Fritz Leiber 28 min read

In a world blasted by super-bombs and ruled by super-thugs, the debate between Art and Science can turn deadly, as five men on a hot desert road are about to learn.

Fritz Leiber's 1957 story sharpens a post-apocalyptic social-SF tale into a pointed clash of values amid the ruins. Sharp, superbly written golden-age SF. Read it for a Leiber story where the argument over what's worth saving after the bombs becomes a matter of life and death.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Robert Engle