Books reading recommendations Five Stories About the Dangerous Business of Truth-Telling Telling the truth can make you unpopular… or put you into real peril. By James Davis Nicoll | Published on March 24, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share As noted American philosophers Chuck Clarke and Lyle Rogers once observed, telling the truth can be dangerous business. Not only can it curtail future employment opportunities, excessive candor may prove unpopular. It might even get you killed. Here are five stories about truth-telling. “Clan of the Fiery Cross” — The Adventures of Superman radio serial, written by George Putnam Ludlam with Stetson Kennedy (1946) Being replaced as pitcher for the Unity House baseball team by Tommy Lee is an affront to thin-skinned Chuck Riggs. It’s also an opportunity for Chuck’s Uncle Max. Max leads the local chapter of white supremacist terrorist group Clan of the Fiery Cross. The Clan, whose remit includes job facilitation for second-rate white men, already has a bone to pick with the Lees: Tommy’s father Dr. Lee was hired for a job that could have gone to a Clan member… and Dr. Lee is Chinese. What would have in almost any other American city been a straightforward terror campaign proves intractable in Metropolis. Metropolis is home to crusading newspaper Daily Planet. The Daily Planet staff are to a man1 and woman stalwart heroes who do not hesitate to expose the Clan for the criminal organization it is. Sure, the Clan could—and does—target the Daily Planet staff. All that accomplishes is to get the full and undivided attention of Superman. How does one create an exciting radio serial around a character who cannot be hurt, who can, if the mood takes him, simply yeet antagonists into the sun? The solutions the Adventures of Superman writers appear to have used: first, Superman cannot be everywhere; second, the story invests a lot of time on the equally heroic but far more vulnerable supporting characters. Ring Around the Sun by Clifford D. Simak (1953) Businessman Mr. Crawford is determined to save the world. A mysterious, well-heeled organization has declared a quiet war on the West and East. Its weapons? Affordably priced, durable consumer goods. Each new product dooms another industry, sentencing workers to unemployment. The fact that legions of the unemployed are vanishing is no comfort at all. Neither is Crawford’s suspicion that the players on the other side are… MUTANTS! Crawford turns to writer Jay Vickers to help to expose the plot against the world order. Alas for Crawford, Jay has no interest in working for Crawford. Not that lack of interest will keep Jay out of the game. Indeed, Jay (unbeknownst to him) was an active player long before Crawford reached out. Crawford insists on seeing human-mutant relations as two species competing for the same niche, a war only one can survive. In fact, there’s no clear line between humans and mutants; many mutants have no idea they are mutants. The actual conflict is between a worldview that will surely doom us all and a better way of living. The project the mutants are working on isn’t mutant supremacy, but rehabilitating the human species. The Truth by Terry Pratchett (2000) Struggling scribe William de Word sees potential in the dwarven innovation of movable type presses. One judicious partnership later, The Ankh-Morpork Times becomes Ankh-Morpork’s very first newspaper. All de Word and his associates need now is some great crisis suitable for displaying the utility of independent journalism. The Committee to Unelect the Patrician has a bold scheme to replace Patrician Lord Vetinari with a far more tractable pawn. While the Committee’s scheme does not go entirely to plan, Lord Vetinari is successfully framed for crimes he did not commit. Everything is breaking in the Committee’s favor… except for the matter of an all-too-inquisitive newspaper. I don’t think the Committee ever uses its initials, CUP. Nevertheless, I suspect it’s not coincidental that the Committee recalls CREEP, or that meddling journalists confound both the Committee and CREEP… except that The Truth is an inversion of Watergate, in that the reporters’ pursuit of truth allies them with their head of government. Mermaid Scales and the Town of Sand by Yoko Komori (2013-2014) Following the disintegration of her parents’ marriage, fourteen-year-old Tokiko returns to rustic Sunanomori for the first time since she was four. Tokiko doesn’t remember much about the small town. She does remember one thing quite clearly: this is where Tokiko was saved from drowning… by a merman. Merfolk figure prominently in local legend. However, nobody in Sunanomori believes merfolk are real. At least, the adults are adamant that merfolk do not exist. And yet, a merman saved Tokiko. Are the adults lying? If they are, what dread secret are they hiding? It might be logical to conclude that Sunanomori is Japan’s answer to Innsmouth, that the manga ends with adorable Tokiko being dragged to a watery doom by Japanese Deep Ones. There are no Deep Ones! Instead, there is all too many needlessly obfuscatory adults whose solution, when their lies produce tragic results, is to double down. The Language of Liars by S.L. Huang (2026) The Star Eaters are the only beings in the galaxy able to locate and mine the precious meridian element on which all star flight depends. Once enslaved by the other galactic civilizations, the Star Eaters were graciously freed… although the Galactics left their robotic Overseers in place to help keep the Star Eaters focused on relentless productivity. A crisis looms. For reasons unknown, the Star Eaters’ birthrate has fallen to zero. Star Eaters are long-lived but not immortal. Once the last Star Eater dies, there will be no more meridian, no more star flight, and no more civilization. Linguist Ro sets out to discover why the seemingly compliant Star Eaters no longer have children. Ro finds the answers… but little comfort. I was struck by a parallel between how the Galactics treat Star Eaters and the circumstances of the Lll in Delany’s Empire Star. Both have their sympathizers and both are far too useful to be actually provided with meaningful autonomy. I don’t think Huang was directly inspired by Delany, though. It’s likely a case of Huang and Delany being inspired by similar real-world events. Secrets and revelations are so common in SFF that two of the above synopses are of books I happen to have read in the last week2. No doubt you have your own favorites! Comments are below. With the possible exception of timorous Clark Kent, who keeps finding reasons to step out of the room whenever there is a crisis. Clark “Superman” Kent barely tries to conceal his powers in this particular serial, which made me wonder if he really does have a secret identity or if the other Daily Planet staff members are just humouring him. ︎Speaking of books I read in the last week, one of the books I read in the last week is on my 2026 Best Novel Hugo list. In fact, right now that book is my 2026 Best Novel Hugo List. And that book is… ah, but I’ve used up my word count. ︎The post Five Stories About the Dangerous Business of Truth-Telling appeared first on Reactor.