The Ultimate Vice by A. Bertram Chandler Episode #271
A. Bertram Chandler | September 1, 2024-
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The Ultimate Vice by A. Bertram Chandler Episode #271
A. Bertram Chandler
THE ULTIMATE VICE
Episode #271 · Written by A. Bertram Chandler · Narrated by Scott Miller
There comes a time in a spaceman’s career when the romance fades. The ports blur together, the regulations feel tighter each year, and Earth starts to look less like a planet and more like a promise. In “The Ultimate Vice,” A. Bertram Chandler captures that restless hunger with unsettling precision.
On a quiet alien world, a bored officer finds something that does not intoxicate the body but floods the mind. It does not dull the senses. It sharpens desire. For a moment, it offers everything he has ever wanted—success, admiration, control—without the years of compromise usually required to get there. To him, it is not a curiosity. It is capital waiting to be exploited.
His friend sees something else. He sees the look in a man’s eyes when he no longer cares about ships, rank, or reputation. He sees how quickly a clever plan can become a private prison. As the scheme gathers momentum, the real risk is no longer customs inspections or lost commissions. It is whether the man chasing profit will have the strength to step back before the dream becomes his only reality.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A. Bertram Chandler writes this world with the authority of experience. Before turning to fiction full time, he served in the merchant marine and rose to the rank of captain, a background that informs the sharply observed shipboard politics in his stories. His John Grimes “Rim World” novels, published by Ace Books, built a devoted following, and his shorter fiction appeared in magazines such as Astounding Science Fiction and Analog. “The Ultimate Vice” reflects the recurring thread in his work: capable officers who know the rules of space but struggle with the temptations that follow them from port to port.
LISTEN TO THE STORY
Listen to The Ultimate Vice by A. Bertram Chandler — a vintage science fiction short story of a spaceman tempted by a mind-altering alien vice.
A. BERTRAM CHANDLER SHORT STORIES
Few writers captured the restless spirit of space travel the way A. Bertram Chandler did.
Drawing on his experience as a seafarer, Chandler infused his classic science fiction with the grit of duty, the loneliness of command, and the uneasy freedom of distant frontiers. His characters face isolation head-on — stranded far from help, tempted by dangerous choices, or standing at the edge of collapse as events spiral beyond their control.
The selections below showcase Chandler’s range — hard-earned survival under alien skies, moral crossroads in the void, and turning points that reshape a life in a single, irreversible moment.
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