Damon Knight 37 min read

Timid Algernon Weaver, actually traveling in space at last, arrives on the strange world of Terranova, where destiny reaches out a hand to him, and there is much to learn.

Damon Knight's 1953 story is a thoughtful first-contact and social-SF tale. Clever, ironic golden-age SF. Read it for a well-turned story where a diffident, disapproving traveler confronts the wonders and unsettling truths of an alien world, in a wry, characterful golden-age piece about destiny, belief, and the worshippers of the title.

In its time

Published in 1953, 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

Ed Emshwiller