H. Beam Piper 34 min read

Was this ill-fated expedition the end of a proud old race, or the beginning of a new one? Aboard the colony ship, a thousand migrants sleep and play, bound for a friendlier world.

H. Beam Piper's 1951 story offers a poignant answer to the riddle of humanity's origins through a doomed interstellar colonization. Thoughtful, moving golden-age SF. Read it for a beautiful tale that quietly reframes the story of where we came from, and what it cost.

In its time

Published in 1951, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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