Frederik Pohl 36 min read

Two men face off, hands near their dis-guns, aboard a rocket bound for Callisto, where a conspiracy will come to a head tonight.

Frederik Pohl's 1943 story opens on a tense standoff between Duane and the white-haired free-lance Stevens, launching a fast-moving tale of intrigue on Jupiter's moon. Colorful, brisk golden-age space opera. Read it for early Pohl delivering pulpy interplanetary suspense with a hard edge.

In its time

Published in 1943, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

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