Randall Garrett Robert Silverberg 18 min read

Injured and hunted, a man limps through a silent alien city toward the Governor's Mansion, pistol reholstered, one chance left.

Randall Garrett and Robert Silverberg's 1957 story opens on Mac Thornwald's pained escape across plastosteel pavement, air-reptiles whispering overhead, on a mission that has gone badly wrong. Tense, atmospheric space opera with a wounded hero and a ticking clock. Read it for taut golden-age adventure on a hostile colony world.

In its time

Published in 1957, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

W. E. Terry