Robert Moore Williams 27 min read

'Why don't you humans go back to Earth? You're too soft for Mars,' sneers the Martian L'Sor, warning that the dread Malovel holds all the colonists in the hollow of his hand.

Robert Moore Williams's 1953 story is a colorful space-opera adventure of humans, Martians, and a looming menace. Vivid, atmospheric golden-age SF. Read it for a rousing frontier tale where a contemptuous native's warning about a dark power proves all too real.

In its time

Published in 1953, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Kelly Freas