Murray Leinster 3 hr 55 min read

Cynical Jed Cochrane rides a helicab over a city of fourteen million, all its rooftops turned to recreation-spaces, reminding himself he's no better than anyone else, only better at not admitting it.

Murray Leinster's 1954 novel is a shrewd social-SF and space-opera tale where advertising and PR drive the conquest of space. Sharp, prescient golden-age SF. Read it for a clever story that imagines mankind reaching the stars not through heroism but through show business and salesmanship.

In its time

Published in 1954, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

3 hr 55 min read (a novel-length work, settle in).