Poul Anderson 1 hr 30 min read

One man stands between a power-hungry cabal and world mastery, a man of unusual talents whose heightened senses make him a match for the greatest conspiracy of all.

Poul Anderson's 1954 novella is a taut, inventive psi-powers and social-SF thriller. Sharp, gripping golden-age SF. Read it for early Anderson, a superbly capable 'sensitive man' battling a secret conspiracy for control of a fragile postwar world, in a fast and thoughtful tale of intrigue and human potential.

In its time

Published in 1954, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

1 hr 30 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).