Robert Emmett McDowell 1 hr 23 min read

On the stage of Mercury Sam's Garden, a red-haired singer belts out a ribald ditty to roaring miners and spacemen, a fixed smile on her crimson lips, and terror in her eyes.

Robert Emmett McDowell's 1945 story is a colorful, atmospheric space-opera adventure of a frightened performer and a frontier world. Vivid, driven golden-age pulp. Read it for a rousing tale that opens in a rowdy Mercurian dive and follows a terrified red-haired singer into danger and intrigue.

In its time

Published in 1945, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

1 hr 23 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).

Illustrated by

Murphy Anderson