Project Gutenberg 2020-12-07 Public domain in the USA. 71 Counselman, Mary Elizabeth 1911 1995 Counselman, Elizabeth Counselman, M. E. Counselman, Mary E. Counselman-Vinyard, Mary Elizabeth Kass, Hank The Conquistadors Come Produced from Planet Stories November 1951 Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "The Conquistadors Come" by Mary Elizabeth Counselman is a science fiction novella written in the early 1950s. The book explores themes of first contact between humans and an alien race, specifically the S'zetnurs, who are portrayed as a once-beautiful civilization now plagued by deformities and disease. The story contrasts the optimistic perceptions of the human explorers with the tragic reality of the S'zetnurs, illuminating the consequences of colonization and the complexities of cultural misunderstandings. In the narrative, a group of Earthmen arrives on the alien planet S'zetnu, where they are greeted by the deformed and malnourished S'zetnurs, who suffer from a loss of their own civilization's former beauty. The Earthmen are excited by the planet's resources, particularly solaranium, and initially seek to help the S'zetnurs, oblivious to their underlying cultural norms and taboos. Tension escalates as the humans unwittingly provoke the S'zetnurs, leading to a misunderstanding that culminates in violence. The story ends on a cynical note, with the humans deciding to abandon the planet, reflecting both the tragedy of lost potential for cooperation and the failure of effective communication between different worlds. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 84.2 (6th grade). Easy to read. en Science fiction Short stories Human-alien encounters -- Fiction Outer space -- Exploration -- Fiction PS Text Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy 60782 2025-06-25T09:17:03.468767 text/html 37139 2024-10-18T08:56:35 text/html 528243 2025-06-25T09:17:05.418687 application/epub+zip 527080 2025-06-25T09:17:03.898699 application/epub+zip 79024 2025-06-25T09:17:03.654647 application/epub+zip 566764 2025-06-25T09:17:06.682662 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 559005 2025-06-25T09:17:05.171709 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 111216 2022-09-28T20:18:14.980234 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 54299 2023-09-27T09:35:55.362323 text/plain 34358 2024-10-18T08:56:35 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 16938 2025-06-25T09:17:06.809642 application/rdf+xml 31215 2025-06-25T09:17:03.761640 image/jpeg 5200 2025-06-25T09:17:03.706649 image/jpeg 462981 2025-06-25T09:17:03.484692 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 en.wikipedia