Miriam Allen De Ford 15 min read

They had the skycar drop them off away from the neighbors, so no one would see the words LYDNA PROJECT on its side, for Hal, their only child, whom they love, has been picked for Lydna.

Miriam Allen De Ford's 1955 story is a quietly devastating post-apocalyptic and social-SF tale of a family and a fateful selection. Sharp, affecting golden-age SF. Read it for a story where parental love collides with a mysterious program from which, the title warns, there is only one way.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Irv Docktor