V. E. Thiessen 24 min read

Lean and dungaree-clad, he stares down the canal at the spires of the fabled Martian city, one part of his mind drawn to its beauty, a deeper part screaming to flee before he loses his soul.

V. E. Thiessen's 1955 story is an atmospheric, dreamlike space-opera adventure of a deadly Martian lure. Vivid, moody golden-age pulp. Read it for a story where the legendary beauty of a Martian city masks a soul-consuming trap, and a man must fight the pull that would hollow him into a walking husk.

In its time

Published in 1955, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Ed Emshwiller