Manfred A. Carter 56 min read

An editor and his artificial-handed society reporter set out on a story, into a future that has decided who is fit to live.

Manfred A. Carter's 1944 story opens on the crippled, beautiful Hilda and her boss John Greely, building a dystopian tale around a society's cruel judgments of worth. Dark, character-forward social SF with an unsettling premise. Read it for a grim golden-age story about disability, beauty, and the colonies where the 'unfit' are sent.

In its time

Published in 1944, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Joseph Doolin