Murray Leinster 32 min read

Humans have lived on Moklin for forty years and thought nothing wrong, until Brooks works it out, and it turns out bad, plenty bad. The Moklins just love Earthmen too much.

Murray Leinster's 1951 story is a clever, unsettling first-contact tale of an alien race with an uncanny gift for imitation. Sharp, ironic golden-age SF from a master. Read it for a genuinely disquieting story about aliens who admire humanity a little too well, told in a wonderful folksy voice.

In its time

Published in 1951, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Harry Rosenbaum