Robert Silverberg 14 min read

An Earthman takes shelter in the desert temple of the alien god Carthule, protected by the sacred laws of hospitality even as his coming threatens to tear that faith, and that temple, apart.

Robert Silverberg's 1957 story is a thoughtful colonization and first-contact tale. Sharp, resonant golden-age SF. Read it for an early Silverberg story of faith, hospitality, and cultural collision, where an alien priest wrestles with a revelation that men from the stars have come, in a well-crafted golden-age piece about religion and first contact.

In its time

Published in 1957, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

14 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).

Illustrated by

John Giunta