Larry Sternig 18 min read

A disdainful Martian servant announces a shabby, cue-ball-headed little visitor named Slane O'Graeme, whom the narrator plans to brush off.

Larry Sternig's 1946 story opens in a corporate office of 1999, its bored functionary about to dismiss an odd caller who will prove anything but forgettable. Wry, character-driven space opera with a comic setup. Read it for a genial golden-age tale where the unpromising visitor turns the tables.

In its time

Published in 1946, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

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