H. Beam Piper 45 min read

Through a haze of incense, the six-armed idol Yat-Zar looks down from his golden throne, miracles to order being a fine way for the paratimers to secure mining rights, until Nature counters.

H. Beam Piper's 1951 story is a clever alternate-history and colonization tale from his Paratime series. Sharp, ingenious golden-age SF. Read it for vintage Piper, cross-time operatives running a false religion to strip another world's resources, and the delicious trouble that ensues when their miracles misfire.

In its time

Published in 1951, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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