S. M. Tenneshaw 1 hr 35 min read

No one ever learned where the Kel came from, only that their silver globeships fell on Cadar without warning, desolating world after world, and no fixed base made them impossible to strike back at.

S. M. Tenneshaw's 1958 story is a rousing first-contact and military-SF tale of a merciless enemy. Vivid, driven golden-age pulp. Read it for a colorful space-war yarn where humanity, locked in stalemate against a baseless raiding foe, must find a way to break the friendly killers who never negotiate.

In its time

Published in 1958, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

1 hr 35 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).

Illustrated by

D. Bruce Berry