Irving E. Cox 25 min read

In a future where every whim of women is law and men are kept enslaved by a compound, George has learned to hide his sneer behind a dutiful smile, and he knows what he has to do.

Irving E. Cox's 1956 story spins a sharp, satirical colonization and social-SF tale of a matriarchal society and one rebel. Pointed, provocative golden-age SF. Read it for a story about a young man's quiet revolt against a world engineered entirely around others' desires.

In its time

Published in 1956, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Paul Orban