Short Fiction
Free public-domain edition — preview in your browser, no account required for the first chapter.
Preview free · sign up to save progress, download to your shelf, and sync with the apps
Already have an account? Sign in
This collection offers a thrilling blend of classic science fiction, alien worlds, and timeless themes of heroism and love, perfect for fans of mid-century speculative adventure.
Edition details
Book Summary
A war-weary pilot, Garin Featherstone, is drawn into a hidden Antarctic world where he must fulfill an ancient prophecy to rescue a captive maiden and defeat the evil Black Ones. With the help of lizard-like Folk and advanced alien technology, he confronts his destiny and finds love and belonging.
After the War of 1965–1970, jobless pilot Garin Featherstone is recruited for an Antarctic expedition and crashes into a mysterious blue haze. He is rescued by the lizard-like Folk of Tav, who reveal that he is the prophesied sun-haired youth destined to rescue Thrala, the Daughter, from the evil Kepta and the Black Ones. Garin learns their language through advanced technology, receives a green metal rod as a weapon, and infiltrates the Caves of Darkness with the help of the Ana. He frees Thrala and Dandtan, and together they escape, preparing for battle as the Great Mists descend. In the final confrontation, Garin kills Kepta, but an earthquake seals the Black Ones' realm. Garin confesses his love for Thrala, and after a trial, they are united as mates, with Garin accepting his new home in Tav. The collection also includes two other stories: 'The Gifts of Asti,' where Varta escapes a dying temple with a sacred artifact, and 'All Cats Are Gray,' where a colorblind spacer and her cat uncover an invisible alien on a derelict ship.
Reading guide
Go deeper in Short Fiction
Character guides, themes, chapter companions — plus Character Web, narrative arc, and theme heatmap teasers that unlock fully beside the text in BetterReads.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
This is the story's dramatic climax because Garin’s impulsive attack on Kepta—smashing his fist into Kepta’s f…
Captain Garin Featherstone
Garin flies the third plane of a polar expedition, content in his sealed cockpit until an unseen Presence seizes his hands and steers him down through the purple mist. He fights it, loses, and glimpses a world no chart admits. His isolation and his stubborn refusal to yield make him the natural outsider through whom the Folk of Tav's buried war becomes visible.
Varta
Varta serves in Asti's temple, reading old records closely enough to know which wall-stone hides a door and which chest holds a lizard-skin suit. She strips off His Livery without regret and takes up the sun as a diadem, choosing the deep road over the safe one. Her knowledge of chronicles and her willingness to shed her order's softness make her the guide Garin's quest cannot proceed without.
Dandtan
Dandtan moves among the Folk with the caution of someone who has already dwelt among enemies and learned their rules. He stays Garin's hand at Kepta's throat, names the morgels loosed into the halls, and trusts the Ana to lead where sight fails. His hard-won knowledge of Black One cruelty and his steadiness under it make him the voice that keeps the escape from becoming a slaughter.
Lady Thrala
Thrala appears in Sera's mirror as a girl of pearl-white skin and blue-black hair, happy and unearthly, before the Black Ones take her. Her captivity gives the Folk a wound they cannot ignore and gives Garin a face to fight toward. Cool-headed even in Kepta's trap, she reads the dark, names the hunters, and refuses to fear what has no true life.
Lur
Lur travels with Varta into the mountain's throat, sharing the powdered restorative and needing no suit against the yellow vapors that kill lunged creatures. Whatever Lur is, the old records and the lizard-skin gear seem made for it. Its otherness turns the descent from a tomb-walk into a passage, and its silence keeps the reader unsure which side of Erb's old war it belongs to.
Steena
Steena sits alone in the Rigel Royal with Bat coiled at her shoulder, and when she crosses to Cliff's table the whole room looks sideways. She sets aside his bottle and tells him it is time for the Empress to appear again, then boards his ship without explanation. Her tip is the hinge on which the whole derelict-hunt turns, and her refusal to justify herself keeps her motives as unreadable as the ghost ship itself.
War and Its Aftermath
The story opens with Garin, a war veteran, struggling to find purpose in civilian life after the War of 1965–1970, highlighting the psychological and social scars left by conflict.
Good Versus Evil
The central conflict pits the benevolent Ancient Ones and the Folk against the corrupt Black Ones and their leader Kepta, with clear moral divisions between light and darkness.
Transformation and Renewal
Garin undergoes physical and mental renewal through the light-ray treatments, and the narrative repeatedly emphasizes cycles of death and rebirth, such as the Ancient Ones' hope for new blood and the Great Mists.
Love and Sacrifice
Romantic love drives key plot points, including Garin's devotion to Thrala, Thrala's willingness to sacrifice herself to the Black Ones, and the eventual resolution of misunderstandings between Garin, Thrala, and Dandtan.
Reading tools
BetterReads is more than a book page—e-reader, AI beside the text, audiobooks, and native apps in one system.