Randall Garrett 37 min read

On Dynak, royal babies hatch from eggs and matter greatly, so when the Earthman di Vino mates with the Shannil, everyone holds their breath, di Vino most of all, for his life may hang on it.

Randall Garrett's 1959 story is a wry social-SF space opera. Clever, funny golden-age SF. Read it for a genial tale of interplanetary diplomacy and alien custom, where an Earthman's delicate role in a royal hatching carries deadly stakes, in a witty golden-age piece full of Garrett's characteristic humor and clever twists.

In its time

Published in 1959, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Leo Summers