Robert Silverberg 21 min read

A shimmering vortex bubbles up out of nowhere, and through the newly torn gulf in the air the Invaders begin to pour, moments after a young man was strolling to see his sweetheart Laura.

Robert Silverberg's 1957 story opens on sudden invasion and builds a tense first-contact and post-apocalyptic tale. Sharp, fast golden-age SF from a future master. Read it for a gripping story where an ordinary afternoon is ripped open by something coming through from elsewhere.

In its time

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

Reading it

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