Wallace West 27 min read

A bold social experiment among the asteroid colonies of the Belt sets in motion consequences that no one foresaw, a test of theory, environment, and human adaptability among the flying mountains.

Wallace West's 1951 story is a thoughtful colonization and hard-SF tale. Cerebral, well-reasoned golden-age SF. Read it for an idea-driven story of frontier society in the asteroid belt, probing how environment shapes heredity and culture, in a speculative golden-age piece that takes its science and its social questions seriously.

In its time

Published in 1951, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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