William Shedenhelm 12 min read

'Lorelei calling Venusport for landing', the New England twang comes clear across ten thousand miles of space, from Pop, near two hundred years old and still the best pilot in the System.

William Shedenhelm's 1950 story is a warm hard-SF space opera of an aging ace pilot. Sharp, affectionate golden-age SF. Read it for a genial tale of a legendary old spaceman still flying the lanes, and the respect he commands from a younger generation.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Al McWilliams