Robert Turner 7 min read

A blinding light presses against his tightly squinched eyes, and big red smooth hands drag him toward it, too small and weak to fight, he twists and struggles against the pull.

Robert Turner's 1952 story is a haunting post-apocalyptic and social-SF tale with a quiet sting. Sharp, unsettling golden-age SF. Read it for a story whose disorienting opening slowly reveals what is really happening, and what 'success' means for the human race in a world remade.

In its time

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

Reading it

7 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).

Illustrated by

Kelly Freas