Robert Sheckley 32 min read

One March evening a small newspaper item catches his eye: ASTRONOMERS LOSING STARS. It has been happening for perhaps thousands of years, and now someone has finally noticed.

Robert Sheckley's 1952 story builds quiet cosmic dread from the slow, inexplicable disappearance of the stars. Sharp, unsettling social SF from a master. Read it for a chilling tale that opens with a throwaway news story and expands toward the end of everything.

In its time

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

Reading it

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