Julian F. Grow 12 min read

Counting down from ten across geological time and cosmic scale, a story of a solar system poised between a nurturing sun and the star's pure fire.

Julian F. Grow's 1963 story unfolds through a striking descending-numeral structure, from ten uneasy post-tragedy years down through the deep past of the planets. Ambitious, poetic space opera with an unusual form. Read it for an inventive golden-age tale that counts down through eons toward a fateful choice.

In its time

Published in 1963, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

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