Jean M. Janis 27 min read

'Shurgub,' says the tape recorder. 'It's krandoor, so don't expect to vrillipax.' Dr. Blair plays back an interview full of nonsense words, and must decode what an ordinary man really witnessed.

Jean M. Janis's 1954 story is a clever first-contact and social-SF puzzle told through baffling invented jargon. Witty, ingenious golden-age SF. Read it for a delightful linguistic mystery where the truth of a strange encounter hides inside a man's untranslatable private vocabulary.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Mel Hunter