Charles L. Fontenay 17 min read

A resentful native of Orcti watches the generous, gifted Earthmen through an iron fence, convinced they mean to hold his people back.

Charles Fontenay's 1958 story sets envious Birkala against the Earthman Erik, painting amiably in a garden with Birkala's sister, in a tale of colonialism, resentment, and stolen science. Sharp, morally layered social SF about the poison of grievance. Read it for a pointed golden-age story about the uneasy space between benefactor and beneficiary.

In its time

Published in 1958, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

17 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).

Illustrated by

Ed Emshwiller