Poul Anderson 54 min read

With sunset came rain, and Dougald Anson brought his boat into Krakenau harbor through a vast wet darkness, a spaceman's son sculling among galleys and fishing schooners beneath a hilltop citadel.

Poul Anderson's 1950 story is a rich colonization and space-opera tale of a lost Terran colony reverted to sail and sword. Vivid, atmospheric golden-age SF. Read it for classic Anderson, a world where the descendants of star-travelers have forgotten the stars, and one man's heritage may awaken them.

In its time

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

Reading it

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