Raymond F. Jones 1 hr 7 min read

Under the cherry blossoms of the Solarian Institute, a doctoral student stares at the sky instead of choosing a thesis, while something momentous stirs.

Raymond F. Jones's 1955 story sets its social-space-opera tale amid academic spring, its dreamy protagonist Cameron Wilder on the verge of far more than a degree. Thoughtful, well-observed golden-age SF. Read it for a story that starts in a campus idyll and reaches toward the stars.

In its time

Published in 1955, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

1 hr 7 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).