Philip José Farmer 1 hr 18 min read

After the Apocalyptic War, the remnant French of the Loire Valley are squeezed between two growing powers, and one man sets his sights on the Six Bright Stars and his world's freedom.

Philip José Farmer's 1954 story is an inventive dystopian and social-SF tale of a strange, controlled future society. Sharp, imaginative golden-age SF. Read it for a story where one rebel's dream of liberty defies a triangular tyranny, from a master of the provocative and the odd.

In its time

Published in 1954, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

1 hr 18 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).