George O. Smith 27 min read

At the UN Weapon Security Council, Jim Franklen finds President Winter in deep trouble: the enemy Central Power keeps rattling the saber, and no one can guess what they're up to.

George O. Smith's 1948 novel is a rousing first-contact and military-SF tale. Sharp, driven golden-age SF. Read it for a tense Cold-War-flavored story of escalating crisis and hidden alien menace, where a global security agency races to fathom an incomprehensible threat, in fast-moving, idea-rich golden-age SF.

In its time

Published in 1948, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Dick Ayers