Homo Sol

"Homo Sol"
Short story by Isaac Asimov
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Science fiction
Publication
Published inAstounding Science Fiction
Publication typePeriodical
PublisherStreet & Smith
Media typePrint (Magazine, Hardback & Paperback)
Publication dateSeptember 1940
Chronology
SeriesHomo Sol Trilogy
 
 
The Imaginary

"Homo Sol" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the September 1940 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the 1972 collection The Early Asimov. It deals with the proposed acceptance into a galactic federation of hominid civilizations of the hominids of newly discovered Earth. (Each member civilization is referred to by a prefix denoting its shared "hominidity", followed by the name of its star — hence the title, Homo Sol.)

Together with its two sequels ("The Imaginary" and "The Hazing") which form a 'Homo Sol Trilogy', the story is primarily set in a university environment. "Homo Sol" was the nineteenth story written by Asimov, the eighth to be published, and the second to appear in Astounding, which was then the world's leading science fiction magazine.