J. J. Allerton 24 min read

Once upon a planet there was a mighty warlord named Miotis, mightiest warrior of his world, until, to his consternation, his people wearied of endless war and stopped wanting to fight.

J. J. Allerton's 1948 story spins a fable-flavored first-contact and space-opera tale of a conqueror undone by peace. Wry, pointed golden-age SF. Read it for a clever parable where a warlord who lives by conquest is confounded by a people who simply won't fight anymore.

In its time

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

Reading it

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