
In a quiet lakeside bungalow, a baffling scene unfolds: a gaunt stranger lies dead, his body marked by impossible wounds and his hands clutching a glass‑barreled pistol that will not fire. The only clue to his identity is a frantic manuscript signed “Barry Horn,” written in a rush as he succumbed to pain. Investigators scramble to make sense of his ageless appearance, the alien fabrics of his clothing, and the mysterious weapon that defies all scientific explanation.
Beyond the mystery of Horn’s demise, the story expands into a larger, desperate conflict. Humanity faces the relentless menace of Malgarth, a towering robot monster, and the only hope may lie with Horn—who has just awakened from a centuries‑long, amnesic slumber caused by cosmic rays—and the brilliant young scientist Dona Keradin, known as the “wonder‑girl in the carbon crystal.” Their uneasy alliance promises a battle of wits and technology that will test the limits of what Earth can endure.
Language
en
Duration
~3 hours (193K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
United States: Western Fiction Publishing Co. Inc., 1939.
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2023-05-20
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1908–2006
A pioneering voice from the pulp-magazine era, this science fiction writer helped shape the genre for nearly a century. His stories mixed cosmic adventure with big ideas, and his career stretched from the 1920s into the twenty-first century.
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