E. E. Smith 31 min read

'The critical point in mankind's whole existence is there, RIGHT THERE!' cries Prime Physicist Skandos, slashing his red pencil across the chronoviagram, resolved to reach back and set history right.

E.E. Smith's 1953 story is a rousing alternate-history and time-travel tale of science and swashbuckling. Vivid, thrilling golden-age SF. Read it for Doc Smith blending super-science with sword-and-sorcery, as far-future physicists reach into the past to guide a barbarian smith, Tedric, and turn the tide of human destiny.

In its time

Published in 1953, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

J. Allen St. John