Arthur Jean Cox 7 min read

Alone in a lightless Martian cave, the narrator freezes at a whisper of movement in the darkness and gropes for his gun, one voiceless cry, and then the nameless things begin to stir.

Arthur Jean Cox's 1954 story is a chilling blend of science fiction and pure horror. Atmospheric, dread-building, superbly told. Read it for an effective terror tale set among the rust-red hills of Mars, where the author lights his ghoul-haunted darkness with flashes of chilling suggestion, evoking shuddery cosmic dread by hinting at far more than he shows.

In its time

Published in 1954, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Bert Lief