Robert Abernathy 42 min read

Fresh power is coming to a dying Earth, and only two men stand in its way: a cowardly rat and a murderous martyr, both pawns in a cosmic game where even the winner will lose.

Robert Abernathy's 1944 story is a dark, atmospheric hard-SF space opera set in the decaying city of Dynamopolis. Vivid, brooding golden-age pulp. Read it for a moody Planet Stories tale of sabotage, sacrifice, and the desperate stakes of bringing new energy to a failing world.

In its time

Published in 1944, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Lee Elias