AN ENEMY OF PEACE

Episode #268 · Written by Robert Silverberg · Narrated by Scott Miller

Center City survived the end of the world because one man refused to surrender to chaos. Years later, as fields grow green again and communities rebuild, that fragile peace is threatened by something far more deliberate than nuclear fire.

Across the road, Northburg has raised walls, armed its citizens, and convinced itself that conquest is the only way to stay alive. Its leader preaches fear, accelerates military plans, and prepares to strike first. Lloyd Riddell knows another war would finish what the bombs began—but stopping it may require him to break the vow that saved his city.

Moving alone through hostile streets, Riddell discovers a population ruled by uniforms and silence. Soldiers doubt their orders. Civilians resent the cause they are forced to serve. Power rests on intimidation, not loyalty, and time is collapsing toward a single, irreversible moment.

An Enemy of Peace is a stark post-apocalyptic standoff that strips leadership down to its rawest choice. It is not a story about rebuilding—it is a story about what must be confronted when rebuilding is threatened by ambition and fear.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert Silverberg began publishing professionally in the mid-1950s, quickly becoming one of the most reliable contributors to magazines such as Amazing Science Fiction Stories, Science Fiction Adventures, and Imagination. In this early phase of his career, he produced tightly focused stories that examined authority, moral pressure, and individual responsibility under extreme conditions.

An Enemy of Peace comes from this formative period, when Silverberg was already demonstrating the thematic concerns that would later define major works like Dying Inside, The Book of Skulls, and Downward to the Earth. Even here, in a compact post-war setting, his interest is not spectacle but consequence—what power demands, and what it costs to resist it.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to An Enemy of Peace by Robert Silverberg — a vintage science fiction short story where rebuilding the world risks igniting another war.

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The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast is the most listened-to vintage science fiction podcast in the world. Ranked the #1 Science Fiction Podcast in 42 countries and heard in more than 190 countries, the show has surpassed 4.2 million listens.

Each episode features carefully selected stories from the Golden Age of science fiction, professionally narrated. Timeless storytelling the way it was meant to be heard.

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