George O. Smith 37 min read

In the doorway of his fine home, the powerful alien Gerd Lel Rayne smiles down at the Terran Andrew Tremaine, who, needing a favor, stifles the jealous annoyance of the lesser man before the better.

George O. Smith's 1945 story is a thoughtful social-SF space opera. Sharp, well-observed golden-age SF. Read it for a story of the delicate business between humans and a superior alien race, where pride, need, and the search for one's true calling intertwine, in a well-turned golden-age piece about ambition, envy, and finding one's vocation.

In its time

Published in 1945, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

A. Williams