Joseph Samachson 46 min read

Anyone mad enough to land on crazy Mercury to rescue a screwball explorer should have his head examined, and thick-skulled, powerful McCracken starts things off by shooting a native.

Joseph Samachson's 1953 story is a wry adventure and colonization tale. Clever, fun golden-age SF. Read it for a genial rescue yarn set in the deadly Twilight Zone between Mercury's burning day and frozen night, where a not-too-bright strongman blunders into danger, in a breezy, humorous golden-age adventure with a scientific streak.

In its time

Published in 1953, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Vidmer