Paul Ernst 33 min read

Undaunted by crazy tales of an indestructible presence on Asteroid Z-40, Harley 2Q14N20 spots one unsold asteroid among the myriad 'Sold' symbols, and sets out alone to face and master it.

Paul Ernst's 1931 story is a rousing space-opera adventure of a haunted asteroid. Vivid, driven golden-age pulp. Read it for a colorful pulp yarn where a would-be asteroid-owner braves a world shunned by all others, to confront the deathless menace that guards the planetoid of peril.

In its time

Published in 1931, during the 1930s, space opera soars.

Reading it

33 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).