The Devil's Asteroid

The Martians have built a devil's playground: an asteroid small enough to hold atmosphere and vegetation, large enough to serve as a prison for Earth's unwanted. Exiled there for his crimes, Fitzhugh Parr finds himself among fellow Terrestrial castaways. But this miniature world harbors a terrible secret. The environment itself works against them, stripping away the refinements of civilization until the exiles regress into something less than human. Parr must assert leadership among men who are becoming beasts, all while fighting to preserve his own rapidly-slipping grasp on humanity. When escape becomes possible, he faces an impossible question: can he return to Earth with companions whose dimmed humanity might damn them all? Wellman's 1934 novella is a chilling meditation on what remains when everything that makes us human is stripped away.