Fredric Brown 5 min read

On Mars, the wise leader Dhar Ry sits meditating, awaiting the Earth rocket due to land within the hour, the first contact he has longed for, even with no Earthman aboard.

Fredric Brown's 1960 short-short is a small, perfect, devastating first-contact tale told from the Martian side. Sharp, ironic, unforgettable. Read it for a masterclass in the compressed twist, one of Brown's most quietly shattering little stories.

In its time

Published in 1960, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Carter