Review: “The First One” by Herbert D. Kastle (1961)

Posted on January 14th, 2008

Outstanding short story which took me by surprise. I probably should have seen it coming a mile away, but I was oblivious.

Henry Devers returns to his Hometown as the Big Hero. He’s the First One to return, but the return to normalcy he seeks is nowhere to be found. People, including family, are distant and turn this into a great psychological study of the returning hero who must readjust to his old life and allow time for others to adjust to him in return.

This story is very sly, using carefully chosen words and meaningful imagery. In fact, a second, closer read will yield a completely different story that’s well worth the effort.

As a bonus, there is an H. R. Van Dongen illustration in the beginning:

Highly recommended. Run, do not walk, to find it at Project Gutenberg in a couple formats or Manybooks.net in more.

Tags: free science fiction, public domain science fiction, Review, speculative fiction
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