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Second Game
A short story by Katherine Anne MacLean and Charles V. De Vet
41 pages, Paperback
Published March 1, 1958
3 people want to read
About the author
Katherine MacLean
147 books20 followersKatherine Anne MacLean (born January 22, 1925) is an American science fiction author best known for her short stories of the 1950s which examined the impact of technological advances on individuals and society.
Brian Aldiss noted that she could "do the hard stuff magnificently," while Theodore Sturgeon observed that she "generally starts from a base of hard science, or rationalizes psi phenomena with beautifully finished logic." Although her stories have been included in numerous anthologies and a few have had radio and television adaptations, The Diploids and Other Flights of Fancy (1962) is her only collection of short fiction.
Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, MacLean concentrated on mathematics and science in high school. At the time her earliest stories were being published in 1949-50, she received a B.A. in economics from Barnard College (1950), followed by postgraduate studies in psychology at various universities. Her 1951 marriage to Charles Dye ended in divorce a year later. She married David Mason in 1956. Their son, Christopher Dennis Mason, was born in 1957, and they divorced in 1962.
MacLean taught literature at the University of Maine and creative writing at the Free University of Portland. Over decades, she has continued to write while employed in a wide variety of jobs -- as book reviewer, economic graphanalyst, editor, EKG technician, food analyst, laboratory technician in penicillin research, nurse's aide, office manager and payroll bookkeeper. photographer, pollster, public relations, publicist and store detective.
It was while she worked as a laboratory technician in 1947 that she began writing science fiction. Strongly influenced by Ludwig von Bertalanffy's General Systems Theory, her fiction has often demonstrated a remarkable foresight in scientific advancements.
Brian Aldiss noted that she could "do the hard stuff magnificently," while Theodore Sturgeon observed that she "generally starts from a base of hard science, or rationalizes psi phenomena with beautifully finished logic." Although her stories have been included in numerous anthologies and a few have had radio and television adaptations, The Diploids and Other Flights of Fancy (1962) is her only collection of short fiction.
Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, MacLean concentrated on mathematics and science in high school. At the time her earliest stories were being published in 1949-50, she received a B.A. in economics from Barnard College (1950), followed by postgraduate studies in psychology at various universities. Her 1951 marriage to Charles Dye ended in divorce a year later. She married David Mason in 1956. Their son, Christopher Dennis Mason, was born in 1957, and they divorced in 1962.
MacLean taught literature at the University of Maine and creative writing at the Free University of Portland. Over decades, she has continued to write while employed in a wide variety of jobs -- as book reviewer, economic graphanalyst, editor, EKG technician, food analyst, laboratory technician in penicillin research, nurse's aide, office manager and payroll bookkeeper. photographer, pollster, public relations, publicist and store detective.
It was while she worked as a laboratory technician in 1947 that she began writing science fiction. Strongly influenced by Ludwig von Bertalanffy's General Systems Theory, her fiction has often demonstrated a remarkable foresight in scientific advancements.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 20, 2025
Excellent story about a society that privileges game theory similar to chess. Smart and well written.
November 27, 2025
This novella, co-written with Charles V. De Vet, is a compact but extraordinarily rich piece of speculative storytelling—a psychological chess match dressed as a planetary intrigue narrative. The plot operates at the intersection of political SF and cognitive science fiction, using an alien world not merely as decoration but as a full intellectual puzzle whose solution requires empathy, intellect, adaptability, and the willingness to rethink the foundations of human logic.
At its core, Second Game is about thinking differently. The protagonist, an Earth intelligence operative, is sent to assess a remote planet whose society seems deceptively peaceful and technologically modest. Earth suspects deception.
The stakes are high: interstellar realignment, military threat, and the possibility that the planet’s culture conceals a strategic sophistication far beyond human understanding. What follows is not a traditional spy thriller but a cerebral journey into the structure of alien mentality—how they perceive conflict, how they mask intention, and how they use cultural norms as tactical weapons.
MacLean was always ahead of her time in portraying science fiction as a laboratory for human cognition, and Second Game exemplifies this strength. The protagonist must adapt, discard assumptions, and learn to operate within the planet’s logic.
This creates an elegant psychological tension—not action-driven but intellectually suspenseful. Every conversation matters. Every ritual gesture carries layered meaning. The alien society is one of MacLean’s most interesting inventions: polite, rational, seemingly harmless, yet capable of engaging in a fully different game of strategy where outright aggression is substituted by cultural competition carried out beneath layers of etiquette.
The central metaphor—the “second game” itself—is brilliant. There is the overt game (diplomacy, observation, surface behaviours) and the covert one (interpretation, manipulation, mastery of the alien mindset). The protagonist slowly realises that Earth has been playing only the first game, while the locals have been experts at the second for centuries. Watching him unravel this structure and reassemble his own thinking is the intellectual pleasure of the novel.
MacLean handles all this with graceful clarity. Her prose is crisp, economical, and never drifts into excess. She respects the reader’s intelligence but doesn’t obscure information; instead, she reveals the alien culture the way a good anthropologist would—through behaviour, inference, and gradually widening insight.
The tension rises not from battles or technology but from the knowledge that one wrong psychological move could trigger diplomatic catastrophe.
The novella’s themes remain remarkably modern:
• the limits of human exceptionalism
• the difficulty of interpreting other cultures without bias
• the use of “soft power” as a form of warfare
• the danger of assuming simplicity where one only lacks understanding
MacLean also embeds subtle moral questions. Is the protagonist imposing Earth’s anxieties on a peaceful world? Or is he uncovering a genuine threat? Is the alien culture benign or simply inscrutable?
The novella refuses easy answers, and this ambiguity gives it richness. Even the ending—calm, understated, strategic rather than explosive—feels exactly right for a book that values intelligence over spectacle.
If there is a limitation, it is the book’s brevity. Readers might wish for deeper exploration of the alien planet’s anthropology or a more extended psychological arc. Yet the compactness is also a virtue—it lends the narrative the precision of a well-played chess match.
In sum, Second Game is an elegant, tightly focused, deeply cerebral SF novella that rewards patient, curious readers. It stands as a testament to Katherine MacLean’s ability to blend psychological insight with speculative imagination—an alien first-contact novel where the most dangerous battlefield is the mind itself.
At its core, Second Game is about thinking differently. The protagonist, an Earth intelligence operative, is sent to assess a remote planet whose society seems deceptively peaceful and technologically modest. Earth suspects deception.
The stakes are high: interstellar realignment, military threat, and the possibility that the planet’s culture conceals a strategic sophistication far beyond human understanding. What follows is not a traditional spy thriller but a cerebral journey into the structure of alien mentality—how they perceive conflict, how they mask intention, and how they use cultural norms as tactical weapons.
MacLean was always ahead of her time in portraying science fiction as a laboratory for human cognition, and Second Game exemplifies this strength. The protagonist must adapt, discard assumptions, and learn to operate within the planet’s logic.
This creates an elegant psychological tension—not action-driven but intellectually suspenseful. Every conversation matters. Every ritual gesture carries layered meaning. The alien society is one of MacLean’s most interesting inventions: polite, rational, seemingly harmless, yet capable of engaging in a fully different game of strategy where outright aggression is substituted by cultural competition carried out beneath layers of etiquette.
The central metaphor—the “second game” itself—is brilliant. There is the overt game (diplomacy, observation, surface behaviours) and the covert one (interpretation, manipulation, mastery of the alien mindset). The protagonist slowly realises that Earth has been playing only the first game, while the locals have been experts at the second for centuries. Watching him unravel this structure and reassemble his own thinking is the intellectual pleasure of the novel.
MacLean handles all this with graceful clarity. Her prose is crisp, economical, and never drifts into excess. She respects the reader’s intelligence but doesn’t obscure information; instead, she reveals the alien culture the way a good anthropologist would—through behaviour, inference, and gradually widening insight.
The tension rises not from battles or technology but from the knowledge that one wrong psychological move could trigger diplomatic catastrophe.
The novella’s themes remain remarkably modern:
• the limits of human exceptionalism
• the difficulty of interpreting other cultures without bias
• the use of “soft power” as a form of warfare
• the danger of assuming simplicity where one only lacks understanding
MacLean also embeds subtle moral questions. Is the protagonist imposing Earth’s anxieties on a peaceful world? Or is he uncovering a genuine threat? Is the alien culture benign or simply inscrutable?
The novella refuses easy answers, and this ambiguity gives it richness. Even the ending—calm, understated, strategic rather than explosive—feels exactly right for a book that values intelligence over spectacle.
If there is a limitation, it is the book’s brevity. Readers might wish for deeper exploration of the alien planet’s anthropology or a more extended psychological arc. Yet the compactness is also a virtue—it lends the narrative the precision of a well-played chess match.
In sum, Second Game is an elegant, tightly focused, deeply cerebral SF novella that rewards patient, curious readers. It stands as a testament to Katherine MacLean’s ability to blend psychological insight with speculative imagination—an alien first-contact novel where the most dangerous battlefield is the mind itself.
November 21, 2025
This is the short story only. Not a collection of short stories
or the original short story which has been expanded into a
novel.
It amazes me that this SF short story doesn't
have more ratings.
I think I originally read this short story when I was
25. I think the plot is incredibly original and creative.
It is incredibly well-written, IMO.
I think it is absolutely one of the best SF short stories
I have ever read in my life.
or the original short story which has been expanded into a
novel.
It amazes me that this SF short story doesn't
have more ratings.
I think I originally read this short story when I was
25. I think the plot is incredibly original and creative.
It is incredibly well-written, IMO.
I think it is absolutely one of the best SF short stories
I have ever read in my life.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews