David Mason 14 min read

On the quiz show Win-a-Mint, a young contestant plays for the biggest prize yet offered, one hundred thousand dollars, and it's certainly worth spending a little time to win.

David Mason's 1957 story is a wry first-contact and social-SF tale. Clever, sharp golden-age SF. Read it for a neatly-turned story where a television quiz show and its tempting jackpot become the stage for something far stranger, in a witty golden-age piece with a satirical eye on media, greed, and the long question behind the game.

In its time

Published in 1957, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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