Richard Sheridan 16 min read

Jord wakes to the purr of ventilators and cold, shadowless light, pale light, swollen bladder, sticky throat, a dim fear of incipient living, and remembers the day's objectives.

Richard Sheridan's 1962 story is an atmospheric military space opera of a soldier's regimented existence. Sharp, evocative golden-age SF. Read it for a story steeped in the grim routine of a future warrior's life, where a hoplite of tomorrow rises to another day of duty in a world drained of color and warmth.

In its time

Published in 1962, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

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