Richard S. Shaver 45 min read

A gleaming sword sweeps down, Queen Dionaea's head bounces into her garden of live oaks, and in its last seconds gropes for a rune of the goddess Diana.

Richard S. Shaver's 1948 story opens on a startling execution and the queen's dying attempt at sorcery, launching a lost-world tale of psychic powers and old goddesses. Lurid, atmospheric golden-age pulp from the notorious Shaver Mystery author. Read it for vivid, feverish SF where death is only the beginning.

In its time

Published in 1948, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

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