Alien visitors give man a choice

[Trubba Not]

Hello

I'm looking for a book my teacher introduced to me to at school, that'll be way back in the early 1980s.

This is the plot: a man is visited by some aliens who land on Earth. The aliens demonstrate a super light, magentic alloy to the man - this being an example of their superior technology. They make the man an offer; either they will give the man this alloy for scientific study, or they will take the man to their home planet to show him how their society works. Quite why they would offer such a choice I've no idea!

Anyway the man chooses to see their home planet. There follows a lengthy description of the alien society, and...

that's as far as I got. The only other detail I remember is the man's amazement at the high population of the planet (several billion!) Regrettably I never read the book to its end. I'm curious to know what the novel (or maybe it was the first short story in a collection) was called and would like to reread it.

Any ideas? Perhaps someone out there with an encyclopaedic knowledge of science fiction can identify the book from this sketchy description!

Thanks

 

[HareBrain]

No idea, sadly, but kudos for picking a user name from Riddley Walker.

Wish I'd chosen ArgaWarga now ...

 

[logan_run]

I dont recognize it.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Just a guess. But the morality issue involved in the choice makes me think your book may be part of the Perry Rhodan series. Some of the higher intelligences (but not the super intelligences) liked to do such things. And it is the right era. Unfortunately there's a hell of a lot of novels, novellas, a magazine and spin offs in the series.

Cheers, Greg.