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Pictures Don't Lie

Katherine MacLean

Book Overview: 

Pictures, that is, that one can test and measure.
And these pictures positively, absolutely could not lie!

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Book Excerpt: 
. . .The officer cleared his throat, but said nothing.

The reporters smiled, noting that down.

Security regulations had changed since arms inspection had been legalized by the U.N. Complete information being the only public security against secret rearmament, spying and prying had come to seem a public service. Its aura had changed. It was good public relations to admit to it.

Nathen continued, "I started directing the pickup at stars in my spare time. There's radio noise from stars, you know. Just stuff that sounds like spatter static, and an occasional squawk. People have been listening to it for a long time, and researching, trying to work out why stellar radiation on those bands comes in such jagged bursts. It didn't seem natural."

He paused and smiled uncertainly, aware that the next thing he would say was the thing that would make him famous—an idea that had come to him while he listened—an idea as simple and as perfect as. . . Read More

Community Reviews

I seem to have gotten a kick for stories written in the transition years from Golden Age to Modern sf. What I've noticed in several of them is rampant stealing of ideas from other authors.
Case in point, Pictures Don't Lie is a variation of a Fredrick Brown story.
Guess story ideas were in short suppl

It's true, pictures don't lie but you have to think what you're looking at.

Katherine Anne Maclean stories are like an episode of twilight zone, in this one aliens made contact with humans and they're coming for a visit, its amusing and quite a short read but still relevant i did like, i read this story in women of the pulps book.

Pictures Don’t Lie, by Katherine MacLean
First contact.. friendly aliens.. Earth offers assistance… but it all goes horribly wrong for the well-meaning trusting visitors. Kept me engaged until the end.
“It was like he could smell a rat but he had to hold his nose..” 3 stars.

Katherine MacLean has been a joy to discover. I initially read her in Rediscovery from Journey Press. Each story I’ve read, I’ve thought I knew how it would end. I’ve been delightedly wrong each time.

Classic and inspirational science fiction story

Classic SF Short Story

Close encounters of the alien kind and still a fun read after all these years. There is good science on both sides.

This is a wonderful short classic SF story from 1951 about our first contact with aliens. I highly recommend the story but I urge you DO NOT read much about it beforehand lest you spoil the stunner of an ending.
The end was spoiled for me because I read about it in Salman Rushdie's book Quichotte, w

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