Kris Neville 1 hr 55 min read

'There are people on the planet, unfortunately,' the Oligarch tells the three he has summoned; they'll have to keep the natives from interfering, and Herb, who hates him, can only rage in silence.

Kris Neville's 1954 story is a tense first-contact and military-SF tale of alien invaders and inner rebellion. Sharp, atmospheric golden-age SF. Read it for a story told from the invaders' side, where a resentful subordinate agonizes over the fate of the one inhabited world they've found.

In its time

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

Reading it

1 hr 55 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).

Illustrated by

W. E. Terry