Hal Clement 1 hr 24 min read

A scientist wakes weightless in a copper-ceilinged cell, his heart pounding, a prisoner of aliens he should never have woken up to face.

Hal Clement's 1943 story opens with Dr. Little's disoriented awakening aboard a captor's ship, launching a characteristically rigorous puzzle of physics, biology, and cross-species reasoning. Early work from the dean of hard SF, already prizing careful, science-driven problem-solving. Read it for intelligent golden-age first-contact SF where wit and physics, not weapons, carry the day.

In its time

Published in 1943, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

1 hr 24 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).

Illustrated by

William A. Kolliker