Captain Midas by Alfred Coppel
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"Captain Midas" by Alfred Coppel Jr. is a science fiction novella, first published in "Planet Stories" during the late 1940s. This gripping story delves into themes of greed, the quest for treasure, and the costs associated with such pursuits, presenting a morally complex narrative centered around human desires in the vast emptiness of space. The plot follows Captain Midas, the aging captain of the spaceship Martian Maid, who and his rough and
ambition-driven crew stumble upon a mysterious derelict ship in space. Enticed by the prospect of treasure, they board the derelict only to discover that it is constructed from an alien metal that can transmute into gold at the cost of their youth and vitality. As the crew increasingly succumbs to the allure of the gold, Midas realizes the sinister truth behind the metal's origins—its power draws energy from life itself, aging its crew into skeletal forms. In a desperate attempt to escape this fate, Midas decides to abandon the treasure, but not before suffering the irreversible consequences. His story serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of greed and the true price of seeking wealth, leaving him physically and spiritually scarred as he reflects on his lost crew and cursed treasure. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Coppel, Alfred, 1921-2004 |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | McWilliams, Al, 1916-1993 |
| Title | Captain Midas |
| Series Title | Produced from Planet Stories Fall 1949 |
| Credits |
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 83.2 (6th grade). Easy to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Science fiction |
| Subject | Short stories |
| Subject | Space ships -- Fiction |
| Subject | Gold -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 63867 |
| ISBN (HTML) | 979-8-238-63867-6 |
| Release Date | Nov 23, 2020 |
| Last Update | Oct 18, 2024 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 405 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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