Frank Riley 1 hr 26 min read

A young pilgrim returns at last to Earth, the almost-mythical homeland of his scattered people, where nobody speaks anything he can understand.

Frank Riley's 1957 story follows Walther Von Koenigsburg, born among the deep-space colonies, as he arrives on humanity's abandoned birthworld and finds even the stewardess's speech collapsed into unpronounceable abbreviation. A clever, wistful piece of social SF about language, drift, and the way a scattered species forgets its own tongue. Read it for a thoughtful golden-age tale that hides a sharp idea about culture inside a homecoming.

In its time

Published in 1957, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

1 hr 26 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).

Illustrated by

Ed Emshwiller