Looking for pre-1982 paperback with Kil(l)roys as unseen antagonist.

[erandalln]

I read this about the same period I read Richard Meredith's We All Died on Breakaway Station in the 70s (I think). It had a Space Commander who chooses to destory a colony ship with all hands because it was a greater threat to life--I don't remember why exactly, but I think it involved a "runaway" situation. He is then charged with murder (negligence?) and an incident where he executed an entire human colony is brought up. During the trial we discover the Kilroys--the unseen existential threat to all things good and decent and human--had conducted horrific experiments of the colonist and the protagonist killed the few survivors as mercy.

I'm reclaiming the books of my childhood (I'm hunting a copy of the Meredith book as I type/make logic gates out of transistors); furthermore, I CAN'T REMEMBER HOW IT ENDS!! (please don't tell me).

I tried using M. Robert's search links, but I am going to need more clues or more brains to get any positive results, I think.

I appreciate any hints and I would love to revisit that book (and others) before my aging eyes are unable to discern the type.

Thank you.

 

[Ravensquawk]

Yikes. Amazon is selling them for $60 on up to $908.
Was that the question? How to find it to read again?

Even Worldcat didn't recognize it! And I thought it could find books in libraries all over. At $908, maybe everyone who checks a book out steals it and tells the library it's "lost".

I did find a way to read it online, I think. It's not as fun and comfortable as a book, but it is (a) cheaper, and (b) a moot point when something is out of print.

"We All Died at Breakaway Station"

ISFDB has a search result, but of course, that doesn't tell you how to find it to read it.

The first link looks like the entire thing, not just a teaser.
And though it's easier to scroll down one document, especially on a touchpad with light two-finger scrolling that doesn't jump line by line, this one does let you do that. Then you get to the bottom and have to click the next page.

The tempting ".TXT" didn't do anything for me, but maybe that's because I use Ubuntu Firefox with lots of tracking blockers.

However, it does have two ways to make it easy for aging eyes having difficulty discerning the type.

It's got both a text zoom icon which might be smoother than using <ctrl +> on your computer, and an MP3 way to listen to a bloke recite the story. I can't tell if it is a person with lively inflection pronouncing words like a computer, or a computerized voice. He sounds like a blend of both.

Looks like you can download it in several versions to read in two parts:

Amazing Stories v42n05 (1969 01)

Amazing Stories v42n06 (1969 03)

Thanks for turning me onto this story.

 

[Danny McG]

So this is the actual story you're seeking?

It had a Space Commander who chooses to destory a colony ship with all hands because it was a greater threat to life--I don't remember why exactly, but I think it involved a "runaway" situation. He is then charged with murder (negligence?) and an incident where he executed an entire human colony is brought up. During the trial we discover the Kilroys--the unseen existential threat to all things good and decent and human--had conducted horrific experiments of the colonist and the protagonist killed the few survivors as mercy

Hmmmm.... I think this might have been asked in here before at some point..... I'll have a search

 

[Lolrus]

Pretty sure this is the "Venturer 12" books by John Kippax and Dan Morgan.

 

[Ravensquawk]

I read this about the same period I read Richard Meredith's We All Died on Breakaway Station in the 70s (I think). It had a Space Commander who chooses to destory a colony ship with all hands because it was a greater threat to life--I don't remember why exactly, but I think it involved a "runaway" situation. He is then charged with murder (negligence?) and an incident where he executed an entire human colony is brought up. During the trial we discover the Kilroys--the unseen existential threat to all things good and decent and human--had conducted horrific experiments of the colonist and the protagonist killed the few survivors as mercy.

I'm reclaiming the books of my childhood (I'm hunting a copy of the Meredith book as I type/make logic gates out of transistors); furthermore, I CAN'T REMEMBER HOW IT ENDS!! (please don't tell me).

I tried using M. Robert's search links, but I am going to need more clues or more brains to get any positive results, I think.

I appreciate any hints and I would love to revisit that book (and others) before my aging eyes are unable to discern the type.

Thank you.

Well, I won't tell you how it ends because I haven't read it yet, ha, but here it is in an easier-to-read-and-zoom archive just the way it was serialized.

In Amazing January 1969 (Page 6)
and Amazing March 1969 (Page 48)