Evelyn E. Smith 1 hr 4 min read

Fresh from Fizbus and cramming her Brief Introduction to Terrestrial Manners, the winged alien Tarb Morfatch forgets not to look up, and nearly dies under the jaws of a raging taxi.

Evelyn E. Smith's 1955 story mines warm comedy from a bird-like alien navigating baffling human customs. Charming, funny first-contact social SF. Read it for a delightful fish-out-of-water tale of an earnest extraterrestrial trying, and failing, to fit in on Earth.

In its time

Published in 1955, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

1 hr 4 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Ed Emshwiller