E. E. Smith 43 min read

To avert civilization's self-destruction two centuries hence, a time-scientist reaches back to a single pivotal moment, and hands a Lomarrian ironmaster the destiny of a whole time-track.

E. E. 'Doc' Smith's 1954 story is a rousing alternate-history and time-travel adventure of sword-and-sorcery scale. Bold, colorful golden-age SF. Read it for a vigorous tale where the fate of the future turns on one heroic ironmaster at the key point in history.

In its time

Published in 1954, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

43 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Lawrence Sterne Stevens