Tom Godwin 33 min read

Tal-Karanth, Supreme Executive of Tharnar, signs the paper and drops it in the tube, ending months of study, and setting the two Terran captives' execution for before the next dawn.

Tom Godwin's 1955 story is a sharp military space opera of a proud alien civilization judging humanity. Clever, gripping golden-age SF. Read it for a story where an ancient, self-satisfied culture condemns two human visitors as barbarians, and learns, too late, exactly what barbarians are capable of.

In its time

Published in 1955, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Paul Orban