Allen Kim Lang 10 min read

A television producer flies to Boston to sign the brilliant, prolific Dr. Axel Ozoneff, cryptochemist, author of thirty-odd books, poet, and small-screen personality, as his show's secret weapon.

Allen Kim Lang's 1959 story spins wry AI-and-social-SF from a media hunt for the perfect on-camera genius. Clever, entertaining golden-age SF. Read it for a witty tale where the search for a television 'catalyst' turns up something more remarkable than any producer bargained for.

In its time

Published in 1959, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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