Irving E. Cox 1 hr 4 min read

It was a world of greedy Dynasts, each contending to pillage and enslave, until one man's valor became a shining shield. Captain Max Hunter walks down the ramp, bag in hand, quitting the service.

Irving E. Cox's 1955 story is a vivid dystopian social-SF and adventure tale of a corporate tyranny. Sharp, driven golden-age SF. Read it for a rousing story where a spaceman turns his back on the service to challenge a world ruled by warring cartels, in a full-blooded tale of courage against greed.

In its time

Published in 1955, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

1 hr 4 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).