Stephen Marlowe 1 hr 34 min read

A guard spits in Phil Rhodes' food bowl and trudges away; nothing here is a whim, it is all part of a careful plan, and the purpose of the plan is to break the one Earthman.

Stephen Marlowe's 1956 story opens in a cold, coffin-shaped cell and builds a grim space-opera tale of psychological warfare. Tense, unflinching golden-age SF. Read it for a story about a captured man's stubborn will against a machine designed to grind him down.

In its time

Published in 1956, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

1 hr 34 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).

Illustrated by

Lloyd Rognan