H. B. Hickey 26 min read

Beyond Ventura B the books say there is no life, nothing but dead suns and cold planets. One man goes past it anyway, alone, knowing the odds are against his return.

H. B. Hickey's 1952 story sends Ben Sessions into the charted void beyond the last star, his fatal journey set in motion by a file clerk's error. Atmospheric, fateful space opera. Read it for a golden-age tale about a man driven past the edge of the known by the smallest of mistakes.

In its time

Published in 1952, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

W. E. Terry