George O. Smith 53 min read

Ara the crow knows he is a crow, and that knowledge alone sets him apart, kindling a scorn for his fellows and a longing to be something finer, like the elegant pheasants across the meadow.

George O. Smith's 1946 story spins a thoughtful first-contact and uplift fable from a crow who has become self-aware. Clever, humane golden-age SF. Read it for a story about intelligence, ambition, and discontent, seen first through the eyes of an ordinary bird who wants to be more.

In its time

Published in 1946, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Frank Kramer