Noel M. Loomis 27 min read

Caked in mud and slime, a lone man drags himself out of the deadly Great Sea-Swamp of Venus like Father Neptune, survivor of a two-hundred-mile ordeal, and bearer of a hard-won secret.

Noel M. Loomis's 1952 story is a rousing space-opera adventure. Vivid, driven golden-age pulp. Read it for a colorful Venusian yarn of endurance and cunning, where a battered prospector emerges from a lethal swamp with the knowledge to win a fight and a fortune, in fast-moving, atmospheric golden-age pulp SF.

In its time

Published in 1952, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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