The story tells us of two sets of invaders—the 16th-century Spaniard Pizarro, who violently invaded the Incan Empire, and the Krel, who economically and culturally invaded 21st-century Earth—and we briefly hear of one man’s use of Krel tech to travel from the 21st century to the 16th.
—Michael Main
Sf is full of this sort of thing, from the power fantasy of the alienated child to the alternate history where Hitler is strangled in his cradle and the Library of Alexandria is saved from the torch.

Tags

(8)

Variants

(1)
  1. “Invaders” by John Kessel, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1990.
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by John Kessel

Translations

(4)
  1. German.
    “Invasoren” by John Kessel, in Invasoren: Die besten Stories aus the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, edited by Ronald M. Hahn (Heyne, 1994).
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by John Kessel
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Thomas Ziegler
  2. German.
    “Invasoren” by John Kessel, in Die säumige Zeitmaschine, edited by Wolfgang Jeschke (Heyne, 1997).
    3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by John Kessel
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Irene Holicki
  3. Italian.
    “Invasori” by John Kessel, in Supernovæ, edited by Gardner Dozois (Interno Giallo, October 1993).
    4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by John Kessel
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Paola Tomaselli
  4. Polish.
    “Najeźdźcy” by John Kessel, in Fenix, January 2000.
    5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by John Kessel
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Witold Nowakowski