Jesse F. Bone 1 hr 23 min read

The creatures were huge, hairy, and surly, the males forever chasing the females, but what else could you expect of mere mammals? So muse two antennaed explorers surveying a new world.

Jesse F. Bone's 1962 story flips perspective, viewing early humanity through the disdainful eyes of insectile alien colonists. Wry, clever first-contact SF. Read it for a witty tale of galactic pioneers sizing up a primitive planet, blind to what its 'mere mammals' might become.

In its time

Published in 1962, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

1 hr 23 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).

Illustrated by

Bob Ritter