Will Mohler 17 min read

Bertha and the narrator arrive at Morton's country place like giddy city kids on their first outing, soaked by a needling autumn rain, bracing for two whole glorious weeks in a rationed future.

Will Mohler's 1958 story is a wry dystopian and social-SF tale. Sharp, evocative golden-age SF. Read it for a vividly-drawn story of a hard-won vacation in a regimented future, where the simple pleasures of a country holiday carry a quiet undercurrent of social commentary, in a well-observed, atmospheric golden-age piece.

In its time

Published in 1958, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Kelly Freas