Roger Dee's "The Obligation" (novelette, free, first contact): An alien's adventures at a human camp on Venus

A shape-shifting surveyor ("Cseth Abrii of Pselpha from the binary suns Kornephoros") from an alien elder race saves a human fisherman on Venus in a storm. Alien's later friendly gestures at the human camp drive another man mad with fear - so we have a madman hunting the alien & other humans of the habitat trying to save the alien. Eventually, the madman will die & so will the saved man's wife, but does the man need to know his wife is dead? Alien thinks he has an obligation towards the friendly man who lost his wife trying to save him...

Collected in.

1. Donald A Wollheim (ed)'s "Adventures on Other Planets".

Fact sheet.

First published: Startling Stories, September 1952.
Read online at UNZ.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Roger Dee.

John W Campbell's "Dead Knowledge" (as by Don A Stuart) (novelette, alien invasion): "Molecular", microscopic, space traveling, light-eating alien invaders want to control us as tools!

Three human star travelers have arrived at a new world 27 light years from earth, only to find that it once harbored intelligent, highly developed, humanoid civilization that is now dead. And, curiously, it's long dead residents have their bodies well preserved & they all apparently committed suicide!!

It drags on for a while, until the visitors themselves start committing suicide - first one, then other. It's the final one who will enlighten us on the nature of infection before himself committing suicide.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, January 1938.
Rating: B.
Nominated for Retro Hugo Awards 1939 in novelette category.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Works of John Campbell (as by Don A Stuart).

Fredric Brown's "Knock" (short story, alien invasion, free)

Going by the comments online, it appears to be among the better known stories of Brown. Not a very believable conclusion, but light fun read.

Story summary.

Aliens called "Zan" have raided earth. They took a few hundred animal specimen alive - among them a man & a woman, & killed off all other life on earth. These specimen, including the humans, have now been put as exhibits in a zoo on earth, & this advanced raiding party of aliens is preparing to claim earth as permanent residence.

The man will pull off a coup of sorts, scaring aliens enough with his
ingenuity to make them leave earth...

Collected in.

1. Everett F Bleiler & T E Dikty (eds)' "The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1949".

Fact sheet.

First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1948.
Download full text.
Download audio of X Minus One radio adaptation of this story from Internet Archive. (alt MP3 link)
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Fredric Brown.

Arkady Strugatsky & Boris Strugatsky's "Roadside Picnic" (novel, first contact): Aliens are to us what we are to ants!

While I didn't dislike it, there are long scenes of the kind you've probably read dozens of times: a band of hardy people on treasure hunt in a jungle full of dangers.

I think its classic status probably has to do with the central thesis: aliens so advanced they won't even notice us if they ever came to earth.

Story summary.

This is a first contact story, but we never actually see aliens. What we see are signs of their Visitation at 6 different locations on earth. "Imagine that you spin a huge globe & you start firing bullets into it. The bullet holes would lie on the surface in a smooth curve... all six Visitation Zones are situated on the surface of our planet as though someone had taken six shots at Earth from a pistol located somewhere along the Earth-Deneb line. Deneb is the alpha star in Cygnus."

Zones where they visited are dead places. And deadly ones. And contain a lot of alien stuff. Why did they visit? Why did they turn these places into ruins? Why did they leave all those artifacts behind? Many explanations are offered, but one is a particularly special one - the roadside picnic theory: "Picture a forest, a country road, a meadow. A car drives off the country road into the meadow, a group of young people get out of the car carrying bottles, baskets of food, transistor radios & cameras. They light fires, pitch tents, turn on the music. In the morning they leave. The animals, the birds, & insects that watched in horror through the long night creep out from their hiding places. And what do they see? Gas & oil spilled on the grass. Old spark plugs & old filters strewn around. Rags, burnt out bulbs, & a monkey wrench left behind. Oil slicks on the pond. And of course the usual mess--apple cores, candy wrappers, charred remains of the campfire, cans, bottles, somebody's handkerchief, somebody's pen knife, torn newspapers, coins, faded flowers picked in another meadow... A roadside picnic, on some road in the cosmos."

So the Visitation Zones contain litter from their "picnic". I could not find a satisfactory answer to why 6 parties would almost simultaneously decide to come for picnic on earth?

Story is mostly an adventure. Government claims to own the stuff left behind by aliens. But "stalkers" illegally smuggle a lot of stuff out.

Fact sheet.

First published: "Avrora literary magazine in 1972, issues 7-10."
Rating: B.

Ronald D Ferguson's "The meaning of life" (flash fiction, free)

It begins very well - with interesting illustrations of the idea that the ultimate purpose of life is ... to move stuff from here to there. But later parts become a bit too far fetched.

Fact sheet.

First published: Nature, 17 October 2013.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

Robert F Young's "The Servant Problem" (novelette, first contact, free): When servants thought they were masters!

Village idiot is also the village inventor. When he mysteriously received plans for a knot-tying machine on an April Fool's Day, he had to build that machine. And what kind of knots did it tie!

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, November 1962.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg.
Download audio from LibriVox.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Robert F Young.

H B Fyfe's "The Wedge" (short story, first contact, free)

A sole human exploring a far away world in his scout-ship is captured by local aliens. Aliens are interested in learning about the capabilities of humans, so our hero plays a dumb animal...

Fact sheet.

First published: If, September 1960.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks. [via Becky@ClassicScienceFiction]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of H B Fyfe.

Gregory Benford's "Think big" (flash fiction, climate change, free)

An astronomer looking at alien planets will find, over the years, evidence on a lot of worlds where atmospheric composition seems to be driven by intelligent design - sometimes to cool the world, sometimes to warm it.

But she's not the only one watching alien atmospheres for intelligent interventions. Others from far have seen similar evidence in earth's atmosphere too...

Fact sheet.

First published: Nature, 18 July 2013.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Gregory Benford.

Ken Hinckley's "The ostracons of Europa" (flash fiction, first contact, free)

A human explorer in a submersible deep under a subsurface ocean of Europa meets a local...

Very exotic locale.

Fact sheet.

First published: Nature, 4 July 2013.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

Carrie Vaughn's "The Best We Can" (short story, first contact, free)

This is hard sf. If you don't have the right taste, it probably will appear very dry.

Story summary.

An object has been found in a solar orbit. Something that's not natural. And not human. Story is speculation about what it could be & the fight of discoverer with the funding agencies to go look more closely at it.

See also.

1. James E Gunn's "The Listeners": Another hard sf & realistic look at a first contact scenario.

Fact sheet.

First published: Tor.com, 17 July 2013.

Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.

Added to my "best of 2013" list.

Related: Stories of Carrie Vaughn.

John Grant's "Buzz off" (flash fiction, first contact, humor, free)

A fleet of elder alien race of "Sgrin'th" has arrived on earth, hoping to help the aborigines grow out of their "cultural infantilization" & to help fix the ruined climate.

But on contact, humans are extraordinarily hostile. Aliens are baffled, but perhaps you as a human can figure out the reason for hostility...

Fact sheet.

First published: Nature, 20 June 2013.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.

C J Cherryh's "The Pride Of Chanur" (novel, space opera): What if lions evolved into intelligence?

I won't call it a bad read, but I seem to no longer enjoy most space opera now-a-days. But this may be the first space opera I've seen that is almost entirely from aliens' point of view; humans play a very minor & junior role.

Story summary.

There is something called Compact - a region of space somewhere on the edge of human space. Many alien space traveling species live here, cooperating & fighting. One of the more villainous of them, "kif", had got hold of some human spacemen, whom they tortured to presumably get the coordinates of human homeworld. Three prisoners died, one escaped. The escaped one found sanctuary in a "hani" ship. Much of the story is the chase & fights across star systems to get hold of this human prisoner, sucking in other alien races in the fight too.

Hani look like intelligent lions. Through the story, I got an impression this was a feminist work because gender roles among Hani are reversed relative humans - females do outside work & earning, men keep homes. But a discussion at ClassicScienceFiction points out similarity of Hani culture with that of lions. In fact, the "Pride" of title might be a pun on pride of lions; "Chanur" is the hani clan to which the heroine, Pyanfar, belongs. Officially, "Pride of Chanur" is the name of the hani spaceship in the story.

Fact sheet.

First published: 1982.
Rating: B.
Nominated for Hugo Award 1983 in novel category.

James E Gunn's "The Listeners" (fix up novel, hard sf, first contact): Just what does SETI do?

Another important classic that doesn't get included in many classics lists of genre. While a fix up novel constructed from stories published earlier, it doesn't really feel like a disjointed one.

It gives a realistic view of how impossible a task SETI has set for itself (but I found it occasionally over-dramatic, predictable & sometimes boring).

Listeners of title are scientists on "The Project", funded by US government, to listen to signals from the stars - hoping there are intelligent aliens out there broadcasting. It brings out starkly how remote are the odds of catching alien signals even if there are a lot of aliens out there. And how much patience & perseverance is required for the task.

Fact sheet.

First published: 1972.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of James E Gunn, first contact fiction.

Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Year of the Big Thaw" (short story, first contact, free)

A farmer is telling how come he doesn't know where his son was born...

The plot itself is ordinary, but I loved it because of its beautiful but peculiar language, probably an old English dialect.

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Universe, May 1954.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Download audio read by Greg Weeks from LibriVox.
Rating: A.

Hal Clement's "Impediment" (novelette, communications): Telepathy considered impossible among humans

I must have read the "Best of Hal Clement" earlier. I don't remember many of its stories' titles, but as I begin reading a story, I discover I'd read it before. This one too is a reread, but one I'd forgotten so thoroughly I ended up finishing again.

Story summary.

This is a first contact story that focuses on possible difficulties in communicating with aliens. In this case, aliens are telepathic & can read imagery in your brain. And while they cannot speak audibly, they are not deaf; they can hear sounds of our speech.

And yet the communications are so hard as to be impossible. The difficulty lies in human comfort, rather need, to communicate in code - what our brain thinks, we must mostly code in symbols of speech. It's ok if the actual brainwaves generated by two individuals with the same thought differ, since they'll both render it in common code. Aliens don't understand this idea of translating to code, since they're used to direct communication of thoughts.

Giant insect-like alien visitors themselves are space pirates out of ammunition, & want arsenic here to make poison gas. A human insect researcher doing some field work north of Arctic Circle runs into them.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, August 1942.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Hal Clement; fiction about language issues.

Tom Godwin's "Cry from a Far Planet" (short story, first contact, free)

This reminded me of an episode in author's "The Space Barbarians", the second novel in his Ragnarok series. Aliens called Kilver in the novel are called Varn here; otherwise, the story could have been a chapter in the novel.

Story summary.

Human exploration expeditions to stars have been miserably failing, frequently getting the exploring humans killed. Killed because of misunderstandings brought about by difficulty in communications with aliens they encounter on different worlds.

One such explorer here, facing just such a fate, will be saved by ... well, it's deus ex machina. No real enlightenment, but a happy ending & a readable story.

Fact sheet.

First published: Amazing Science Fiction Stories, September 1958.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks. [via Becky@ClassicScienceFiction]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Tom Godwin.

Eric Frank Russell's "Test Piece" (short story, first contact, free): Don't say it. Or die!

This is a contest story - great anticipation buildup, & a positive conclusion, but key to conclusion is for the reader to find! I wonder how it would look like in a reprint, without contest details of the original publication.

Story summary.

A human ship with 3 crew members has just landed on the alien world of Shaksembender - a followup to the world's discovery message from a scout 300 years ago. A world with hominids who now revere that long forgotten scout as a god. A god who'd asked them to be wary of the coming of men - it will either spell their doom, or will lead to salvation.

And he gave them a test to give to the future human landing party - when put in a certain situation, if the visitors utter two specific words in a sentence, that means doom & they must be immediately destroyed. What are those words? That's for reader to guess.
PS: Rob Slaven thinks the two words are likely to be racially derogatory to blacks of US in 1950s, & that the story is essentially an anti-racism piece.

The crew will meet a reception committee & will successfully pass the test.

Fact sheet.

First published: Other Worlds, March 1951.
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated list).

Eric Frank Russell's "Down, Rover, Down" aka "The Case for Earth" (short story, first contact, free): Man not mature enough to join elder aliens' union

One of the minor stories of Russell.

Story summary.

Moon & Venus have been conquered; now it's time to expand outwards. Carlow is the sole occupant of the first human ship to Mars. He'll lose contact with earth on the way, & meet an interstellar reception committee on arrival there. And made to attend hearing that will decide the fate of humanity...

Notes.

Title is alien's answer to human's objection to aliens' decision:
  "Even if we haven't learned to keep the peace, we are smart & tough & we keep going. Man's a rover, see?"
  "Down, rover, down!"

See also.

1. Robert Heinlein's "Have Space Suit - Will Travel": Has a somewhat similar sitting of an alien committee to judge the fate of humanity.

Fact sheet.

First published: Nebula Science Fiction, #14 (November 1955).
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated list).

H B Fyfe's "Protected Species" (short story, first contact): Arrogant humans are humbled

It's not always logical, particularly the successful human harassment of local "ape men", but it has a beautiful ending.

Story summary.

Arrogant humans have arrived on a new world to colonize. A world with ancient ruins of some intelligent species no longer around. A world humans are in a hurry to civilize. They'll be humbled by the end of the story.

Collected in.

1. John W Campbell, Jr (ed)'s "The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, March 1951.
Among the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of H B Fyfe.

R DeWitt Miller's "Within the Pyramid" (short story, first contact): Shhh... aliens sleep here!

A researcher in the jungles of South America finds a pyramid there - a pyramid so big it dwarfs those in Egypt. He also meets another scientist there, one who has known about the pyramid & has a theory about those who built it. We will learn the secrets as one gives the tour of pyramid's interior to the other.

Collected in.

1. Raymond J Healy & J Francis McComas (eds)' "Adventures in Time & Space".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, March 1937.
Rating: B.

Jerry Oltion's "You Say You Want a Revolution" (short story): On _creating_ apocalypse...

I'm not sure what to think of it, but it sure is an amusing story that I liked.

Story summary.

Star-faring humanity has a revolution sweeping through Sol. A group of human passengers aboard a ship headed for Sol & discussing the revolution will draw in an alien, a Hronan, to the group. Alien will tell them of other revolutions elsewhere, & why the current revolution of Sol was "inevitable"...

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, April 2012.
Rating: A.
Added to my "best of 2012" list.

Murray Leinster's "The Greks Bring Gifts" (novel, alien invasion): "Helpful" aliens with a nasty secret agenda

Earth has recently received an alien ship with two kinds of very helpful aliens - Greks & Aldarians, Greks the senior of the two. They're offering great new technology, & are willing to train human scientists in Grek science. They don't claim to have any expectations from humanity, apart from giving the gifts.

But Jim Hackett is noticing some anomalies in their behavior. While Aldarians are genuinely helpful, Greks' gifting feels like contempt, Grek ship is far too big compared to their declared numbers, his suspicion during his training in Grek science that they're being taught nonsense, ... His investigations, with the help of a small band of helpers, will unravel the aliens' nasty designs as well as a weapon to beat them at their own game.

See also.

1. Damon Knight's "To Serve Man" (download text scans as part of a larger package): Similar concept at short story length.

Fact sheet.

First published: 1964.
Rating: B.
Included in "grubthrower"'s "Top 10 obscure but superb science fiction novels".
Related: Stories of Murray Leinster.

Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle' "The Mote in God's Eye" (novel, space opera): Star-faring humans blockade "Moties" to their home star system

Fast moving story, & among the most famous novels of the genre. But way too long, consequently has occasional boring stretches.

Story summary.

A clearly alien probe is detected in a far-off human ruled star system. Trapping it yields a dead alien who obviously traveled 35 light years in a solar sail powered slower-than-light craft from a certain star system. So two human warships, one with a lot of civilian crew, go to investigate the system. System is "Mote" & natives are "Moties" to humans.

At the heart of the story is the complex FTL technology the humans use, the peculiar biology of Moties, & the peculiar nature of space near Moties' home world:

1. FTL travel is possible only between "Alderson Points", small regions of space near star systems. Some stars have no such point, others have more than one. Travel between points is instantaneous; elsewhere it slower than light.  Each point leads to a specific pre-determined point in another system.
2. Moties are specialized at birth: "Masters" give orders, "Engineers" are good at tinkering with gadgets, "Mediators" specialize in communications, ... And while two individuals of different sexes must mate to produce an offspring, each individual spends part of its life as female & part as male, periodically switching between the two. And while female, it must quickly become pregnant, or the internal hormonal imbalances will kill it. This means practically uncontrollable birth rate. Which leads to a cyclical civilization: rise, fall to primitive level, rise, ... Moties are close to the point where fall must soon occur when humans arrive.
3. Alderson point after the first jump from Moties home system lies in the corona of a star. Human ships can survive here because of a certain shield; unshielded, you get instantly cooked.

Contact is peaceful, with both sides apparently very open, & obviously hiding a lot. Lot of action. Humans will return with three alien ambassadors & still apparently friendly aliens, but only after violently losing one of the ships. Post return analysis will show Moties as a potential serious threat, so human warships will be placed to permanently guard the Anderson Point of first jump off Motie homeworld; if Moties ever discover FTL & don't get cooked in the star's corona where they'll emerge, human warships will destroy them.

Notes.

1. Some reviewers classify it as a first contact story. To me, it read more as space opera than first contact.
2. Moties of different castes - functions - have differently colored fur. I wonder if some of the colors reflect one of the author's personal prejudices: Whites on top, then White+Browns, then Browns.

See also.

1. L Sprague de Camp's "Finished" (download scans as part of a larger package): While Mote ends with a total blockade as the solution to alien threat lest they acquire human technology, Finished offers a glimpse of what can happen after a technology blockade is imposed.

Fact sheet.

First published: 1974.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle.

Hal Clement's "Planetfall" (novella, first contact): A hard-sf look at the problem of first contact

Note there are at least 2 versions of this story: original novella Hal Clement wrote, & longer "novel" that's the original story extensively padded by Sam Mervin. This post is based on Clement's solo novella.

This may be among the most weird first contact stories I've seen so far. With sufficiently different body chemistry & evolutionary environment, how hard can it get to recognize alien life & communicate with it, even if you notice there is (alien) intelligence somewhere around? This is actually a failed contact story, in spite of much effort from both sides.

Story summary.

A sessile, long-lived, technologically far in advance of us, star faring race of aliens extensively mines metals off all sorts of worlds. A "Conservationist", a sort of policeman to prevent unauthorized mining, has noticed some "poachers" attempting to steal metals off earth. His approach makes them run away, but they've left behind "mole robots", bombs that will cause much upheaval in earth's crust to turn its metals-denuded surface into a metals-rich surface again in a few million years. Which means death for much of local life.

He'll land here, & notice obvious signs of intelligence. But all through his attempts to communicate with humans, he won't even realize they're the ones he's trying to help.

Fact sheet.

First published: As a novel with additional material by Sam Merwin in Satellite Science Fiction, February 1957 as "Planet for Plunder". I'm not sure when the pure original novella version first saw the light of the day - probably 1972 in Robert Hoskins's anthology "Strange Tomorrows".
Rating: A. 
Related: Stories of Hal Clement.

Gwendolyn Clare's "All the Painted Stars" (short story, free)

A fighter pilot of an alien elder race has idled too long, & is itching for a fight. And finds justification for siding with humans in their fight with other unspecified aliens. Result is a first contact with humanity, & second purpose in life for the alien...

It's quite nostalgic of classic science fiction.

Fact sheet.

First published: Clarkesworld, January 2012.
Download full text from publisher's web site.
Rating: A.
Added to my "best of 2012" list.

Edward W Ludwig's "The Lonely Ones" (short story, first contact, free): Stone age man is modern man what modern man is to...

Man has looked through the Sol - all the way from Mercury to Pluto; no animal life anywhere. Now a party of 6 is on its way to Proxima Centauri to look. And they do find it there, but ... this is not what they wanted to find...

Fact sheet.

First published: Galaxy or If, July 1953.
Note: Project Gutenberg's HTML copy includes image of If's cover with the story, but attributes the story to Galaxy. ISFDB attributes it to If.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Edward W Ludwig; first contact fiction.

Scott James Smith's "Distant Signals" (flash fiction, first contact, free)

Alien transmissions received a year ago have finally being decoded...

See also.

1. Isaac Asimov's "Youth" (download): similar ending.

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, December 2011.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle's "Footfall" (novel, alien invasion)

While I found it easy to put it down in early parts, it gets far more gripping once aliens arrive.

Story summary.

Aliens, from somewhere in Alpha Centauri system, begin attacking earth ("Winterhome" to them) as soon as they arrive - after a 12 year stopover in Saturn's rings undetected. Aliens that look like & are the size of baby elephants, only with multiple trunks that one human character compared with tentacles & who have vocal apparatus similar to ours. They call themselves "fi'" (plural "fithp") but Americans call them "Snouts".

Their primary fight is with the US since they recognize it is as the most advanced country, & secondarily with USSR. I'm puzzled why they had to destroy India by throwing an asteroid in Indian Ocean; it wasn't a party at all till then. This asteroid is called "Foot"; throwing it down is "Footfall" ... sort of ... an elephant trampling someone under its foot.

Of course, US military will eventually beat them.

Notes.

1. During the brief discussion of India, there is a curious reference to "Vishnu, the elephant god"! Why quote foreign mythology with such gross errors? Makes me wonder about all non-US references in the book.
2. Story has "shotgun pellets made of spent uranium". I thought "spent uranium" is no longer uranium but is transformed to another element. What have I missed?
3. Story contains a whole chapter named after, & in spirit of, William Tenn's 1963 story "The Men in the Walls" (novel version called "Of Men & Monsters").

Fact sheet.

First published: 1985.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle.

Murray Leinster's "The Black Galaxy" (novel, space opera, free): Accidental human hero takes on murderous aliens

This is a very pulpish story; easy quick read, though.

Story summary.

The first human interstellar ship, Stellaris, still half finished, accidentally takes off due to a short circuit - with the hero & ship's designer, Rod Cantrell, on board with his girlfriend Kit. Plus some workers who didn't go out during lunch time.

They'll have major adventures hunting an alien race of murderous barbarians. Barbarians that wait for civilizations to mature, then come kill the whole world with a death ray & do the lootings!

Fact sheet.

First published: 1949.
Download full text from Internet Archive.
Note: The 1954 novel version I've linked is either an expanded form of a novella of the same title that first appeared in Startling Stories, March 1949, or the same novella published as a novel. I'm not sure.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Murray Leinster; Space opera fiction.

A E Van Vogt's "Cataaaa" (short story, philosophy, free): Showing-off is intrinsic to human nature

This is unlike anything else I've read of van Vogt. Text could use some editing - scene shifts are very abrupt. But I liked the story.

Story summary.

Philip, a biology professor, has received a curious postcard - an invitation to an a circus in town. Specifically, a certain freak show in the circus involving a very strange cat where his old school buddy is the ringmaster.

Event unfolds into something literally out of this world--an interview with an alien post-graduate student on an galactic tour, & a discussion of what's "the dominating character" of humanity.

Quotes.

1. "Man is primarily a religious animal. From times too remote to be a written record, he has needed a faith in something. Once, he believed almost entirely in animate gods like rivers, storms, plants, then his gods became invisible; now they are once more becoming animate. An economic system, science--whatever it will be, the dominating article of it will be that he worships it without regard to reason, in other words, in a purely religious fashion."
2. "Religion is self-dramatization before a god. Self-love, narcissism--in our own little way we show ourselves off...& so a strange being could come in our midst unsuspected."

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantasy Book, July 1947.
Read online at Slideshare (slow page load).
Download full text as part of the scans of Marvel Science Stories, November 1950, where it was reprinted.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.

Fox B Holden's "A Gift For Terra" (short story, first contact, free): There's no such thing as a free lunch

First ever human ship to Mars has crashed there. Ship destroyed, one of the 2 member crew is dead. Johnny Love is the survivor. Two more 2-crew ships are to follow 20 days apart, & will land depending on success of previous missions. But Johnny will likely be dead before the first of them lands.

Johnny will be rescued by child-like Martians humans didn't suspect existed. He will be offered the ultimate free gift to take back for humanity - knowledge humanity won't discover on its own for a 1000 years!

Only there is no such thing as a free lunch...

See also.

1. Damon Knight's "To Serve Man" (download): Another story about aliens offering free lunch to humanity. Among the most famous stories of science fiction, & with a funny ending.

Fact sheet.

First published: If, September 1954.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Rating: B.

Tom Godwin's "No Species Alone" (novelette, alien invasion, free): Snakes are afraid of cats!

This is a war of nerves story: a single human protagonist against a vastly superior alien colonization scout. Of course, the human will win, eventually, with help from ...

Among the more riveting stories of Godwin. Not quite "The Cold Equations" (download text/radio adaptation), but pretty good.

Fact sheet.

First published: Universe Science Fiction, November 1954.
Download full text from Baen CD.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Tom Godwin.

Vern Fearing's "The Sloths of Kruvny" (short story, humor, free): Why the hell is there no war!

Generally complete nonsense, but a fun read that brought me smile at several places.

Story summary.

Commander Metternich of Galaxy Patrol is very worried: "Nobody's Attacking The Earth"! "Nobody Is Out To Conquer The Universe! How Come"?

So he dispatches Bradley Broadshoulders & Ugh ("a cross between a Martian and a Texan") to go find out! Duo will eventually land on the world Kruvny, & make contact with Sloths, half its natives. And find out why Sloths aren't attacking earth!

On their way back, they'll also learn that earthmen don't really need aliens to destroy their home, they're quite capable of doing it themselves.

Fact sheet.

First published: Amazing Stories, October-November 1953.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, or Feedbooks.
Rating: B.
Related: Funny stories.

A E van Vogt's "War of Nerves" (novelette, space opera, free): Cultures reach an _inferior_ stage, & then forever stay there!

Main story is a juvenile adventure: human inter-galactic exploration ship, Space Beagle, is telepathically attacked by "birdlike people" of Riim, a world in "one of a hundred star groups accompanying Earth's galaxy through space." Aliens quickly take over the minds of the ship's crew & send the ship to its suicide mission of plunging into a star. Except for the hero - Elliot Grosvenor, a "Nexialist". He will use aliens' own weapon on themselves to single-handledly save the ship.

How one reads the subtext, however, depends on reader's own prejudices. The key thesis of the story is: cultures eventually fall, a stage author calls "fellah". Once in fellah stage, a culture forever remains there. And all individuals comprising the culture suddenly turn into inflexible idiots - hence easy pickings, even individually, for anyone from a more vigorous culture! Since India is specifically named a "fellah" culture in the story, I'm obviously biased in how I take the thesis.

Notes.

1. Aliens in the story are "hymenopters" - apparently, beings that grow a copy of themselves from their body - on the outside rather than inside; copy later detaches to become a separate individual.

Fact sheet.

First published: Other Worlds, May 1950.
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Rating: B.
This story is part of author's "Space Beagle" series.
Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.

Kevin Hosey's "IT!" (flash fiction, first contact, free)

A humorous variation of one of the stories from A E van Vogt's Ezwal series: a human spaceship "had recently passed through a dense cloud of meteorite fragments", & seems to have somehow picked up a massive alien monster who's now terrorizing the crew. Only it's not really terrorizing, as the captain will discover to his amusement...

Fact sheet.

First published: 365tomorrows, 3 December 2009.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

Peter Watts' "The Island" (novelette, space opera, free): Life cannot be peaceful

I liked the punchline - about the motives of the alien. But most of it is a dark, though readable, cocktail of familiar tropes.

Caution:  Most Watts' fiction, including this story, liberally use swear words.

Story summary.

Life of an alien, in the shape of an enormous thin membrane fully enclosing its star, is threatened because a human ship going to lay a wormhole close to it. It will persuade the humans to lay it a little away, at safe coordinates it specifies, instead. Humans will learn its motives too late...

Much of the conflict in the story is, however, between the unnamed woman narrator aboard the ship, & the AI running the ship. AI has become mad, somewhat in the sense of HAL, from Arthur Clarke's "2001 A Space Odyssey".

Collected in.

1. Gardner Dozois (Ed)'s "The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection" (2010, anthology).
2. David G Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer (Eds)' "Year's Best SF 15" (2010, anthology).
3. Rich Horton (ed)'s "The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2010 Edition" (anthology).
4. Jonathan Strahan (ed)'s "The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year", Volume 4 (2010, anthology).

Fact sheet.

First published: Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan (eds)' "The New Space Opera 2" (2009).
Download full text from author's site.
Read online at publisher's site.
Listen to audio as par of a longer podcast at StarShipSofa.
Rating: B.
Winner of Hugo award 2010 in novelette category.
Related: Stories of Peter Watts.

Henry Kuttner's "The Creature From Beyond Infinity" aka "A Million Years to Conquer" (novel, free): Superfast evolution considered harmful

This one is for Kuttner fans. If you aren't one already, begin with one of his first rate stories instead (there are several of them). This is among his more pulpy ones.

Story summary.

There are actually two stories here.

First is of Ardath, the sole survivor of a group of super-advanced aliens shipwrecked on a pre-life earth while escaping doom of their own world, Kyria. He's, in fact, the sole survivor of his race. Passing the civilization of their race to something intelligent will become his mission in life. He can already foresee there will be intelligence on earth; his project is to collect individuals with good potential from various eras to eventually build a super-race here.

Over the eons, he will periodically awaken from hibernation - to choose a potential candidate for his future super race. We see three stories here: of a Roman hero, of a pristess from Atlantis, & of a war strategist from somewhere in Asia.

Second is of a plague. Sol is apparantly passing through some weird part of space, & a strange & highly contagious disease has began affecting individuals - their bodies go through future evolution at a superfast pace. Only, there is no time for them to mentally mature with their advanced body; they've become ... kind of ... monsters.

Stephen Court, a genius scientist will identify the disease & work towards eradicating it. Of course, he will be eventually helped by the alien guardian angel of earth.

Fact sheet.

First published: Startling Stories, November 1940.
Download full text from Manybooks, Feedbooks, or this unnamed site.
Download audio from LibriVox.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Hal Clement's "Blot" (novelette, first contact): When Asimovian robots failed to distinguish "human" from "robot"

While there are many stories featuring robots that don't follow any "laws", the ones that feature "laws" seem to be almost exclusively about Asimov's 3 laws. Besides "Blot", I can off-hand recall only 2 stories that have laws-following robots but laws aren't Asimov's:

1. One of Asimov's own Spacer novels where robots are tweaked to recognize only some people as human - I think by recognizing the accent of their voice.
2. Jack Williamson's "With Folded Hands" (download MP3): A single law is enough!

This story has a twist on Asimov's laws: "Human" is defined as anything sentient & biological. In fact, some of the robots are of alien origin. It's their confusion on first contact with humanity that makes them label women as "human" & men as "robots" (or was it based on dress color? It's been some months since I read this.) So killing men is fair game.

Story summary.

First human expedition to Miranda, one of the moons of Uranus, comes across alien artifacts & alien (but humanoid-looking) robots guarding/handling them. Humans' curiosity trying to figure out artifacts & nature of robots provides some excitement in the story, & near death of a crew member at the hands of a robot. But all ends well.

Fact sheet.

First published: Martin Greenberg (ed)'s "Stories in Honor of Isaac Asimov: Foundation's Friends" (anthology, 1989).
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Hal Clement.

Aaron Henderson's "As Long As It Takes" (flash fiction, first contact, free)

Reason the twin NASA Mars rovers have lasted so long is ...

See also.

1. Larry Niven's "Plaything": Another story with a very similar idea - only it came long before there were NASA Mars rovers.

Fact sheet.

First published: 365tomorrows, 31 July 2010.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

George O Smith's "Redevelopment" (as by Wesley Long) (novelette, space opera, free): A mean girl is about to learn a lesson in humility

This is a very juvenile story. And a bit boring too - far too much text is devoted to jargon & pseudo-physics of faster than light travel.

Story summary.

Sandra Drake is very beautiful & used to get her way. She cons John McBride, inventor of star drive, to install one in her ship. Then she flies off to Sirius, finds an inhabited world with its humanoid aliens who aren't too keen putting up with her tantrums, & has got her star drive dead on landing.

Of course, John, their mutual friend Steve Hammond, & a couple of others will go looking for her...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, November 1944.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding issue where it originally appeared.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog.
Related: Fiction from 1940s.

Frank Belknap Long's "The Trap" (short story, first contact, free): Life can exist as pure shape too!

A shape whose food is someone else "appreciating" it! Alien here is actually incomprehensible. And I got a feeling there is a vampire-derivation here - an alien that feeds on its victims seeking something other than their blood.

Story happens on a far off world - an interstellar refueling station, with two attendants, of a star faring humanity. An unusual alien ship has arrived with which all previous attempts to communicate have failed. But attendants of the station will "meet" the aliens.

See also.

1. Incomprehensible aliens: Terry Carr's "The Dance of Changer & the Three" (download).
2. Vampire-derivations: C L Moore's "Shambleau" (download) & "Black Thirst"; Eric Frank Russell's "Sinister Barrier".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, May 1945.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding issue where it originally appeared.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John W Campbell, Jr.
Rating: B.
Related: First contact fiction.

John W Campbell, Jr's "Forgetfulness" (as by Don A Stuart) (novelette, first contact): Technological progress involves forgetting old knowledge

I wonder if van Vogt's fantastic story, "The Monster", was inspired by this? Both involve advanced aliens visiting earth, & trying to bully a single apparantly harmless & unarmed man, & ... getting surprised. van Vogt's version is by far the better of the two; that was the story that made me notice van Vogt.

Story summary.

A pioneering 100-strong alien expedition has arrived on earth ("Rhth", to aliens) from Pareeth. Millions of years ago, their distant animal ancestors were uplifted by humans, & perhaps they've come to pay homage to their benefactors.

What they find here are abandoned cities, a tiny village with virtually no technology, & what remains of the human race apparently living a primitive existence off land.

Aliens are respectful, for old times sake, & a bit arrogant too. Seun, a very humble man, shows them around the dead city, but humanity seems to have forgotten much of the technology that made this city tick.

Aliens go back home. Only to return with a colonizing expedition that has instructions to move the remnants of humanity off to some sort of reservation & use only minimal force, in case of resistance, because of its past glory.

Aliens are in for a shock, when they threaten to use this minimal force...

Collected in.

1. Raymond J Healy & J Francis McComas (Eds)' "Adventures in Time and Space".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, June 1937.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of John Campbell (as by Don A Stuart); fiction from 1930s.

Raymond Z Gallun's "Stamped Caution" (novelette, first contact, free): Humans-Martians successfully make peaceful first contact

A pioneering Martian spaceship has crashed on earth, killing its 3 occupants. But a little baby, born apparently on the way, survived. Baby will be raised by wary humans & given a basic education.

Eventually, humans make a return trip to Mars, carrying the now grown Martian with them. Some drama there, & we see the beginning of a kind of wary trust between the two sides.

Fact sheet.

First published: Galaxy Science Fiction, August 1953.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Raymond Z Gallun.

Clifford D Simak's "The World That Couldn't Be" (novelette, first contact, free): Hunting an unkillable "animal"

One of the human colonists, Gavin Duncan, has a farm growing a valuable medicinal herb called vua, employing humanoid natives as labor. Recently, a local animal called Cytha has been eating his crop at night. So finally, he's decided to hunt it down.

Only, the natives are very superstitious about it, & consider it unkillable. But Duncan is adamant. Three long days of tracking Cytha, & Duncan is coming around to see his query with fresh eyes...

Fact sheet.

First published: Galaxy, January 1958.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Clifford D Simak.