George O. Smith 4 hr 31 min read

A signal officer lunges to tear the message tape from the transmitter, too late, as circuit breakers crash and alarms ring, the first jolt of a war that will span the galaxy.

George O. Smith's 1946 novel is a sweeping military space opera of interstellar conflict and superscience. Vivid, fast golden-age SF. Read it for a rousing tale of galactic war, opening on a single frantic mistake that sets a whole conquest in motion.

In its time

Published in 1946, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

4 hr 31 min read (a novel-length work, settle in).

Illustrated by

Malcolm Kildale