Malcolm Jameson 21 min read

In a hard-scrabble corner of the spaceways, being smart is supposed to keep a man ahead, but cleverness can be its own kind of trap.

Malcolm Jameson's 1948 story spins a wry social-SF and space-opera tale about wit, greed, and getting outsmarted. Sharp, ironic golden-age SF. Read it for a shrewd little story that turns on the difference between being clever and being wise.

In its time

Published in 1948, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

William A. Kolliker