James H. Schmitz 1 hr 7 min read

On a bleak uncharted world, two wrecked ships and one lone man, and a single blazing star hyacinth, a gem so beautiful men would kill and kill again for it alone.

James H. Schmitz's 1961 story is a taut, atmospheric space-opera adventure. Sharp, gripping golden-age SF. Read it for a lean, suspenseful tale of a hundred-million-credit gem robbery and its deadly aftermath on a hostile planet, where greed and survival collide, from a reliably inventive master of adventure SF.

In its time

Published in 1961, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

1 hr 7 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Virgil Finlay