The Ultimate Wish by E. M. Hull Episode #495
E. M. Hull | February 19, 2026-
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The Ultimate Wish by E. M. Hull Episode #495
E. M. Hull
THE ULTIMATE WISH
Episode #495 · Written by E. M. Hull · Narrated by Scott Miller
Lola Pimmons has spent years enduring quiet cruelty, watching other people enjoy lives that seem permanently out of reach. When she is offered a single wish, the promise feels less like a miracle and more like a reckoning. Every option presented to her carries a hidden mechanism, one that turns desire into obligation and hope into threat.
The story unfolds as a series of confrontations, each revealing how tightly Lola’s wants are bound to damage. Love without tenderness, beauty earned through pain, marriage achieved through ruin—none of them arrive cleanly. With each rejected option, the pressure intensifies, and the idea of a perfect solution begins to dominate her thinking.
What drives the tension is not the supernatural bargain itself, but Lola’s refusal to accept limits. As the deadline approaches, she becomes fixated on the idea that there must be a wish that solves everything at once. That belief, more than greed or anger, pushes her toward a choice she does not fully understand.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
E. M. Hull was the pen name of Edna Mayne Hull, born May 1, 1905, in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. She was married to and worked closely with A. E. van Vogt during the early 1940s, coauthoring Rebirth: Earth (1942), also published as The Flight That Failed, and later a novel with van VogtThe Winged Man (1966). During the same period, Hull published a small but concentrated group of short science fiction stories, including “The Ultimate Wish,” “The Wishes We Make,” and “The Patient,” all appearing in 1943. These stories focus on the mechanics of desire, limitation, and consequence, often structured around supernatural or speculative bargains that expose the boundaries of human wanting.
LISTEN TO THE STORY
Listen to The Ultimate Wish by E. M. Hull — a dark vintage science fiction short stowhere a single wish exposes the danger of wanting everything at once.
LOST VOICES OF VINTAGE SCI-FI
Not every science fiction writer built a long career in the field or became a widely recognized name. Some published only a handful of stories before disappearing from the magazines, leaving behind little biographical record and few surviving details. Others may be remembered for work in different genres, while their contribution to science fiction was brief.
Yet these writers helped shape the texture of the pulp era and beyond. Their stories experimented with bold ideas, filled the pages between the famous names, and added depth to the ever-expanding landscape of vintage science fiction.
The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast exists in part to rediscover these voices. The stories below were written by authors who published briefly, sparingly, or whose science fiction output was small - but whose work still deserves to be heard.
- The Ultimate Paradox by Thorp McClusky
- The Ultimate Wish by E. M. Hull
- Welcome to Paradise by Allyn Donnelson
- Day of Reckoning by Morton Klass
- Zeritskys Law by Ann Griffith
- Up For Renewal by Lucius Daniel
- Patch by William Shedenhelm
- Rabbits Have Long Ears by Lawrence F. Willard
- Electronic Landslide by Clyde Hostetter
- They Reached for the Moon by William Oberfield
- Death Walks on Mars by Alan J. Ramm
- When the Moon Fell by Morrison Colladay
- Know They Neighbor by Elisabeth R. Lewis
- The Other One by A. H. Gibson
- No Evidence by Victoria Lincoln
- The Man Who Liked Lions by John Bernard Daley
- Willies Planet by Mike Ellis
- The Short Snorter by Charles Einstein
- Your Servant Sir by Sol Boren
- The Fugitives by Malcolm B. Morehart Jr
- Leave Earthmen or Die by John Massie Davis
- And All the Girls Were Nude by Richard Magruder
- Rabbits Have Long Ears by Lawrence F. Willard
- Dust Unto Dust by Lyman D. Hinckley
- Cosmic Tragedy by Thomas S. Gardiner
- Day of Wrath by Bjarne Kirchhoff
- You Are Forbidden by Jerry Shelton
- Thirty Degrees Cattywonkus by James Bell
- The Small Bears by Gene L. Henderson
- The First Spaceman by Gene L. Henderson
ABOUT THE LOST SCI-FI PODCAST
The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast is the most listened-to vintage science fiction podcast in the world. Ranked the #1 Science Fiction Podcast in 34 countries and heard in more than 190 countries, the show has surpassed 3.8 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.
What listeners are saying:
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— PrometheusUK
Vintage science fiction. Professionally narrated. Carefully curated.
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