Project Gutenberg 2020-10-10 Public domain in the USA. 133 Adams, James R. Joe Carson's Weapon Produced from Planet Stories Spring 1945 Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "Joe Carson's Weapon" by James R. Adams is a science fiction short story written in the mid-20th century. The narrative revolves around the ingenious young inventor Joe Carson, whose humorous letter to a science fiction magazine inadvertently attracts the attention of Martian invaders. These aliens, desperate to understand and conquer Earth, believe that Joe possesses a powerful weapon that could thwart their invasion plans. The story unfolds with Joe Carson, a typical Earth boy enthusiastic about science fiction, who becomes an unintentional target for the Martians, Harl and Kir-Um. As they pursue him to gain insights about this supposed weapon, they misunderstand his playful humor about jokes as an actual threat. The plot thickens as both the Martians and Joe realize the true nature of the "weapon" is rooted in the power of words and their ability to create chaos and confusion. The story humorously explores themes of misunderstanding and the unexpected consequences of one's words, culminating in the Martians leaving with a "Joke Book," thereby turning the very idea of hilarity into a potential destructive force for humanity. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 73.5 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. en Science fiction Short stories Humorous stories Martians -- Fiction Human-alien encounters -- Fiction PS Text Category: Short Stories Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Category: Humour 64631 2025-07-25T07:55:26.800283 text/html 40825 2024-10-18T07:05:38 text/html 484714 2025-07-25T07:55:28.763304 application/epub+zip 483537 2025-07-25T07:55:27.264315 application/epub+zip 81525 2025-07-25T07:55:27.007293 application/epub+zip 522281 2025-07-25T07:55:30.100319 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 514839 2025-07-25T07:55:28.491341 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 113123 2022-09-28T15:58:39.595514 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 58282 2025-07-25T07:55:26.687295 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 38550 2024-10-18T07:05:38 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 16881 2025-07-25T07:55:30.227284 application/rdf+xml 32794 2025-07-25T07:55:27.112286 image/jpeg 5332 2025-07-25T07:55:27.060292 image/jpeg 437134 2025-07-25T07:55:26.814326 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog