Arena: Survival Decides the Future

Bob Carson is fighting a war millions of miles beyond Pluto when everything changes. Suddenly he is alone in a strange arena, facing an alien opponent he has never seen before. An ancient intelligence has chosen them as champions, and what happens between them will determine which civilization survives.

There are no spaceships to command and no advanced weapons within reach. Carson has rocks, strange plants, an invisible barrier, and whatever he can build with his own hands. Across from him waits the Roller, a creature so alien that even contact with its mind is almost unbearable. As thirst and injury begin wearing Carson down, every discovery about the arena becomes another chance to fight back.

Fredric Brown (1906–1972) became one of science fiction’s most inventive short-story writers while also building a successful career in mystery fiction. Arena first appeared in the June 1944 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction and became one of his most famous stories. His novels include What Mad Universe (1949) and Martians, Go Home (1955), while stories such as Knock, Sentry, and Answer showed how much Brown could accomplish in remarkably little space.

Arena is Fredric Brown at his best: a huge science-fiction idea reduced to one man who must figure out how to defeat something he barely understands before it is too late.