S. M. Tenneshaw 1 hr 4 min read

Fred Trent pulls his coupe to the curb and calls to Joan, a trim nurse wrestling a Great Dane on a leash, an ordinary sunny afternoon, moments before a rocket's white-hot flames change everything.

S. M. Tenneshaw's 1953 story is a rousing hard-SF and horror tale. Vivid, driven golden-age pulp. Read it for a colorful pulp yarn that opens on a peaceful small-town scene and erupts into menace, as a rocket launch unleashes the monster of the title upon an unsuspecting world.

In its time

Published in 1953, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

1 hr 4 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).