Joseph Paul Martino 26 min read

A descendant of the Vikings rides a ship Leif never dreamed of; a son of the Caesars flies another; an Apache mans a steed no plain ever knew, but they are warriors all, in a war fought by machine.

Joseph Paul Martino's 1960 story is a taut, thoughtful military and hard-SF tale of automated warfare. Sharp, grounded golden-age SF. Read it for a story that finds the ancient warrior's spirit alive inside the cockpits of a coldly technological pushbutton war.

In its time

Published in 1960, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

John Schoenherr