Samuel J. Sackett 23 min read

At ninety degrees above absolute zero, in the arctic circle of Uranus, Nils Borgmann is sweating, his suit heater has failed, and he has a wife and seven children to feed.

Samuel J. Sackett's 1955 story is a taut colonization and adventure tale of a deep-space working man. Sharp, gripping golden-age SF. Read it for a story of a hard-pressed laborer diving into the frozen depths of Uranus for money he desperately needs, and the deadly gamble the last plunge demands.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

W. E. Terry