Mack Reynolds 2 hr 42 min read

Drenched, swacked, stewed, three sheets to the wind, Major Joseph Mauser works methodically through the auto-bar's entire list, and it isn't a happy binge.

Mack Reynolds's 1963 story, part of his Joe Mauser series, opens on a soldier's bitter bender in a rigid caste-and-combat future. Sharp, satirical social SF. Read it for a wry tale of a professional warrior in a society that turns war itself into managed spectacle.

In its time

Published in 1963, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

2 hr 42 min read (a novel-length work, settle in).

Illustrated by

John Schoenherr