The Metal Man, by Jack Williamson
Medusa and Icharus. Those are the touchstones for me in the Metal Man. I actually forgot what this story was about, and was misled by the title into the obvious and a little on the nose assumption that it is a story of robotics. It isn’t. Instead, it is a reimagining of Greek Mythology, specifically bringing together Medusa’s petrification and Icharus’ reaching too far in the adventure of Dr. Kelvin. He is a radium hunter, and he stumbles on a quite fantastic hidden land, wherein a lifeform he can’t understand, something completely foreign to our conception, a giant spherical mechanism with protruding yellow fire spikes (hello, Medusa!), has petrified unsuspecting animals throughout the ages. He ends up there by overstretching, quite like Icharus, and only escapes through a stroke of floral luck, only to deliver his tale and succumb to inevitable petrification. The trouble is, despite multiple readings, I don’t feel there is a whole hell of a lot to extract from this tale, and it seems out of place in this anthology. Yet, it does show the clear link between mythology and speculative fiction, so perhaps that is good enough.
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