Arthur Dekker Savage 27 min read

When Sykin Supcel is kidnapped, no one is less surprised than Dr. Horace Wilton, his mentor and Chief Military Psychologist of the Solar Navy, who might, he admits, have predicted it.

Arthur Dekker Savage's 1953 story is a sharp post-apocalyptic and social-SF tale of intrigue. Clever, atmospheric golden-age SF. Read it for a story where the abduction of a prized young man by the alien Sur-Malic sets off a tense reckoning, and the psychologist behind him confronts the consequences.

In its time

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

Reading it

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