Raymond F. Jones 1 hr 5 min read

The setting is the same as a thousand other spaceport taverns, swirling smoke, stale alcohol, but Alayna, Queen of the Silver Stars, is singing, and for her the brawling and cursing fall silent.

Raymond F. Jones's 1947 story is an atmospheric psi-powers space opera. Vivid, moody golden-age pulp. Read it for a richly drawn tale of a Martian tavern and the enchanting singer who holds its homeless spacemen spellbound, and the dangerous power behind the Martian Circe's song.

In its time

Published in 1947, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

1 hr 5 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).