Alfred Coppel 12 min read

He didn't have the qualifications to go into space, so he had them manufactured, letting an illegal cosmetician remake his very face.

Alfred Coppel's 1952 story follows a man's furtive, radical scheme to fake his way onto a starship, building a taut social space opera of deception. Sharp, suspenseful golden-age SF. Read it for a gripping tale about how far a man will go, and how much of himself he'll give up, to reach the stars.

In its time

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

Reading it

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