Roger D. Aycock 6 min read

Too late, the neophyte Ortho watches the priests hurl his bound friend over the precipice, and old Kaliz tells him gently that he cannot yet understand why Gor Zan had to die.

Roger D. Aycock's 1949 story is an atmospheric space-opera adventure. Vivid, driven golden-age pulp. Read it for a colorful tale of a cruel priesthood, forbidden knowledge, and a young man's dangerous awakening on a strange world, where the deadly secret of 'the wheel' drives a fast-moving golden-age adventure.

In its time

Published in 1949, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

6 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).