H. Beam Piper 32 min read

Gripping the rail as the mountains rise, Conn Maxwell dreads the moment he must face his father, and confess what he did, and didn't, find in the archives of a dying colony world.

H. Beam Piper's 1958 story (which grew into the novel 'Junkyard Planet'/'The Cosmic Computer') is a sharp tale of a stagnant colony chasing the myth of a lost supercomputer. Thoughtful, humane golden-age SF. Read it for a story about hope, disillusionment, and what it really takes to rebuild a world.

In its time

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

Reading it

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