Ross Rocklynne 25 min read

Just back from a long asteroid haul, a spaceman checks into the Hotel de Mars and can't stop staring at the smiling, ringless woman at the desk.

Ross Rocklynne's 1953 story opens on weathered Harvey, smitten at first sight, setting up a warm space-opera tale of loneliness and connection. Genial, character-driven golden-age SF. Read it for a good-humored story about a lonely spacer and the small human moment that stops him in his tracks.

In its time

Published in 1953, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Herman B. Vestal