H. B. Fyfe 15 min read

Crash-landed on a murky, obscure planet in service of the grim, joyless state of Haurtoz, steward Peter Kolin is sent scouting, into a forest where the trees, and much else, prove to be listening.

H. B. Fyfe's 1962 story is a clever, atmospheric first-contact and social-SF tale. Sharp, imaginative golden-age SF. Read it for a fine story where survivors from a repressive space-navy meet a strange planetary intelligence, and the encounter opens an unexpected door to freedom, in a thoughtful, well-turned golden-age adventure.

In its time

Published in 1962, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

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