R. A. Lafferty 25 min read

An alien starfarer, marooned by his mutinous crew, records his petty last thoughts, on a world whose bipeds talk from their heads, see only what lies before them, and are utterly deadly.

R. A. Lafferty's 1961 story is a witty, original first-contact tale. Sharp, funny, unmistakably Lafferty. Read it for a delightful perspective-flip where Earth is 'the weirdest world', seen through the baffled eyes of a stranded alien, in a clever, characterful golden-age story from one of SF's most distinctive voices.

In its time

Published in 1961, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Wallace Wood