Bascom Jones 10 min read

Everyone on Earth backed the Martian program, until it struck home. A Settlement One official broods over a bitter native's note.

Bascom Jones's 1959 story sits with Johnny Stark as he rereads a Martian's letter protesting how Earth has treated a peaceful, ancient race as 'bug-men' on their own world. Pointed social SF about colonialism, contempt, and dawning conscience. Read it for a sharp golden-age parable about who really owns a conquered planet.

In its time

Published in 1959, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Sandy Kossin