"Damon Knight - Short Stories Vol 1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Knight Damon)

Thing of Beauty
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I See You

Introduction
Damon Knight is a recognized master of the short story. His career has spanned over 50 years and
continues to this day. His lifetime of achievement has earned him the special title "Grandmaster of Science
Fiction" from Science Fiction Writers of America, a title that few living people hold.

His stories always include vivid characters, interesting plots, mind-boggling ideas, and satisfying (and
often surprising) endings.

The ten stories in this collection span nearly every segment of Knight's career. For example, the horrifying
"To Serve Man," was first published 50 years ago and became the basis of what many fans consider to
be the best episode of the originalThe Twilight Zone TV show. The brilliant story "I See You" was a
Hugo award nominee in the 1970s. His thought-provoking "Life Edit" was written only a few years ago
and was picked as one of the best Science Fiction stories of the year by famed editor David Hartwell.

But from whatever decade they came, we hope you'll enjoy these timeless Damon Knight stories as much
as we did.




To Serve Man


THE KANAMIT were not very pretty, it's true. They looked something like pigs and something like
people, and that is not an attractive combination. Seeing them for the first time shocked you; that was
their handicap. When a thing with the countenance of a fiend comes from the stars and offers a gift, you
are disinclined to accept.

I don't know what we expected interstellar visitors to look likeтАФthose who thought about it at all, that is.
Angels, perhaps, or something too alien to be really awful. Maybe that's why we were all so horrified and
repelled when they landed in their great ships and we saw what they really were like.

The Kanamit were short and very hairyтАФthick bristly brown-gray hair all over their abominably plump
bodies. Their noses were snoutlike and their eyes small, and they had thick hands of three fingers each.
They wore green leather harness and green shorts, but I think the shorts were a concession to our notions
of public decency. The garments were quite modishly cut, with slash pockets and half-belts in the back.
The Kanamit had a sense of humor, anyhow.

There were three of them at this session of the U.N., and, lord, I can't tell you how queer it looked to see
them there in the middle of a solemn plenary sessionтАФthree fat piglike creatures in green harness and
shorts, sitting at the long table below the podium, surrounded by the packed arcs of delegates from every
nation. They sat correctly upright, politely watching each speaker. Their flat ears drooped over the
earphones. Later on, I believe, they learned every human language, but at this time they knew only
French and English.

They seemed perfectly at easeтАФand that, along with their humor, was a thing that tended to make me