Edmond Hamilton 1 hr 7 min read

Astronaut Reed Kieran dies in orbit and is frozen, then, a century later, is revived by aliens who need him, and finds himself afraid not of the future but of his own dead past.

Edmond Hamilton's 1962 story is a rousing, thoughtful first-contact space opera. Vivid, humane golden-age SF. Read it for a fine late Hamilton tale where a resurrected man from the past is thrust into an interstellar conflict over a primitive world, in a colorful adventure that raises real questions about progress and freedom.

In its time

Published in 1962, 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