Miriam Allen De Ford 18 min read

On a strange, deadly alien planet, the winged natives Gral and Hodnuth play phph, lobbing pebbles toward the horizon and flying off to see how far they went, never dreaming where it will lead.

Miriam Allen de Ford's 1963 story is a wry, inventive colonization and first-contact tale. Clever, fun golden-age SF. Read it for a delightful story told from the viewpoint of flying aliens and their peculiar national sport, unfolding a first-contact tale with dry humor and real imagination, in a well-turned golden-age piece rich with a wholly non-human way of seeing.

In its time

Published in 1963, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

John Pederson