Review: “Criminal Negligence” by J. Francis McComas (1955)
Posted on January 24th, 2008
Such a great concept, I hardly even need to include a review: this is a short story set in a prison facing the end of the world. Bam!
Warden Halloran is a humanist prison warden who leads as a father figure rather than a martinet. When the consequences of a victorious war with aliens results in the evacuation of Earth, the remaining government refuses to include the inmates on the journey to found a brave new world.
After hearing the news, the prisoners riot, only to be be faced down by the warden in his distinctive manner.
The illustrations are by Freas and look like they were very good in the original, but they took a beating over the years and don’t come out well.
Even though this story is really about moral duty and progressive incarceration policy, it’s a short story set in a prison facing the apocalypse! Given that, it can’t be anything but:
Recommended. Make a break for it and get it at Project Gutenberg in a couple formats or Manybooks.net in more.
Tags: free science fiction, public domain science fiction, Review, speculative fiction
Filed under Free Stuff, McComas, J. Francis, Review, Science Fiction & Fantasy (SFF) |
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