H. Beam Piper 1 hr 32 min read

The last enemy of all is death, and on a world where a strange science of reincarnation makes assassination an honorable trade, conquering that enemy is nearly as dangerous as failing to.

H. Beam Piper's 1950 story is a rich, ingenious social-SF and psi tale of politics, murder, and proven survival of the soul. Sharp, absorbing golden-age SF. Read it for a fascinating story set in a society transformed by certain knowledge of life after death.

In its time

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

Reading it

1 hr 32 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).