Norman Arkawy Stanley Henig 18 min read

'Peace Communique No. 1: The war is over. Iverson is safely exiled on asteroid 14.' An official report to the people of Rios lays out the recent war with Nwad, its causes, and the victors' policy.

Arkawy and Henig's 1954 story frames a dystopian first-contact tale as government propaganda and official communiques. Sharp, ironic golden-age SF. Read it for a story told through the bland bulletins of the winning side, where the truth of a war hides between the lines of the record.

In its time

Published in 1954, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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