Synthetic Hero

"Synthetic Hero" by Erik Fennel is a science fiction adventure from the late 1940s following the story of George Carlin, a rich guy who's really full of himself, and who is also trying desperately to beat a fatal illness. When Carlin makes a wild plan to fly to the moon, the story dives into what makes someone a true hero, and how our ambitions can blind us. Instead of finding glory, Carlin accidentally becomes famous for maybe finding a cure, while the real brains behind the trip, an engineer named Verne Harris, gets totally forgotten. As Carlin deals with his fame (and his guilt), he finds out about Harris's big sacrifice and how people twist the truth to create legends. In the end, Carlin's adventure is a bummer since finds out the hard way how society celebrates the wrong people, and realizes one man's legacy has been unfairly forgotten.