John Martin 34 min read

A dying millionaire resolves to spend his last act, and his last fortune, doing the world one final, exquisite bad turn.

This 1952 Planet Stories tale introduces Condemeign, who signs a will designed to corrupt and destroy, reasoning that if the universe gave him a raw deal he might as well return the favor with style. A darkly baroque piece of pulp with a decadent, literary streak and a villain enjoying himself thoroughly. Read it for wicked, elegantly nasty golden-age SF with a taste for the perverse.

In its time

Published in 1952, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

34 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Herman B. Vestal