This edition had all images removed.
Title: Guest Expert
Series Title: Produced from Planet Stories January 1951
Credits:
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Summary: "Guest Expert" by Allen K. Lang is a science fiction short story written in the early 1950s. The narrative explores the dark moral dilemmas surrounding overpopulation and the drastic measures proposed to resolve it through the perspective of a Martian visitor. The story examines themes of survival, ethics, and the consequences of human choices. In this chilling tale, Earth faces severe issues due to overpopulation, prompting a Martian visitor to propose a radical solution: culling the human population by half. The protagonist, a Secretary, grapples with the moral implications of this proposal while hearing the Martian's justification based on historical suffering caused by famine, war, and disease. After a vote among his colleagues, the Secretary ultimately consents, leading to a horrifying conclusion where each woman and girl on the planet inexplicably dies, leaving behind a stark reality that starkly contrasts the Martian's promise of survival through sacrifice, effectively addressing the immediate population crisis at an unfathomable cost. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Reading Level: Reading ease score: 76.1 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read.
Author: Lang, Allen Kim, 1928-
Illustrator: Orban, Paul, 1896-1974
EBook No.: 63931
Published: Dec 1, 2020
Downloads: 72
Language: English
Subject: Science fiction
Subject: Short stories
Subject: Martians -- Fiction
Subject: Overpopulation -- Fiction
Subject: Earth (Planet) -- Fiction
LoCC: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature
Category: Text
Rights: Public domain in the USA.
This edition has images.
Title: Guest Expert
Series Title: Produced from Planet Stories January 1951
Credits:
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Summary: "Guest Expert" by Allen K. Lang is a science fiction short story written in the early 1950s. The narrative explores the dark moral dilemmas surrounding overpopulation and the drastic measures proposed to resolve it through the perspective of a Martian visitor. The story examines themes of survival, ethics, and the consequences of human choices. In this chilling tale, Earth faces severe issues due to overpopulation, prompting a Martian visitor to propose a radical solution: culling the human population by half. The protagonist, a Secretary, grapples with the moral implications of this proposal while hearing the Martian's justification based on historical suffering caused by famine, war, and disease. After a vote among his colleagues, the Secretary ultimately consents, leading to a horrifying conclusion where each woman and girl on the planet inexplicably dies, leaving behind a stark reality that starkly contrasts the Martian's promise of survival through sacrifice, effectively addressing the immediate population crisis at an unfathomable cost. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Reading Level: Reading ease score: 76.1 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read.
Author: Lang, Allen Kim, 1928-
Illustrator: Orban, Paul, 1896-1974
EBook No.: 63931
Published: Dec 1, 2020
Downloads: 72
Language: English
Subject: Science fiction
Subject: Short stories
Subject: Martians -- Fiction
Subject: Overpopulation -- Fiction
Subject: Earth (Planet) -- Fiction
LoCC: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature
Category: Text
Rights: Public domain in the USA.