Jr. Sam Merwin 1 hr 27 min read

Lynne Fenlay has had headaches in her twenty-four years, but never one like this, a pain out of nowhere, with no cause, that will not go away.

Sam Merwin Jr.'s 1953 story builds a psi-and-space-opera mystery from an inexplicable, relentless headache. Sharp, intriguing golden-age SF. Read it for a story where a young woman's causeless agony proves to be the first sign of something far stranger reaching into her mind.

In its time

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

Reading it

1 hr 27 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).