Youth

This is a classic science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov that first appeared in Space Science fiction magazine. It tells the story of a father and son who go to visit another father and son at a country estate. The adults discuss an alien race that has asked for help while the two sons play with pet creatures they have found. An alien spacecraft crashes and it appears that all the aliens are dead. However, the pets that the son’s have been playing with turn out to be survivors from the crash, but there’s a twist in the tale. This work is part of our Vintage Sci-Fi Classics Series, a series in which we are republishing some of the best stories in the genre by some of its most acclaimed authors, such as John W. Campbell Jr., Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Robert Sheckley. Each publication is complete with a short introduction to the history of science fiction.