Obviously am looking for help finding a story

[geraintdmmorgan]

A friend is looking for a short story and described it as such
"It tells the story of a man describing the ultimate weapon, but the twist at the end is it isn't a nuclear bomb as expected but a bow and arrow."

I hope that is enough to go on. I did try searching google and here (but bow/arrow were too short to search on).

thanks for any help

 

[hopewrites]

I googled "ultimate weapon", short story, archery and got some movies, but no books. only looked at the first page and a half though.

 

[MemoryTale]

I think the author was Orson Scott Card, but I'm having trouble finding the name of the story.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I had a look through his maps in a mirror collection and couldn't find it in there, which has most of his short stuff in it, but it sort of rings a bell so it might be Card.

 

[Vertigo]

I found this which sounds a lot like it but no title for the story was given on the page grrrr.

One Orson Scott Card short-short story consists of a father telling his children how he and the other leaders of their society used "the Ultimate Weapon" to destroy "the enemy," and though it was a terrible thing to kill the enemy down to the last man (since there could be no defense against the Ultimate Weapon), it was a necessary evil, because otherwise the enemy would have killed all of them instead. Now that the enemy have been defeated, the Ultimate Weapon will never need to be used again. What's the Ultimate Weapon? The bow and arrow, against which there could be no defense when the enemy was armed only with the spear.

I found this here http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TomatoSurprise click on the Literature button and then go down quite a long way (or search for Orson Scott Card).

 

[geraintdmmorgan]

thank you Memorytale, springs1971 and Vertigo.
I shall pass on the clues to him and hope that will help him find it. a starting point for him to do some research...
thanks all for help

 

[bangerm]

no it was poul anderson or pohl...story about dogs watching over humans and humans had gone primitive and unlearned and the world was at peace..and one human reinvented the bow and killed a bird.......i think...please let me know
m

 

[CassFrank]

Possibly Harry Harrison’s “The Final Battle” (1970).

Ends with the reveal of the bow and arrow: “"Here it is," Father says, standing and reaching high up on the wall. "This is it, the weapon that rains death from a distance and is the Ultimate Weapon."

 

[Toby Frost]

I was just about to say the same thing. It's in the collection Prime Number.

 

[hitmouse]

no it was poul anderson or pohl...story about , I think. dogs watching over humans and humans had gone primitive and unlearned and the world was at peace..and one human reinvented the bow and killed a bird.......i think...please let me know
m

Not sure if this poster was in some way related to the op. Sounds as though he/she was disagreeing with the original description. This one is describing one of the stories from Simak’s City I think.

 

[Vertigo]

Not sure if this poster was in some way related to the op. Sounds as though he/she was disagreeing with the original description. This one is describing one of the stories from Simak’s City I think.

That's what it sounded like to me! And not the OP's original story description.