Michael Shaara 33 min read

At Sirius, twenty-five-year-old Beauclaire is given his first ship by a tired, irritated old Commandant, who has a few things to tell the bright, certain young man before he goes.

Michael Shaara's 1953 story is a thoughtful post-apocalyptic and social-SF tale of contact and understanding. Sharp, humane golden-age SF (by the future author of 'The Killer Angels'). Read it for a fine story where a young officer's first command becomes an encounter with a lost world, and a book that changes how humanity sees itself.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Mel Hunter