
Humanity finally broke free of Earth’s gravity, only to discover that the void is far from empty. Glowing, sentient vortices called the Varra reveal a hidden horror: a race of Plutonian minds that siphon life‑energy across light‑years, turning distant worlds into silent death traps. Their warning forces a fragile alliance, limiting travel to the safety of the Varra’s protective fields and leaving Pluto untouched.
Against this cosmic backdrop, a hardened inmate named Saul Duncan makes a desperate bid for freedom through an Arctic blizzard, clutching a smuggled compass that points toward an unknown aircraft. His escape is as brutal as it is urgent—ten years for murder is a fate he would rather die than endure. As the storm swallows him, Duncan’s path may intersect with the secretive space program, pulling a man on the run into the very heart of humanity’s struggle against the unseen menace beyond the stars.
Language
en
Duration
~1 hours (59K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
United States: Fictioneers, Inc.,1942.
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan, Alex White & the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at https://www.pgdpcanada.net.
Release date
2022-06-06
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1915–1958
A gifted pulp-era storyteller, he helped shape modern science fiction, fantasy, and horror through fast-moving, imaginative tales. Many of his best-known works were written with C. L. Moore, and their shared byline Lewis Padgett became famous with genre readers.
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by Henry Kuttner

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by Henry Kuttner