Sam Carson 16 min read

Three men in a space yacht drop out of hyperspace near Deneb on what the Galactic Service would call a suicide mission.

Sam Carson's 1954 story sends the tiny Markab against an alien ship a thousand times its size, its author summoning alien hills and valleys that 'pulse with light and vitality.' Vivid, adventurous space opera with a striking sense of place. Read it for colorful golden-age SF that makes its far worlds glow with life.

In its time

Published in 1954, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

16 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).