James V. McConnell 24 min read

'Happy New Year!' cries the nurse, but how many times should one hear it in a single lifetime? As bells ring outside, the empty Oliver Symmes lies waiting in his geriatric room.

James V. McConnell's 1957 story builds a poignant psi-and-social-SF tale around extreme longevity and its cost. Thoughtful, melancholy golden-age SF. Read it for a moving story about a man who has lived far too long, and what the years have hollowed out.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Dick Francis