Roger D. Aycock 7 min read

A sheriff has jailed a naked old man who burst into a restaurant with a little black box, calling himself a Martian, and his nephew Winant arrives, wearily, to pay the fine and take Uncle Ivor home.

Roger D. Aycock's (Roger Dee's) 1950 story is a wry first-contact and social-SF tale. Clever, funny golden-age SF. Read it for a genial story where a batty old man's claim to be a Martian proves stranger and more serious than anyone expects, in a light, well-turned golden-age piece that hides a real ultimatum beneath its small-town comedy.

In its time

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

Reading it

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