C. Shook 25 min read

Jamming trombone at Benny's Bar late one night, a musician notices something very strange creeping into the music, the start of an uncanny tale told in the language of a small-town combo.

C. Shook's 1942 story is a wry, atmospheric first-contact and social-SF tale. Clever, characterful golden-age SF. Read it for an unusual story that filters an alien encounter through the world of working jazz musicians, told in breezy hepcat slang, in a distinctive and genial golden-age piece with a memorable voice.

In its time

Published in 1942, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Hannes Bok