The Sling and the Stone

The Soviet Union has a plan to end the Cold War in a single blow: launch a moonlet from orbit and drop it onto American soil, devastating thousands of square miles. They send astrophysicist Pyotr Diavilev into space to guide the weapon. But Diavilev has grown weary of his country, his government, his endless service to war. As he hovers above the Earth with the power to annihilate millions, he faces an impossible question: who deserves to die, and who gave him the right to decide? Michael Shaara, who would later write the Pulitzer-winning Civil War epic The Killer Angels, delivers a tense, quietly devastating story about conscience, loyalty, and the terrible freedom of having the world in your hands. The science fiction setting crackles with 1950s paranoia, but the real drama is purely human: a man alone in the void, choosing what kind of person he wants to be.