Raymond Z. Gallun: Stories

All space was electrified as that harsh challenge rang out. but John Endlich hesitated. For he saw beyond his own murder--saw the horror and destruction his death would unleash--and knew he dared not fight back!

Child, it was, of the now ancient H-bomb. New. Untested. Would its terrible power sweep the stark Saturnian moon of Titan from space. or miraculously create a flourishing paradise-colony?

A man may be a scoundrel, a crook, a high-phased confidence man, and still work toward a great dream which will be worth far more than the momentary damage his swindles cost.

A scream of brakes, the splash into icy waters, a long descent into alkaline depths. it was death. But Ned Vince lived again--a million years later!

The hero of the novel is Ed Doukas, who is the nephew of the scientist whom everyone blames for the destruction of the Moon (though it's never clear if the scientist is actually guilty); this uncle survived, because he had left the Moon the day before the experiment. Soon, the government learns of the survival of the uncle, and he goes underground. Ed soon finds himself a pariah due to his relation to his uncle.

Nelson and Ramos sped on toward Mars in their tiny plastic-bubble spacecraft. They were on the alert it didn't pay to take anything for granted in the Big Vacuum The way between the worlds was mostly empty space except for the outlaws of the void who drifted, patiently and vengefully waiting for a victim, then struck! Nelsen and Ramos tensed blips on the radar screen! Maybe meteors.

Even in our picayune little corner of the universe, we find in the insect kingdom a form of life that has survived through every possible earth catastrophe in the last 40 mill. years. With their skeletons on the outside of their bodies,insects are able to protect their bodies from heat, cold, and from accidents that would kill us. If the insect's shell were harder and thicker and made of heat resisting material, it might conceivablybe able to live in space without other protection.

It's a funny thing, but most monsters seem to be of the opinion that it's men who are the monsters. You know, they have a point.