M. C. Pease 18 min read

The whole brass, from the President down, can think of nothing but how the Combine over-ran Venus, and they won't hear a word the admiral says about P-boats and a smarter way to fight.

M. C. Pease's 1958 story builds a sharp military space opera around strategy, stubbornness, and a fleet commander battling his own high command. Clever, tactical golden-age SF. Read it for a story about the hardest fight of all: convincing the generals to change their minds before it's too late.

In its time

Published in 1958, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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