alien planet and the indigenous inhabitants attack them. The weapons of the earthlings make no noise in killing the inhabitants so the inhabitants aren't afraid of the weapons. I can't remember the name of the story or who wrote it, but it was very interesting at the time. Can anybody help?

LogicDictates
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Jim
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    https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/2629/what-is-the-name-of-the-story-where-a-guy-goes-to-an-alien-planet-to-test-a-disi – gre_gor Aug 03 '22 at 18:16
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    https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/260525/earth-men-land-on-planet-with-wolf-dog-like-predators-use-newly-developed-ray-g – gre_gor Aug 03 '22 at 18:16
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    https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/247213/short-story-about-a-man-stranded-on-a-strange-planet-testing-a-new-ray-gun-who-f – gre_gor Aug 03 '22 at 18:17

2 Answers2

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This is most likely "The Gun Without a Bang" (1958) by Robert Sheckley, first published in Galaxy, June 1958 (as by "Finn O'Donnevan").

The protagonist, Dixon, is an astronaut/adventurer with a brand new gun (referred to as "the Weapon") that disintegrates everything it hits. He boldly walks out on a new planet, and is stalked by some dog-like creatures.

They attack him and he destroys them, but they keep coming after him because when they just vanish there's no warning to the others not to keep attacking.

Why didn’t they learn?

It suddenly burst upon him. They didn't learn, he thought, because the lesson was too subtle!

The Weapon — disintegrating silently, quickly, cleanly. Most of the dogs he hit simply vanished. There were no yelps of agony, no roars or howls or screams.

And above all, there was no loud boom to startle them, no smell of cordite, no click of a new shell levered in...

Dixon makes it back to his ship only to discover that the beams have damaged it beyond use, and ends up making a bow and arrows to keep them off until he's rescued.

Dixon grinned and touched a bow that leaned against the palisade within easy reach. It had been cut from a piece of seasoned, springy wood, and beside it was a quiver-full of arrows.

"They learned respect," Dixon said, "after they saw a few of their pals running around with a shaft through their flanks."

You can read the story at the Internet Archive.

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DavidW
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This isn't a perfect match, but if you're not certain everything was the same, Foundation and Earth (1986) might also be a candidate:

  • The explorers land on a (long abandoned) spacer colony, and one of them is attacked and almost killed by a pack of wild dogs
  • He tries to scare them off with his handgun, but it doesn't work, since the weapon doesn't make any sudden sounds or flashes - and killing the dogs doesn't scare the others either, since they don't connect him with the death (and the dog just falls over dead, just like that)
  • Ultimately, he has to chose a different weapon, a neuronic whip that causes intense pain. This finally makes the dogs scared and scatter.
Luaan
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