Doorway into Time

The Outer Twilight Series, Volume I

By: C.L. Moore

Narrated by: Jim Gallant

On the wall before him, in the dimness of the room, a great circular screen glowed opaquely, awaiting his touch: a doorway into time and space, a doorway to beauty and deadly peril and everything that made livable for him a life that had, perhaps, gone on too long. The shadows leaped backward into three-dimensional vividness that wavered for a moment and then sharpened into focus upon a desert landscape under a vivid crimson sky. The figures were of a shape he had not seen before and of proportions grotesquely different from his. He wondered if the creatures were intelligent enough to defend themselves. He put one hand on each side of the screen and leaned forward into it....

Another powerful, haunting fantasy from the grandmaster of the genre!

©2005 Bob E. Flick (P)2005 Ziggurat Productions

A True Classic

This is a true "classic" science fiction story. Originally published in the September 1943 issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries pulp magazine, it was subsequently reprinted in Modern Masterpieces of Science Fiction edited by Sam Moskowitz, and then in a paperback anthology titled after this story "Doorway Into Time" that also featured classic stories from Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and others. It also appeared later in the '80's anthology The Golden Years of Science Fiction edited by Isaac Asimov. You can usually expect stories that are often reprinted to be high quality, and that is certainly the case here.

C.L. Moore is an author whose lyrical prose style compares to Ray Bradbury, and this story features plenty of lyrical beauty as well as many instances of alien concepts and motifs that deliver the otherness we yearn for in science fiction stories.

As you can tell from the generous sample provided, the narrator does a fantastic job of providing drama and urgency to the reading. Also provided are some background sounds and music that compels in the listener a wonderful sense of atmosphere.