Frank Herbert 37 min read

Ferreting out a gang of fanatics is hard; spotting a hidden genetic line of dedicated men is harder, and Lewis Orne's problem is one step tougher still, as he lies near death in a creche pod.

Frank Herbert's 1959 story, part of his Jorj X. McKie / I-A universe, is a taut psi-and-space-opera tale of conspiracy. Sharp, clever golden-age SF. Read it for a gripping story where an investigator must uncover a bloodline of secret zealots threatening the League.

In its time

Published in 1959, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

H. R. Van Dongen