Synopsis
People from the far future come back to 2144 with the intention of swapping places with the people of that time.
History
First publication: Wonder Stories, May 1931
Review
Kind of a bleak vision of the future. The ending is kind of positive, but not really. Wyndham had a love of destroying the world. In this one, it is the world of the far future that is coming to an end naturally, but the people of that time force the people of 2144 to trade places with them, so that they can continue to live. It seems there should be a paradox to that but Wyndham avoids that line of thought. In some ways this story is typical of 30s SF, but it is really a much better story than most of what was published then. The characters could be stronger, but the idea and the world-building are good. Overall I think this is one of the better stories of the 1930s, but still don’t feel it is quite good enough for a Top Tale.
Videos
We have the story in these editions:
Sleepers of Mars, paperback, Coronet Press, 1979-00-00
