"The Day After the Day the Martians Came" or "The Day the Martians Came" by Frederik Pohl

First appeared in Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions. Reprinted by Rich Jones, Richard L. Roe. Both Lester del Rey and James Frenkel thought this one of Pohl's best.

Summary:

A deceptively simple tale of a hotel manager, Mandala, and Ernest, the bell captain on the day after the aliens came as people joke about the arrival of the new aliens found on Mars.

 

Discussion:

Ernest, an African American, is grateful for the jokes about the aliens so that he's no longer the target.

While not speculatively inventive, the story may be one of Pohl's better velocity exercises as the length supports the story told here.

While this works as a short story, it may come as some surprise that it spawned a story-suite/fix-up, The Day the Martians Came. The second title seems to be what the story goes by after the first appearance. But the first may be the better selection. It suggests the after effects of a big event. The ripples of such an event. This latter choice emphasizes the theme here, so it's a bit of surprise that the story takes on the lesser secondary title. Perhaps it has something to do with capturing the "novel" or story collection, but I suspect that readers would still connect this tale as the cornerstone of the larger work.

For links to other stories in this series/novel and comments on the novel they make, follow this link.