Squee: Restored Classics to Go Edition

· Otbebookpublishing
Ebook
24
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

On a cramped spaceship drifting homeward after years of deprivation, an exhausted crew clings to routine, music, and bitter humor to survive the long wait for Earth. At the center of their unease is Neil, a brilliant, despised scientist laboring over an audacious experiment: creating an artificial human egg by combining sperm cells with alien biological material, a desperate bid to save a civilization that has already collapsed. As tensions sharpen, Jacobsen, the genial mechanic, keeps morale alive with songs and a homemade robot squirrel, the Squee, whose playful, feminine presence becomes the crew's unlikely comfort. Neil's contempt for the robot and for the men's easy projections only deepens the conflict. Then comes a breakthrough that promises human reproduction again—only to reveal a terrifying flaw: the new zygotes appear to carry only the X-chromosome, suggesting a future of male-only children. Relief, suspicion, and guilt collide as the ship nears Earth. A violent struggle leaves Neil dead, Adams mortally wounded, and Squee unexpectedly pregnant. In the wreckage of the mission, the crew confronts the cost of their failures, even as Jacobsen's song leaves open the fragile possibility of hope. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.
On a cramped spaceship drifting homeward after years of deprivation, an exhausted crew clings to routine, music, and bitter humor to survive the long wait for Earth. At the center of their unease is Neil, a brilliant, despised scientist laboring over an audacious experiment: creating an artificia...

Discover more

About the author

Margaret St. Clair was an American writer whose career spanned the vibrant mid-century worlds of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and whose work reflected both the anxieties and the imaginative freedom of the postwar era. Born in Kansas and educated at the University of California, Berkeley, she went on to write fiction that appeared in major genre magazines and anthologies, steadily building a reputation for sharp ideas, atmospheric storytelling, and an unusual sensitivity to the strange pressures of everyday life. Over the course of her career, she produced a wide range of short fiction and novels that explored alienation, social conformity, gender roles, and the unsettling possibilities of scientific and supernatural change. Her stories often blend wit with dread, using uncanny situations to reveal how fragile ordinary assumptions can be. What makes her work feel especially relevant today is her interest in outsiders, in communities shaped by fear or exclusion, and in the ways people adapt when the world no longer makes sense. St. Clair's legacy lies in her ability to make the fantastic feel intimate and psychologically true, and she remains an important voice for readers who appreciate speculative fiction that is clever, eerie, and quietly subversive. Readers who enjoy imaginative, thought-provoking tales with a slightly off-kilter edge are especially likely to find her work memorable.

Margaret St. Clair was an American writer whose career spanned the vibrant mid-century worlds of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and whose work reflected both the anxieties and the imaginative freedom of the postwar era. Born in Kansas and educated at the University of California, Berkeley,...

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.