Algis Budrys 23 min read

In a dripping, mildewed bunker beneath a shattered dome, a man named Brendan faces people who ask only to see their own children.

Algis Budrys's 1958 story sets its tense scene in a cold, windowless concrete cell lit by a single red coil, where a small, desperate request carries enormous weight. Bleak, atmospheric social SF that builds dread from a simple human plea. Read it for spare, powerful golden-age Budrys and a question with no easy answer.

In its time

Published in 1958, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Dan Adkins