Mack Reynolds 1 hr 48 min read

Humanity erupts lemming-like toward the stars, confusing knowledge with wisdom, and folly, not ignorance, is what lies in wait.

Mack Reynolds's 1960 story frames a sweeping tale of galactic colonization with a pointed epigraph about the difference between being clever and being wise, as mankind pours into a million worlds without asking why. Idea-driven social SF from a writer who loved to interrogate humanity's grand projects. Read it for thoughtful golden-age SF that questions the very impulse to conquer the galaxy.

In its time

Published in 1960, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

1 hr 48 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).

Illustrated by

John Schoenherr