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/.

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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.

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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/.

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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.

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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/.

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She was the last priestess of Asti, and the barbarians were approching. She had no choice but to escape to the surface world, taking with her the gifts of Asti. She wasn't to know, however, that one more ancient gift awaited her on the surface...

"The Gifts of Asti" appeared in "Fantasy Book" vol. 1, no. 3 in 1948, pages 8 - 17.

Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 – March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name Andre Norton, but also under Andrew North and Allen Weston. She was the first woman to be Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy, to be SFWA Grand Master, and to be inducted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

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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/.

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All Ed Blair wanted was a fluff piece, a brightener for page two of the Tokyo Tribune, for which he was a reporter. His Editor, Murdock, had heard stories of the 'magic tricks' that the monks of the Hataka Shrine could do.

"The Shrine" appeared in "Fantastic Universe," December 1956, pages 77 - 86.

Walter James Sheldon (9 January 1917 - 9 June 1996) was an American author of science fiction. He is best known for his novel "Jimsy and the Monsters."

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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/.

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Being a wizard missionary to the Free'l needed more than magic—it called for a miracle!

Today's story is The Autumn After Next, by Margaret St Clair. It appeared in the January 1960 issue of Worlds of If Science Fiction on pages 101 to 107.

Margaret St Clair (17 February 1911, Hutchinson, Kansas – 22 November 1995, Santa Rosa, California) was an American fantasy and science fiction writer who also wrote under the pseudonyms Idris Seabright and (on one occasion) Wilton Hazzard.

St. Clair wrote and published, by her own count, some 130 short stories. She first tried her hand at detective and mystery stories, and the so-called 'quality' stories, before finding her niche writing fantasy and science fiction for pulp magazines. She wrote "Unlike most pulp writers, I have no special ambitions to make the pages of the slick magazines. I feel that the pulps at their best touch a genuine folk tradition and have a balladic quality which the slicks lack."

Her early output included the Oona and Jick series of eight stories published from 1947 to 1949, chronicling the comic misadventures of "housewife of the future" Oona and her devoted husband Jick. The stories were ostensibly set in an idealized future but cast a satirical look at post-war domestic life, with its focus on acquiring labor-saving household devices and "keeping up with the Joneses."

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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/.

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All inventors seek success. Some few achieve it. And now and then a Quintus Maugham is a bit too successful for his own health.

"The Maugham Obsession" appeared in "Fantastic Universe," June-July 1953, pages 107 - 115.

August William Derleth (February 24, 1909 – July 4, 1971) was an American writer and anthologist. He was the first book publisher of the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. He made contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and the cosmic horror genre and helped found the publisher Arkham House (which did much to bring supernatural fiction into print in hardcover in the US that had only been readily available in the UK). Derleth was also a leading American regional writer of his day, as well as prolific in several other genres, including historical fiction, poetry, detective fiction, science fiction, and biography.

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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.

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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.