Alfred Coppel 22 min read

Humans are a strange, forgetful breed, the narrator observes: sitting in the New York–San Francisco stratojet, do you ever remember the barren waste the Sierra once was, or the man who made it bloom?

Alfred Coppel's 1953 story is a thoughtful colonization and psi-powers tale. Sharp, humane golden-age SF. Read it for a reflective story that honors the forgotten pioneers whose sacrifices built a comfortable future, telling of Bat Kendo and the terrible price he paid to green the wastelands.

In its time

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

Reading it

22 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).