Synopsis
Two men build a time machine and intend travel 5000 years into the future on earth. But something went wrong and they end up more than 5 million years in the future, when the sun has cooled to a red star.
History
First publication: Wonder Stories, December 1931
Review
Simak’s first story is a fairly conventional early pulp sf story. Probably inspired by Wells’ The Time Machine, we have the time travel, the red sun and going into the very far future. From there it becomes just an ordinary “overthrow the evil ruler” story. It doesn’t have interesting characters and doesn’t have very strong, original ideas. It is fun to read if you like early science fiction, but there is nothing remarkable here. Even the future society has not been thought through much. Simak would write much better work later.
Videos
We have the story in these editions:
Before the Golden Age-Trilogy, edited by Isaac Asimov, hardcover, Black Cat, 1988-00-00
The Thing in the Stone and Other Stories, trade paperback, Open Road Integrated Media, 2022-02-08
