Mark Clifton 36 min read

The natives of Capella IV are philosophers at heart, and being philosophers, they were not ones to ignore the Golden Rule.

Mark Clifton's 1958 story, narrated by the black-sheep nephew of the President of the Daughters of Terra, mines wry comedy and sharp irony from a first contact where the aliens take 'do unto others' very seriously. Funny, pointed social SF. Read it for a clever tale that turns a homily into a delicious trap.

In its time

Published in 1958, 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

Ed Emshwiller