Robert E. Gilbert 31 min read

Grinning, the crooks Aziz and Vicenzo cheerfully sabotage young Henry's spacesuit and drive tube, promising his name will be in every mouth, in their orbit, that is.

Robert E. Gilbert's 1958 story spins wry social-SF and space-opera comedy from a naive youth and two scheming spacers. Fun, offbeat golden-age SF. Read it for a genial tale where a hapless kid is set up by a pair of grinning rogues out beyond the Rings of Saturn.

In its time

Published in 1958, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Richard Kluga