G. K. Hawk 9 min read

Snow drives through the torn hull of a wrecked cargo ship, settling on the dead control board, as a dazed Allison watches conical white hats grow on the useless pushbuttons.

G. K. Hawk's 1955 story opens on eerie desolation, building a post-apocalyptic and social-SF tale of survival amid lost knowledge. Atmospheric, sharp golden-age SF. Read it for a story where stranded men confront a world that has forgotten the very skills that could save them.

In its time

Published in 1955, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Ed Emshwiller