Poul Anderson 1 hr 14 min read

When did the asterites first realize they weren't pseudopods of a dozen Earthly nations, but a single people in their own right? There, argue the clubmen, lies the root of the revolution.

Poul Anderson's 1963 story is a shrewd social-SF and space-opera tale of asteroid colonists throwing off Earth's control. Sharp, ideas-rich golden-age SF. Read it for a clever story that pins down the exact moment a scattered frontier becomes a nation ready to fight for itself.

In its time

Published in 1963, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

1 hr 14 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Leo Summers