Manly Banister 27 min read

Something is phony about the whole planet, its culture is a counterfeit, an elaborate act, and exasperated Cliff Rowley, ordered to clear out in a week, is determined to learn why.

Manly Banister's 1957 story is a clever first-contact and social-SF tale. Sharp, intriguing golden-age SF. Read it for a well-turned puzzle story of a survey team confronting a world that seems to be staging a deliberate deception, in a thoughtful golden-age piece about appearances, motives, and the great illusion of an alien world.

In its time

Published in 1957, 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

Kelly Freas