Arthur G. Stangland 29 min read

A great black meteor twirls toward him in awesome majesty, doom in its onrush and no escape, and passenger-rocket captain Bill Staker wakes, savoring the delicious weight of his New York bed.

Arthur G. Stangland's 1953 story is a sharp hard-SF and post-apocalyptic tale of a spaceman's private terror. Vivid, thoughtful golden-age SF. Read it for a story where the deep dark of space has broken a veteran pilot's nerve, and he must find whether he can be whole again, or whether space has claimed him for good.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Ed Valigursky