Jr. L. J. Stecher 22 min read

The bold Earthman John Crownwall strides toward the alien Viceroy's palace on Vega III, where no outlander can possibly be, through a slavering crowd of eight-foot creatures who want him dead.

L. J. Stecher, Jr.'s 1958 story is a wry social-SF space opera. Clever, fun golden-age SF. Read it for a genial tale of a brash human bluffing his way into the heart of a vast alien empire that considers Earth beneath its notice, where nerve and cunning take on cosmic scale, in a witty golden-age piece about the upstart underdog.

In its time

Published in 1958, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Diane Dillon