Jerry Sohl 21 min read

A newsman signs on for a two-year interstellar voyage in a sardine can, where he'll learn what it means to be a Nilly, and to die seven times in the black.

Jerry Sohl's 1959 story sends observer Keith Ellason on a long deep-space mission, framed by the eerie confession of one who has 'died' repeatedly in the outer reaches. Atmospheric, intriguing social space opera. Read it for a well-crafted golden-age tale of the long haul and the strange people who crew it.

In its time

Published in 1959, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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