Anything You Can Do!

"Anything You Can Do!" by Randall Garrett is a science fiction story that begins with a desperate alien, called the Nipe, hurtling toward Earth in a wrecked spaceship. Simultaneously, a human forester named Wang Kulichenko spots the strange object falling from the sky, leading to a tense first meeting between species. The book presents two points of view: the struggling Nipe, trying to stay alive after losing a fellow traveler, and Wang, who is puzzled by the mysterious craft and attempts to report it. As the story moves forward, so does the conflict between the human and alien, which explores themes of survival, confusion, and who has the power in the vast universe.