Charles V. De Vet 1 hr 2 min read

Lighting a cigar with all his apparent attention, Big Jim Ostby watches every face that passes, every figure across the street, for on this other-dimensional world, the police are already after him.

Charles V. De Vet's 1953 story is a taut space-opera adventure of a hunted man on a strange world. Sharp, gripping golden-age SF. Read it for a tense chase tale where a big, dangerous fugitive works to stay hidden and stay alive on an alien planet where every shadow may hold a trap.

In its time

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

Reading it

1 hr 2 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Ed Emshwiller