Randall Garrett 5 min read

The ultimate secret weapon isn't a bomb or a bug, it's aimed at man's greatest weakness, and the only defense is a sense of humor.

Randall Garrett's 1959 story (as Ivar Jorgensen) is narrated by a soldier cut off in a strange war, recounting a weapon designed to exploit human vulnerability itself. Fast, funny military SF with a satirical wink. Read it for a genial golden-age tale that turns the arms race into a joke, and finds real point in the laughter.

In its time

Published in 1959, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Charles J. Berger