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"Giant Killer" is a 15,000-word short story / novelette by A. Bertram Chandler, about a race of mutants who eke out a living in a maze of tunnels, surrounded by hostile giants. The story was first published in the October, 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.

Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.

Plot

When NoFur is born, his mother takes him to a tribal council, knowing they will reject him and order him killed. But NoFur’s mother panics at the last minute, escaping with her child, making it through the tunnels of their world, to a community of mutants just like her son. They kill her, and raise NoFur under the name Schrick. Schrik eventually becomes leader of his tribe of mutants, and with the help of his psychic mate, Wesel, organizes a series of wars and purges that leave him in total command of the "Inside". They then turn their attention to the problem of the Giants—the people who live in the vast spaces between the tunnels and caves. Wesel tries to use her psychic powers to read the mind of one of the giants; she is caught and tortured, and calls for Schrik to help. He comes and kills the giant, escaping with a paralyzed Wesel. She tells him that she has read the giant’s mind, learning that all their people are mutants; that their world is a ship travelling from one planet to another, and that the giants plan to kill all their people by venting the air of the ship. Wesel and Schrik explain this to their people, who don’t believe them. Wesel and Schrik hole themselves up in their room, and survive the asphyxiation (although Schrik kills Wesel in a panic). When it’s over, Schrik emerges to find all his people dead, save for a few toddlers who were saved by their parents at the last minute. When they are grown, Schrik emerges again into the giants’ place to kill them all in revenge. He succeeds, but one of the giants manages to program the ship to fly into a star, killing everyone on board. We then learn that Shrick and all his people were all just mutated, intelligent rats, and the giants were, of course, humans.

Reprints

This story has been reprinted in, among other places, Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 7 (1945).