Project Gutenberg 2020-12-01 Public domain in the USA. 90 Lang, Allen Kim 1928 Lang, Allen K. Orban, Paul 1896 1974 Guest Expert Produced from Planet Stories January 1951 Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "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 ease score: 76.1 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. en Science fiction Short stories Martians -- Fiction Overpopulation -- Fiction Earth (Planet) -- Fiction PS Text Category: Short Stories Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy 30854 2025-06-25T09:02:28.953577 text/html 6757 2024-10-18T08:46:19 text/html 388569 2025-06-25T09:02:30.510674 application/epub+zip 387405 2025-06-25T09:02:29.354648 application/epub+zip 69082 2025-06-25T09:02:29.125703 application/epub+zip 420379 2025-06-25T09:02:31.554569 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 413186 2025-06-25T09:02:30.318606 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 95145 2022-09-28T19:54:07.593479 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 24966 2023-09-27T09:21:14.357404 text/plain 5147 2024-10-18T08:46:19 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 16629 2025-06-25T09:02:31.674603 application/rdf+xml 33104 2025-06-25T09:02:29.227587 image/jpeg 5403 2025-06-25T09:02:29.175598 image/jpeg 512868 2025-06-25T09:02:28.965659 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog