James H. Schmitz 44 min read

Men were tortured, men were killed, while the Earth scientists chatted pleasantly with the Tareeg. Were they traitors, or biding their time for the Ice Men?

James H. Schmitz's 1962 story builds a tense first-contact and military-SF tale of captivity, collaboration, and a hidden game. Sharp, twisty golden-age SF. Read it for a gripping story where apparent surrender may be the deepest kind of resistance.

In its time

Published in 1962, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

George Schelling