Henry Slesar 26 min read

Earth is dead, but the Statue of Liberty still lifts her torch, and only the alien Deez can tell whether it means welcome or mockery.

Henry Slesar's 1964 story follows the newlywed alien scientist Ky-Tann to a lifeless Earth and its enduring monument, weighing the meaning of a promise made to no one left to receive it. Poignant, resonant post-apocalyptic SF with a haunting central image. Read it for a melancholy golden-age tale about a ruined world and the symbols that outlast it.

In its time

Published in 1964, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

George Schelling