George O. Smith 23 min read

Xanabar sprawls across the Spiral Arm, the rich trading post of the galaxy, strong enough to stand over the bargaining table and take both belligerents at once, and rotten at its mercenary core.

George O. Smith's 1959 story sets a sharp first-contact and social-SF tale amid the intrigues of a galactic trade empire. Vivid, ironic golden-age SF. Read it for a story of a corrupt crossroads-of-the-stars where old patterns of empire play out yet again.

In its time

Published in 1959, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Martinez