Damon Knight 1 hr 21 min read

From his garret window, Laszlo Cudyk watches the alien city glow frost-blue against the black sky, its self-lit hive-shapes towering over the angular darkness of the human ghetto below.

Damon Knight's 1955 story (also 'Double Meaning') is a sharp colonization and social-SF tale of humans as a despised minority. Vivid, humane golden-age SF. Read it for a story that turns the tables on the space-conquest fantasy, following downtrodden Earthmen huddled in their quarter of a great alien city.

In its time

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

Reading it

1 hr 21 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).

Illustrated by

Ed Emshwiller