The short story, “The Second Night of Summer” by James Schmitz is of the fantasy genre, not the science fiction genre. The story itself is about an old Grandma who is tasked with saving a planet called Noorhut that is being targeted for destruction in a war between mankind and an alien race called the Halpa. On the surface Second Night may seem like a science fiction story, but the unexplained abilities of the characters, the majority of its elements being characterized more so as fantasy than science fiction, and the archetypes common of a fantasy story existing strongly in the piece it is a fantasy story. Considering that, as Orson Scott Card said, "A science fiction story works based on a set of rules that are explicit throughout the book,
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It has the quest archetype, the hero, the mentor pupil relationship, the friendly beast, the shadow, the light vs darkness, and the crossroads archetype. The hero is Grandma who saves Noorhut from the shadow aliens or the Halpa in her fight between light and dark, slash good and evil. She does this with the help of her friendly beast the “exotic-looking rhinocerine pony” (1) while mentoring her pupil Grimp in the meantime. The story also has the stereotypical crossroads moment when grandma is about to throw her incineration device at the Halpa’s transmitter. The quest archetype is shown throughout the story when Grandma, the reluctant hero comes to the land of Wend on a mission she is reluctant to do. Then Grandma goes through a trial: getting into the town against the wishes of the Guardian, and getting to Grimp in the forest. After her trials, Grandma goes deep into the forest to find the place where the Halpa reside to face off with the evil villains. Once she faced off with the Halpa and won she went back into the village where she talks about her grandson Grimp becoming her pupil. Soon after she reaches town she leaves for her spaceship to bring news of her victory to her people, and to finally turn the war in the favor of mankind. The story follows the quest archetype almost to a T and has numerous other archetypes typical to fantasy further proving the idea that “The Second Night of Summer” is a fantasy, not a science
It has the quest archetype, the hero, the mentor pupil relationship, the friendly beast, the shadow, the light vs darkness, and the crossroads archetype. The hero is Grandma who saves Noorhut from the shadow aliens or the Halpa in her fight between light and dark, slash good and evil. She does this with the help of her friendly beast the “exotic-looking rhinocerine pony” (1) while mentoring her pupil Grimp in the meantime. The story also has the stereotypical crossroads moment when grandma is about to throw her incineration device at the Halpa’s transmitter. The quest archetype is shown throughout the story when Grandma, the reluctant hero comes to the land of Wend on a mission she is reluctant to do. Then Grandma goes through a trial: getting into the town against the wishes of the Guardian, and getting to Grimp in the forest. After her trials, Grandma goes deep into the forest to find the place where the Halpa reside to face off with the evil villains. Once she faced off with the Halpa and won she went back into the village where she talks about her grandson Grimp becoming her pupil. Soon after she reaches town she leaves for her spaceship to bring news of her victory to her people, and to finally turn the war in the favor of mankind. The story follows the quest archetype almost to a T and has numerous other archetypes typical to fantasy further proving the idea that “The Second Night of Summer” is a fantasy, not a science