Dave Dryfoos 22 min read

A man raised to believe the whole city exists for his individual defense burns with anger at being left behind again when the Invaders break in.

Dave Dryfoos's 1951 story imagines a far-future San Francisco of fog and forested ruins, where Roddie and his 'nurse' Molly wait out an endless war whose true nature slowly emerges. Eerie, atmospheric dystopian SF with a dawning revelation. Read it for a moody golden-age tale about a lone defender who doesn't understand his own war.

In its time

Published in 1951, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Harry Harrison