H. B. Hickey 46 min read

Ten thousand die in a searing flash over New York, while across the country a man rides an elevator up to his new apartment, thinking of a girl.

H. B. Hickey's 1948 story cuts between atomic catastrophe and Case Damon's oblivious ascent, setting personal happiness against continental horror. Stark, dramatic atomic-age SF with a chilling structural contrast. Read it for hard-hitting golden-age SF that pairs intimate hope with sudden, massive devastation.

In its time

Published in 1948, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

46 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).