Fizzy with ideas and brimming with American idealism, James Blish was widely recognized during the Golden Age of science fiction as a major writer.
One of his best novels, in my view, is The Star Dwellers, first published in 1961 and now nominated for the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award for Best Classic Fiction.
Relatively short at 128 pages in the Avon Books paperback and clearly written as a so-called “SF juvenile” yet still rich with insights, Blish’s novel revolves around a fraught “second contact” between humans and an ancient, extremely advanced alien species.
Highlighted at the story’s center are the closely linked concepts of consent and contract – two of the most fundamental ideas at the foundation of both libertarianism and classical liberalism.