Carey Rockwell 4 hr 22 min read

'Stand to, you rocket wash!' A bull-throated roar freezes a hundred laughing boys to attention on the monorail platform at Space Academy, as a scarlet-clad Solar Guard sizes up the new cadets.

Carey Rockwell's 1952 novel is the first Tom Corbett Space Cadet adventure, a beloved juvenile space opera. Fast, wholesome, thrilling period SF. Read it for the debut of Tom, Roger, and Astro, raw recruits forging themselves into a spaceship crew, in a cornerstone of golden-age juvenile SF.

In its time

Published in 1952, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

4 hr 22 min read (a novel-length work, settle in).

Illustrated by

Louis Glanzman