Stephen Marlowe 59 min read

At the interstellar registrar, a big ungainly creature reaches the head of the line, sways nervously, blushes, and blurts his planet and name in a rush: 'Earth, Smith.'

Stephen Marlowe's 1953 story opens on a wry moment of cosmic bureaucracy before its colonization tale unfolds, following an Earthman among the peoples of the galaxy. Sharp, wry golden-age SF. Read it for a story that finds both comedy and poignancy in an ordinary human abroad among the stars.

In its time

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

Reading it

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