Project Gutenberg 2016-02-17 Public domain in the USA. 156 Samachson, Joseph 1906 1980 Sterling, Brett Morrison, William Samachson, Joe Emshwiller, Ed 1925 1990 Emsh Emsh, Ed Alexander, Ed Emshwiller, Edmund A. Willer EMSH The Addicts Produced from Galaxy Science Fiction January 1952 Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "The Addicts" by William Morrison is a science fiction novella written in the early 1950s. The story unfolds aboard a lonely asteroid lighthouse where the protagonist, Jim Palmer, struggles with his addiction to a drug called marak, which is both pleasurable and debilitating. The central theme revolves around addiction and the lengths Palmer is willing to go to ensure his wife, Louise, shares in his euphoric experience, reflecting on love, dependency, and the contrasting attitudes towards life and death. The narrative follows Palmer and Louise as they navigate their precarious existence amidst looming death due to external threats from alien creatures. Palmer believes that by making Louise an addict as well, he can cure her unhappiness caused by their dire circumstances. However, in a twist of fate, Louise cleverly administers an antidote to Jim, forcing him into sobriety and a clearer mindset. As he grapples with the harsh reality of their situation without the comforting veil of marak, he ultimately must confront the external dangers waiting outside the lighthouse. The story culminates in a dramatic irony where, liberated from addiction, Jim's newfound clarity allows him to take decisive action against the threats, even as he longs for the joy marak once provided. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 83.5 (6th grade). Easy to read. en Science fiction Short stories Spouses -- Fiction Drug addicts -- Fiction Asteroids -- Fiction PS Text Science Fiction Browsing: Crime/Mystery Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Browsing: Fiction Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy 47730 2025-06-20T14:30:28.750254 text/html 23777 2024-10-23T00:04:13 text/html 262216 2025-06-20T14:30:30.837247 application/epub+zip 261064 2025-06-20T14:30:29.291196 application/epub+zip 85445 2025-06-20T14:30:29.035217 application/epub+zip 296549 2025-06-20T14:30:32.180231 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 289745 2025-06-20T14:30:30.600195 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 114545 2022-09-23T10:22:52.321807 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 40529 2023-09-22T08:44:54.456469 text/plain 20812 2024-10-23T00:04:13 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 18121 2025-06-20T14:30:32.351179 application/rdf+xml 25914 2025-06-20T14:30:29.124233 image/jpeg 4664 2025-06-20T14:30:29.079244 image/jpeg 237542 2025-06-20T14:30:28.775197 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia en.wikipedia