The Queen of Space by Joseph Slotkin Episode #3
Joseph Slotkin | February 23, 2022-
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The Queen of Space by Joseph Slotkin Episode #3
Joseph Slotkin
THE QUEEN OF SPACE
Episode #3 · Written by Joseph Slotkin · Narrated by Scott Miller
A private rehearsal turns into a problem no curtain call can fix. A performer discovers that one precise movement doesn’t just hold an audience—it moves her somewhere else entirely, leaving behind questions no one can answer cleanly.
What follows is not a quest for meaning, but a scramble for control. A scientist sees an opportunity he can’t let go. A jealous lover sees a betrayal that demands revenge. And the woman at the center sees her career, her safety, and her future pulling in opposite directions.
The story moves fast, driven by sharp dialogue and mounting pressure, as every explanation creates a new risk. Each attempt to contain the situation only proves that some doors, once opened, refuse to stay that way.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joseph Slotkin’s science fiction appears to have surfaced in a brief burst during the 1950s, and then he largely vanished from the genre’s record. The Queen of Space stands as one of the clearer footprints from that short window—an example of mid-century magazine sci-fi that leans on swaggering voice, quick pacing, and a premise bold enough to keep escalating.
If you’re tracing names through the era’s pulp index, Slotkin is the kind of author you can miss if you’re not looking closely: a limited run, a small cluster of credits, and then silence. That scarcity makes this story feel like a recovered transmission—less a long career overview than a single, high-energy artifact that still plays perfectly for an audience that likes vintage science fiction with speed, attitude, and a big hook.
LISTEN TO THE STORY
Listen to The Queen of Space by Joseph Slotkin — a vintage science fiction short story where fame and obsession collide across unexpected worlds.
VENUS AND VENUSIAN RELATED STORIES
Venus has always been science fiction’s most tempting lie.
For decades, writers looked at that bright point in the twilight sky and imagined a world hidden under cloud—steaming jungles, poisonous swamps, strange ruins, and creatures built for heat and pressure. Then the real data arrived. The romance didn’t die. It evolved. Venus became a test of nerve, a place where humans bargain with an environment that never bargains back.
In these stories, Venus can be a destination that breaks crews, a route that turns routine hauling into a trap, or a rumor that follows you home. Sometimes “Venusian” means a living species with rules of its own. Sometimes it means a human scheme stamped with a glamorous label and sold as destiny. Either way, once Venus enters the story, the air gets heavier.
You’ll find explorers stepping into landscapes no Earth-born body was meant to endure. You’ll find salvage crews and pilots learning that the shortest path can be the cruelest one. You’ll find satire that uses Venus as a mirror, then tilts the mirror until the joke turns sharp.
Start anywhere below. If you want the pure “planetary Venus” mood, go for the swamp-world classics. If you want Venus on the shipping lanes, pick the cargo runs. If you want a grin with teeth, try the Venus comedies.
- The Guest Rites by Robert Silverberg
- The Moon That Vanished by Leigh Brackett
- The Queen of Space by Joseph Slotkin
- The Venus Evil by Chester S. Geier
- F.O.B. Venus by Nelson S. Bond
- The Yes Men of Venus by Ron Goulart
- The Flight of the Eagle by Alfred Coppel
- Before Eden by Arthur C. Clarke
- Savage Galahad by Bryce Walton
- Double–Cross by Frederik Pohl
- In the Walls of Eryx by H. P. Lovecraft and Kenneth Sterling
- First Landing by Roger D. Aycock
- Flowering Evil by Margaret St. Clair
- Quarantined Species by J. F. Bone
- Short Snorter by Charles Einstein
- Patch by William Shedenhelm
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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 38 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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