A Martian Odyssey

A four-man crew crash lands on Mars, and Dick Jarvis, who sets out on his own meets Tweel, a sympathetic creature who shows him the ways of the planet. A strange pyramid building creature, a tentacled 'dream beast', and broken record cart people. Check out for yourself why A Martian Odyssey came in 2nd in the best science fiction stories of all time, right behind Asimov's Nightfall. This short story set the career of Stanley Weinbaum off like a bomb, since he wrote a story like none had done before: it was about an alien who is sentient and intelligent rather than a mindless barbarian. He also added the twist that despite the creature's intelligence, it didn't have human logic or reason. It was followed four months later by a sequel, Valley of Dreams.