Charles L. Fontenay 27 min read

A starship returns to a glaring, empty spaceport with no sign of life, and a crew wondering whether Earth has been depopulated.

Charles L. Fontenay's 1958 story opens on Commander Wallace and his officers puzzling over a silent, robot-controlled spaceport and cities that showed smoke from orbit. Atmospheric, mystery-driven social SF. Read it for a well-built golden-age tale about a homecoming to a world that seems to have emptied out.

In its time

Published in 1958, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Paul Orban