Robert Moore Williams 40 min read

They came to the Holy City of Sudal primed for loot and murder, and old trader Larkin warns the space-scarred raiders that the dreamy, gentle Martians are not quite as defenseless as they seem.

Robert Moore Williams's 1952 story is a rousing colonization space opera. Vivid, driven golden-age pulp. Read it for a colorful Planet Stories yarn where greedy conquistadors of space underestimate a peaceful Martian people, in the fast-moving, wonder-and-peril style of the classic space-adventure magazines, with a satisfying comeuppance for the spoilers.

In its time

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

Reading it

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