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When I was a kid I had access to a handful of "golden age" SF mags, out of which a couple of stories stick in my mind.

One of them had a man find himself in a situation where all the people were beautiful but eventually turned out to be androids caring for the last two human children who were held in suspended animation due to a virulent plague.

He is sent back to his own reality to try to find the cure, with the only clue being the word "Dachwu" which was the start of its description.

The story was accompanied by cover art showing the hero defending the mandatory scantily-clad maidens from a distinctive spherical beast which walked on the tips of (four?) pointed legs. I have seen that reproduced in a book on SF artwork which I no longer have, but I don't think the cover mentioned that specific story and I've not seen it looking through any of the archive sites.

If the name isn't "Dachwu, remember", that phrase definitely cropped up in the story: possibly as the final line. However I'm finding it remarkably difficult to Google, in part due to its similarity to a placename but after all these years I'm also likely to be mis-spelling it.

If it wasn't in the magazine described in my question at Yet another "spacemen and caveman" story then it was part of the same trove.

Any help appreciated.

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    Do you remember anything about the book on SF artwork?
    – Hypnosifl
    Commented Dec 8, 2021 at 17:21
  • I wish I did... it's complicated. Probably bought remaindered in the UK in the early/mid 80s, didn't focus on any particular artist or genre, lots of B&W for the early stuff but also colour in particular for cover art. Predated Giger/Alien and the current fixation on zombies. Google over the last few minutes hasn't turned up anything I recognise, but there might have been multiple editions with different covers. Commented Dec 8, 2021 at 17:35
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    For the record, I found this by doing a 'contains in title' search for the word "remember" on ISFBD and then just scrolling along to the D's; isfdb.org/cgi-bin/…
    – Valorum
    Commented Dec 8, 2021 at 17:48
  • @MarkMorganLloyd - We don't normally edit questions based on correctly located answers. Your mistake is more valuable to future searchers because they might also make the same error in spelling.
    – Valorum
    Commented Oct 27, 2023 at 6:09
  • 1
    @Valorum I would be happy to have the edit blocked or reverted for precisely that reason. Commented Oct 27, 2023 at 6:13

1 Answer 1

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This is 'Dhactwhu! - Remember?' by Forrest J. Ackerman and Robert A. W. Lowndes.

It was first published in Super Science Stories, April 1949. You can read it online here

DHACTWHU!
Remember?

If that word means anything to you, it means a lot to us all. Maybe I can awaken some latent memory in you. Your mind may hold the Rosetta Stone destined to recapture a lost secret of time and space. . .

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