W. J. Matthews 38 min read

In a dim-lit cell, the big man rocks on his heels and rasps at the outlaw lounging on the bench, 'You know why I am here, Kurland?', leg-irons tinkling as the prisoner coolly returns his stare.

W. J. Matthews's 1948 story is a colorful space-opera adventure of intrigue and menace. Vivid, driven golden-age pulp. Read it for a rousing pulp yarn where a Marward of Jupiter and a defiant outlaw are locked in a deadly contest, against a threat descending from the direction of Orion.

In its time

Published in 1948, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

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