Mack Reynolds 26 min read

A rugged big-game hunter takes an instant dislike to the aristocratic stranger at his door, and to the alien proposition he brings.

Mack Reynolds's 1953 story is narrated by Nap Prescott, cleaning his rifle among his trophies when the punchable, Roman-nosed Westley Marks turns up with trouble written all over him. Wry, fast-talking first-contact SF with a hunter's-eye voice and Reynolds's easy comic timing. Read it for breezy, character-driven golden-age SF that leads with attitude.

In its time

Published in 1953, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

26 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

W. E. Terry