Walter M. Miller 41 min read

A newly inaugurated President, a man with no name of his own, bred for the post, moves to keep his most difficult campaign promise.

Walter M. Miller's 1953 story imagines a Western Federation elected by ceremony, its trained executive setting out to confer with a rival power across the world. Sharp, ironic military SF from the author of 'A Canticle for Leibowitz.' Read it for pointed golden-age SF about power, ritual, and the games nations play.

In its time

Published in 1953, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Tom Beecham