Robert Sheckley 36 min read

He says he isn't immortal, but nothing can kill him. And if Earth is to remain a free world, he has to die.

Robert Sheckley's 1953 story sets a soberly courteous alien ambassador, apparently invulnerable, against the desperate men tasked with destroying him. Sharp, ingenious first-contact SF from a master. Read it for a taut battle-of-wits about an unkillable envoy and the fate of the human race.

In its time

Published in 1953, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

William Ashman