Halftripper

On a bleak Mars, a weary spacer sits among the outcasts of interplanetary travel, where "halftrippers" — men and women shattered by space and unable to return to it — haunt the tavern's shadows. When a desperate spacebum begs for a drink, the narrator's contempt is challenged by Joseph, an elderly stranger whose calm mercy and unsettling wisdom suggest a deeper understanding of suffering than anyone else in the room. As the conversation unfolds, the narrator learns of "space cafard," the terrifying breakdown that can strike on a first voyage and leave a traveler stranded forever on an alien world. Joseph refuses judgment, insisting that salvation must come from within, and his quiet compassion stands in stark contrast to the bitterness around him. Then the truth emerges: Joseph is no ordinary old man, but an immortal haunted by a catastrophic past. Once a powerful spacebaron of Calypso, he ruled beside his brother Micheal until a cruel decision during a desperate emergency landing led to the death of his beloved son and sparked revolt, ruin, and a strange atomic aftermath that left Joseph and a few others unable to die. Now broken by guilt, he wanders the planets, longing for one chance to relive his greatest failure and choose differently. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.