Randall Garrett Robert Silverberg 29 min read

Across the desk sits a member of the most fanatically dangerous race in the Galaxy, every meter says he's harmless, which doesn't necessarily mean a thing.

Garrett and Silverberg's 1957 story stages a tense diplomatic duel between a wary human agent and a blue-skinned alien who comes bearing a warning. Sharp, suspenseful social SF. Read it for a taut tale of interstellar mistrust where the deadliest danger wears a smile.

In its time

Published in 1957, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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