Irving E. Cox 25 min read

Mryna Brill means to ride the god-car above the rain mist, for she no longer believes in the taboos, or the Earth-god, or even that she lives on Earth at all, but on a green paradise called Rythar.

Irving E. Cox's 1955 story is a clever first-contact and social-SF tale of a managed world. Sharp, thoughtful golden-age SF. Read it for a story where a young woman's questioning of her world's taboos leads her toward the truth of the guardians who watch over, and quietly control, her whole existence.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

H. R. Van Dongen