Dwight V. Swain 2 hr 56 min read

Jarl Corvett picks his raiding party of seven and slips down onto Vesta by night, bound for the workshop of Wassreck and a weapon that could decide everything, if the guards don't kill him first.

Dwight V. Swain's 1952 story is a rousing military space opera. Vivid, driven golden-age pulp. Read it for a colorful, hard-driving pulp adventure of raids, intrigue, and a war-deciding super-weapon, where a grim warrior stakes his life on a desperate mission, in the breathless, action-packed style of golden-age Planet Stories.

In its time

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

Reading it

2 hr 56 min read (a novel-length work, settle in).