Randall Garrett 15 min read

Every diplomat who develops a twitch or a quirk gets shipped to Bertrand Malloy on Saarkkad IV, and his four new men, as usual, are magnificently, uselessly atypical.

Randall Garrett's 1960 story is a clever social-SF and space-opera tale of an ambassador who turns a crew of misfits into an asset. Witty, ingenious golden-age SF. Read it for a delightful story about making the very best use of the very worst personnel the Corps can offer.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Martinez