Charles A. Stearns 24 min read

It only takes one man to destroy a pacifist Utopia, if he has a gun, and will use it. He boards Stephen's skimmercar by grappling it in midair, a barbaric splendor in a vermilion cape.

Charles A. Stearns's 1957 story tests a nonviolent future society against a single armed intruder. Sharp, provocative social SF. Read it for a pointed tale that asks what a peaceful utopia can possibly do against a man who simply refuses to play by its rules.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Ed Emshwiller