Raymond F. Jones 58 min read

Dr. Sherman Hockley, chief of a vast future library of all human and alien knowledge, prides himself on the information he guards, never suspecting how that hoard of learning will be tested.

Raymond F. Jones's 1954 story is a thoughtful first-contact and social-SF tale. Sharp, idea-rich golden-age SF. Read it for a story that probes the difference between stored information and real understanding, as humanity's vast archives meet a challenge that mere knowledge cannot answer, from the author of This Island Earth.

In its time

Published in 1954, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Ed Emshwiller