Max C. Sheridan 1 hr 24 min read

A timid little gray man in gold-rimmed spectacles peers over the edge of a great black hole and asks the guard, ever so meekly, when the next 'Big Drop' into time leaves.

Max C. Sheridan's 1954 story is a wry space-opera and time-travel tale. Clever, engaging golden-age SF. Read it for a genial yarn where an unassuming nobody proves to be far more than he seems, set among the bureaucrats and technicians who run a future's time-travel machinery, in a light, twisty golden-age adventure.

In its time

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

Reading it

1 hr 24 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).

Illustrated by

Kelly Freas