Lloyd Williams 20 min read

If science reshapes courtship, can other sports be far behind? With telekinesis perfected, the crowd roars as a savagely curving ball hurtles at a player who must control it with his mind.

Lloyd Williams's 1951 story spins a wry psi-and-social-SF tale from a future sport of mental tennis. Clever, light golden-age SF. Read it for a genial story where telekinetic games are the new spectacle, and one player's refusal to dodge the ball hints at something deadly serious.

In its time

Published in 1951, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

David Stone