Lyman D. Hinckley 26 min read

Setting the lifeboat down, three explorers stare in awed silence at a city of dull black walls, its too-strict geometry giving a first impression that is unmistakably malignant.

Lyman D. Hinckley's 1955 story sends its landing party toward an eerie alien metropolis, building a tense first-contact space opera from dread and mystery. Atmospheric, sharp golden-age SF. Read it for a gripping tale of explorers drawn toward a city that feels wrong from the very first glance.

In its time

Published in 1955, 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

Kelly Freas