Masters of Space

The Masters ruled every corner of the galaxy with absolute, godlike power. Now they're vanished, and something older and hungrier waits in the darkness between stars. This is space opera at its most unapologetic: vast ships, ancient evils, and a young leader forced to fill shoes made for gods. Jarvis Hilton, a brilliant scientist with no command experience, is thrust into leadership aboard the Perseus. His mission: discover what happened to the Masters and find a way to survive the Enemy of All, an ancient force that even the Masters could not defeat. But the real conflict simmers aboard his own ship. Captain Sawtelle contests his authority. The crew fractures along lines of ambition and loyalty. And the Omans, a slave race created by the Masters long ago, carry secrets that could reshape everything humanity thinks it knows about its place in the universe. As the Perseus ventures into the unknown, discoveries on distant worlds hint at consequences that will determine whether humanity rises to fill the void left by the Masters or perishes like every civilization before them. Smith's 1940s pulp masterpiece brims with grand ideas, hard science, and the kind of audacious plotting that defined an era of science fiction when writers dared to think on cosmic scales.