Robert F. Young 6 min read

A Galactic Historian condensing the histories of ten thousand races into one volume gives the human race its trivial due.

Robert F. Young's 1958 story frames a wry cosmic-perspective tale around an overworked alien scholar and his final reading of a galaxy-spanning text. Gentle, ironic social SF that puts humanity in its very small place. Read it for a thoughtful golden-age story about how little of us might survive into the record of the stars.

In its time

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

Reading it

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