Stanley Mullen 1 hr 10 min read

They bring in the prisoners who escaped from Phobos, and the police examine each body lowered from the rescue ship, corpses so ruined they are meaningless parodies that might never have been men.

Stanley Mullen's 1955 story opens on grisly mystery on Mars, building a colorful space-opera adventure. Vivid, atmospheric golden-age pulp. Read it for a rousing tale of a Martian manhunt that begins with unspeakable corpses and reaches toward a stranger truth.

In its time

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

Reading it

1 hr 10 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).