Murray Leinster 57 min read

The human race is expanding through the galaxy, and so are the Aliens, and when two expanding empires meet, war is inevitable. Or is it? The Niccola hunts for where the Plumies come from.

Murray Leinster's 1959 story is a thoughtful, humane first-contact space opera. Sharp, hopeful golden-age SF. Read it for classic Leinster, a tense meeting between two starfaring races poised for war, and his characteristic faith that ingenuity and goodwill might find a better way than mutual destruction.

In its time

Published in 1959, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

H. R. Van Dongen