Christopher Anvil 51 min read

A shape-shifting agent is handed a spy's worst assignment: impersonate a famous man he's never met.

Christopher Anvil's 1957 story again fields operative Dan Redman, waking to an unfamiliar, powerful new body and a summons from director Kielgaard, as he untangles the systematized enigma of a mission gone strange. Clever, plot-driven espionage SF with Anvil's trademark competent troubleshooter. Read it for brisk interstellar intrigue and the disorienting fun of a man wearing someone else's face.

In its time

Published in 1957, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

51 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Virgil Finlay