Stephen Marlowe 21 min read

On the drudgery-worn colony world of Talbor, morale sags among the overworked settlers, so Earth dispatches a special ship bearing a unique and very unexpected cargo.

Stephen Marlowe's 1953 story is a wry colonization and social-SF tale. Clever, warm golden-age SF. Read it for a genial story about what a struggling frontier colony truly needs to keep going, where Earth's peculiar remedy for low morale drives a light, well-turned golden-age piece about work, spirit, and the human need for a little glamor.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

W. E. Terry