Wallace West 58 min read

Space Patrol Captain Frank Sage slumps at the Moon Station Cafe bar over coffee and pie, grumbling that the Big Shots are throwing their weight around on Venus again, and he's got troubles.

Wallace West's 1951 story opens on weary frontier atmosphere before its post-apocalyptic social-SF plot unfolds. Sharp, atmospheric golden-age SF. Read it for a story of a road-worn spaceman drawn into brewing conflict on Venus, and a stubborn hope of peace.

In its time

Published in 1951, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Peter Poulton