One of my favorite subgenres of speculative fiction is the first contact story. Whether it’s the (hideously misguided) Prime Directive of Star Trek, the mimicked conversations in Blindsight, or the failed Christian witness of The Sparrow, the notion of alien minds coming into sharp collision has always fired my imagination.

It’s safe to say, then, that A Message from the Stars sounds like exactly the sort of board game I would love. Designed by Clarence Simpson, this one is all about an alien ship, human scientists, and the half-understood snippets passed between them.

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