Charles L. Fontenay 40 min read

Murdering Stein was easy, Kraag simply waited for Jonner to spacesuit up and go out to inspect the asteroid, then bided his time so the others would return unsuspecting.

Charles L. Fontenay's 1954 story opens cold-bloodedly on a shipboard killing, building a tense military space-opera of murder and survival in the void. Sharp, suspenseful golden-age SF. Read it for a taut thriller where the crew of a stranded ship becomes hunter and hunted.

In its time

Published in 1954, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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