No one had ever escaped from Venus' dread Stellar Legion. And, as Thekla the low-Martian learned, no one had ever betrayed it and—lived.

Today's story is "The Stellar Legion," by Leigh Brackett. It appeared in the Winter 1940 issue of Planet Stories on pages 95 to 103.

The "Stellar Legion" was awarded the Retro Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 2016.

Leigh Douglass Brackett (December 7, 1915, Los Angeles, California – March 24, 1978, Lancaster, California) was an American author and screenwriter. Nicknamed "the Queen of Space Opera", she was one of the most prominent female writers during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. She worked on an early draft of "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980), elements of which remained in the film; she died before it went into production.

In 1956, her book "The Long Tomorrow" made her the first woman ever shortlisted for the Hugo Award for Best Novel, and one of the first two women ever nominated for a Hugo Award. In 2020, she posthumously won a Retro Hugo for her novel "The Nemesis From Terra," originally published as "Shadow Over Mars" (Startling Stories, Fall 1944).

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"Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

If there's a story you'd like me to narrate, or a genre you'd like me to include more of, please let me know using the Contact Form.

The Sun was finally dying, the astronomers having predicted its demise within a few days. Unable to leave Earth, humanity had excavated accommodation deep underground for what was left of the population. But even though they would never see the Sun, the sky, or the stars again, life for the young astronomers Ramo and Kuila Rei now had its own light.

"When the Sun Went Out" appeared in "Science Fiction Series" No. 4, 1929.

Leslie Frances Silberberg (June 8, 1905 – March 21, 1991), known by the pen name Leslie F Stone, was an American writer and one of the first women science fiction pulp writers, contributing over 20 stories to science fiction magazines between 1929 and 1940.

By the time she was in high school in Norfolk, Virginia, Stone was publishing fantasy stories in the local newspaper. She went on to be one of the first women to publish in the science fiction pulp magazines of the era. She often worked with Hugo Gernsback in Amazing Stories and Wonder Stories. Stone wrote space operas and thought experiments as well as stories featuring both women protagonists as well as black protagonists. After writing more than 20 short fiction pieces, Stone stopped writing fiction which she suggested was a combination of seeing the horrors of war making it hard to write about the future and increasing conflicts with male editors who refused to publish her work because she was a woman.

Links

Reaper: reaper.fm

LibSyn: libsyn.com

"Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

If there's a story you'd like me to narrate, or a genre you'd like me to include more of, please let me know using the Contact Form.

Mr. Satterthwaite witnesses a brutal fight outside an opera house. What could have caused such behaviour?

Today's story is The Face of Helen, by Agatha Christie. It appeared in the July 1951 issue of Black Mask Detective Magazine on pages 37 to 48.

The Face of Helen was first published in "The Story-Teller," a monthly British pulp fiction magazine which ran from 1907 to 1937, in April 1927.

With thanks to the Agatha Chrsitie Wiki at agathchristie.fandom.com.

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952.

A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction," Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime"—now trademarked by her estate—or the "Queen of Mystery." She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

Links

Reaper: reaper.fm

LibSyn: libsyn.com

"Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

If there's a story you'd like me to narrate, or a genre you'd like me to include more of, please let me know using the Contact Form.