Tom Purdom 25 min read

Read locks the door and draws his pistol as Sergeant Rashid hands Premier Umluana the warrant, 'We're from the UN Inspector Corps; we have to arrest you for trial by the World Court.'

Tom Purdom's 1961 story is a taut military and social-SF tale of conscience under orders. Sharp, thoughtful golden-age SF. Read it for a gripping story about the decisions a soldier refuses to make, where a UN arrest mission becomes a test of one man's limits, and the meaning of the moment he says 'I've had enough.'

In its time

Published in 1961, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

John Schoenherr