Knave and The Game by Laurence M. Janifer
Author:Laurence M. Janifer [Janifer, Laurence M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci Fi Short Story Collection
Publisher: Doubleday & Company
Published: 1987-01-08T00:00:00+00:00
And sometimes he just wants to spin a yam, give me a little historical background, so to speakâ¦
This one still strikes me (as I suppose it should) as the only reasonable explanation of UFOs, flying saucers, and the like.
Analog, which ran it originally, ran an illustration with it* that (I am told) is a fairly good picture of a Kelan. Cartoonish, but fairly good.
* by Leo Summers.
TESTING
This one is three hundred years old, and if it werenât for the Anniversary you wouldnât be interested. And I wouldnât be telling it, because Iâd have better things to do. As it is, though, this is a footnote to historyâno, make that History: why not?âand I have permission to open it up, after all this time. It seems that somebody up there, about three hundred and fifty light-years from home base, happens to like me. Donât ask me why, unless itâs because I fit their notion of what an intelligent being ought to be.
Hell, I fit my own notion, tooâand so do they. There are a lot of odd types, human and otherwise, floating around inside the fairly small volume of space weâve managed to figure space-four routes in, so far, most of whom are not, by my handy measurement, intelligent. (If youâd like to try measuring friends and neighbors, you can begin with Knaveâs First Rule: Never give information away free if there is the slightest chance that somebody might be willing to pay for it. Human or non-human, two legs, six or none, I donât know one being in a thousand whoâs heard of that rule, let alone tried following it. The ones who have, I value. Highly.)
But the Kelans meet my standard. Hell, they meet every standard Iâve ever heard of, and probably a small pile of standards nobody has come up with yet. If there really are any Wise Beings of the Galaxy, they are either Kelans, or beings weâve never met. Youâve run into Kelan types on 3V all your life, despite its being a fairly tough makeup jobâalways showing up in the last ten minutes to hand out what the writers seem to think of as Words to Live By. You may even have rim into a Kelan or so: theyâre not standoffish, and once you get used to chatting with a teeny green midget who has arms growing out of his ears (as well as the usual-human pair), theyâre good people to be around. And, as I say, they do seem to like me.
Well, I did them a favor onceâwhich involves a Princess, a glass slipper, and a Fairy Godfrog, and is a whole other storyâand, as payment, the Kelan Advisor-for-Other-Races tossed me this story, permission to retell included. As part-payment, I ought to say: there was also a small purse of actual gold, not subject to Comity taxâthe Kelans tend to think big, and, when it comes to payment, so does yours truly, Gerald Knave, Survivor. The small purse sustained what I like to think
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
Sita - Warrior of Mithila (Book 2 of the Ram Chandra Series) by Amish(53819)
The Crystal Crypt by Dick Philip K(36433)
Cat's cradle by Kurt Vonnegut(14757)
Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han(14469)
Ready Player One by Cline Ernest(13979)
The Last by Hanna Jameson(9799)
Year One by Nora Roberts(9299)
Persepolis Rising by James S. A. Corey(8967)
The remains of the day by Kazuo Ishiguro(8391)
Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro(8310)
Red Rising by Pierce Brown(8259)
Dark Space: The Second Trilogy (Books 4-6) (Dark Space Trilogies Book 2) by Jasper T. Scott(7905)
The handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood(7447)
The Circle by Dave Eggers(6830)
Frank Herbert's Dune Saga Collection: Books 1 - 6 by Frank Herbert(6711)
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood(6491)
Legacy by Ellery Kane(6388)
Pandemic (The Extinction Files Book 1) by A.G. Riddle(6186)
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty(5825)
