Michael Shaara 17 min read

Too old to stand, a man in a purple robe is wheeled before the inhuman beings called only 'They', commanding respect not for what he learned but for whom he knew: the man named Wainer.

Michael Shaara's 1954 story is a haunting, thoughtful psi-powers space opera. Evocative, superbly told. Read it for a mysterious, resonant tale where the last man who knew the legendary Wainer testifies before enigmatic alien powers, revealing more than he means to, in a well-crafted golden-age piece rich with mood, mystery, and quiet emotional weight.

In its time

Published in 1954, 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

William Ashman