Killer: A Second Chance Among the Stars
James E. Gunn
Oct 2026 · Lost Sci-Fi · Narrated by Scott Miller
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34 min
Unabridged
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Sam Newman has escaped farther than any fugitive could reasonably hope to run. His stolen ship is nearly out of fuel, Earth is impossibly distant, and the crime behind him cannot be undone. Then he finds a green world that seems almost too welcoming. The air is perfect, food grows everywhere, gentle animals show no fear, and soon Sam discovers something even more astonishing: Louise, a beautiful woman who claims to be another stranded traveler from Earth.
For a man expecting death, the discovery feels like an impossible second chance. Sam and Louise build a life together beside a blue sea, surrounded by a world where nothing seems capable of hurting them. Yet Sam cannot completely leave Earth behind. Memories surface while he sleeps, small inconsistencies begin troubling him, and the paradise that once answered his every wish starts raising questions he cannot ignore. When Sam finally demands answers, what he discovers about this strange world may be inseparable from what he brought there himself.
James E. Gunn was an important American science fiction author, editor, scholar, and teacher whose career stretched across more than seven decades. His fiction appeared in magazines including Astounding Science Fiction, Galaxy Science Fiction, Startling Stories, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. His books include The Immortals, The Listeners, The Joy Makers, and The Dreamers, while his shorter fiction includes “Breaking Point,” “The Cave of Night,” and “The Unhappy Man.”
Gunn also helped establish science fiction as a serious field of academic study. He taught at the University of Kansas and founded what became the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction. In “Killer,” Gunn takes the familiar science-fiction dream of an untouched new world and turns it into an intensely personal encounter between a desperate man and a place that seems able to answer his desires.
For a man expecting death, the discovery feels like an impossible second chance. Sam and Louise build a life together beside a blue sea, surrounded by a world where nothing seems capable of hurting them. Yet Sam cannot completely leave Earth behind. Memories surface while he sleeps, small inconsistencies begin troubling him, and the paradise that once answered his every wish starts raising questions he cannot ignore. When Sam finally demands answers, what he discovers about this strange world may be inseparable from what he brought there himself.
James E. Gunn was an important American science fiction author, editor, scholar, and teacher whose career stretched across more than seven decades. His fiction appeared in magazines including Astounding Science Fiction, Galaxy Science Fiction, Startling Stories, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. His books include The Immortals, The Listeners, The Joy Makers, and The Dreamers, while his shorter fiction includes “Breaking Point,” “The Cave of Night,” and “The Unhappy Man.”
Gunn also helped establish science fiction as a serious field of academic study. He taught at the University of Kansas and founded what became the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction. In “Killer,” Gunn takes the familiar science-fiction dream of an untouched new world and turns it into an intensely personal encounter between a desperate man and a place that seems able to answer his desires.
Sam Newman has escaped farther than any fugitive could reasonably hope to run. His stolen ship is nearly out of fuel, Earth is impossibly distant, and the crime behind him cannot be undone. Then he finds a green world that seems almost too welcoming. The air is perfect, food grows everywhere, gen...
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