Dr Marsten had moved into the field of parapsychology only to lose his standing in the scientific community. He staked everything he had left on this final experiment to prove that mental telepathy was real...

When you are too close to the Forest, all you can see is the trees. Which really just means that over-familiarity with a subject, reiteration of detail, may obliterate the essential vital point to success of a great scientific experimentation.

Bryce Walton (1918-1988) was a prolific writer in the golden age with a dozens of published short stories and a few novels in several genres under several pseudonyms, and also worked as a screenwriter for television.

Al Reynolds is a complete unknown. What is certain is that this is not Alastair Reynolds, as that celebrated british author was not even born when this story was published. This is the only known story published under that name.


No background music, by popular demand. Only my voice, croaks, wheezes, and all. Enjoy!
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Stories of Futures Past presents a vintage science fiction short story, narrated by myself, Tom Trussel. An actual, real living human being, warts and all.

Any and all voices and effects are produced live during reading with my actual voice. No obnoxious after effects, synthetic voices or filters used.

English is not my first language. There will be inaccurate accents and the occasional strange pronunciation. No mockery is ever intended.

These stories are also good for English learners / ESL. The full text is right there on the screen in a big and easy to read font. Read along with me. It's great practice!


A note about channel donations:
At this point in my life I do not need nor ask for your money. I do this for the love of the short story and to help promote the enjoyment of science fiction and fantasy literature.

However, if you enjoy my readings and would like to put your money where my mouth is, I would suggest instead to pay it forward to a good cause. Please consider donating to https://www.gutenberg.org/donate to help them keep up the good work. Project Gutenberg is an organization dedicated to promoting the free distribution of written works in electronic formats. I make no secret that I find the majority of the public domain stories I read here on their website https://gutenberg.org. There you will find a massive collection of ebooks that are free for anyone to read and download. Most of them are vintage with either lapsed or expired copyrights.

I am not affiliated with Project Gutenberg in any way other than that I use their website.

Now, if you still want to throw a dollar or two at your humble storyteller, feel free to use https://ko-fi.com/tomtrussel
After all, it’s not as if I’ll say no to money freely given. Any tips I receive will go towards better audio equipment for a cleaner sound in the future, and I will make sure to pay a portion forward to gutenberg.org myself.

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Copyright notice:
The written text of this story is in the public domain, as determined by the researchers and transcribers at Project Gutenberg, or it has passed the 95-years-since-publication mark. The story is and should be free for anyone to enjoy.

Boilerplate license wording off the Gutenberg website:
“This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.”

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If you would like to read some of my own paltry writings, they can be found at https://tomtrussel.com