Roger D. Aycock 34 min read

A man plagued by a recurring vision of a bleak polar plain finds his fiancée-secretary is the one beacon in his uncertainty.

Roger D. Aycock's 1954 story sits with the troubled Philip Alcorn, near whom everyone unwittingly grows placid, as a haunting waking dream and an important appointment converge. Intriguing first-contact SF about a man who is more, and stranger, than he knows. Read it for a well-turned golden-age mystery of identity and quiet unease.

In its time

Published in 1954, 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

Irv Docktor