R. W. Major 5 min read

Dr. Charles King is sure that when he throws the switch he'll restore his good name and end forever the hated nickname the world hung on him: 'Side Effect Charlie.'

R. W. Major's 1960 story spins a clever social-SF and space-opera tale from a scientist famous only for his accidental discoveries. Wry, ironic golden-age SF. Read it for a story about a man whose greatest breakthroughs came by accident, staking everything on one deliberate triumph.

In its time

Published in 1960, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

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