Walter L. Kleine 25 min read

Setting up the first Mars base is an old problem, and this narrator takes a new, personal, and dangerous approach to it, with a woman watching his every reaction.

Walter L. Kleine's 1957 story grounds its Mars-colonization tale in the tense psychology of the men and women who must plant the first foothold. Thoughtful, character-driven golden-age SF. Read it for a fresh, human take on the classic problem of getting that first base to stick.

In its time

Published in 1957, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

John Schoenherr