Friday, December 24, 2010

Nathaniel Gordon's "The Golden Judge" (short story, non-genre, humor, free): Ultimate "machine" to resolve international boundary disputes!

Illustration by Freas accompanying the original publication in Astounding Science Fiction of short story The Golden Judge by The Golden Judge. Image shows the blind goddess of justice.
There are many "superficial" boundary disputes between nations where the only thing coming the way of settlement is the need of both countries to "save face". A US general presiding over a boundary dispute between Israel & Jordan on behalf of UN accidentally invents "The Golden Judge", a device that will not only solve this immediate dispute to the satisfaction of both querreling parties, but a lot of other "face saving" disputes too, elsewhere in the world, in days to follow...

Caution: Readers from many places in the world will need to bear in mind the story had been written for US audiences.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, December 1955.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Download 43 minute audio read by Hollis Hanover at LibriVox.
Rating: B.
Among the stories edited by John Campbell for Astounding/Analog.

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