Mack Reynolds 10 min read

In an obscure Martian tavern, a weary spacer half-notices the old man on the next stool, who counts out coins for a glass of wine the barkeep never wanted to charge him for.

Mack Reynolds's 1951 story spins a poignant colonization space opera from a chance encounter with a strange old Mars-hand. Atmospheric, affecting golden-age SF. Read it for a wistful frontier tale, told over a drink, about a man who never quite made it all the way out to the stars.

In its time

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

Reading it

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