Randall Garrett 7 min read

Jon wakes at dawn and within five minutes is ready to protect the Tower against its enemies, the Wild Ones beyond the bomb-blackened city, across the sea from the Free People.

Randall Garrett's 1957 story unfolds a post-apocalyptic social-SF tale of dutiful young guardians and the mysterious Tower they defend. Sharp, evocative golden-age SF. Read it for a story that slowly reveals what the Tower is, and why its keepers stand their eternal watch.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

W. E. Terry