Charles L. Fontenay 5 min read

Over a lavish luncheon, an interstellar envoy weighs whether a modest agrarian planet is fit to receive the Solar Council's advanced aid, or whether it must be quietly disqualified.

Charles L. Fontenay's 1958 story frames a subtle first-contact judgment as a diplomat's inspection of a hopeful young world. Sharp, ironic social space opera. Read it for a clever tale about the tests a civilization must pass, and the surprising terms on which it fails or wins.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Kelly Freas