Description

THE CONVULSING EARTH HAD SHATTERED CIVILIZATION - AND SOMETHING WAS MOVING IN TO PICK UP THE PIECES

Mal was heading across an America ravaged by worldwide earthquakes when he ran into a dying stranger who babbled of men who weren't really men. The stranger had an unusual gold coin in his pocket which no expert could identify, and soon, Mal was to discover some things who wanted that coin were on his trail. . . .

Steve Dravek awoke in a nightmarish city and immediately had to fight for his life against ruthless organ-stealing gangs. His last memories are of a vanished time from over a century ago. And someone is hunting him through the dark city, someone who seems to know him better than he knows himself. . . .

The commander of the spaceship fleet that just annihilated the enemy armada has decided to become world dictator unless his second in command can stop him. . . .

A national test condemns a man to a life of unskilled labor, unless he can find a way around the system. . . .

A full-length novel, and a host of short novels and more fill an action-packed volume by the master of science fiction adventure.

Quotes

Praise for Keith Laumer:

"Spare, clean prose style and muscular storytelling technique . . . when the final word is read, the reader comes away with both a sense of completion and a desire for the tale to go on . . . forever, if possible."
—David Weber

"You're about to have fun."
—David Drake

"One of the most productive and popular writers of science fiction."
—Ben Bova

". . . adventure tales that are brisk, light and sardonic . . ."
—Publishers Weekly

"Laumer is a master . . ."
—Seattle Times

"Tautly written and endless suspense . . . excellent . . ."
—VOYA

Extended Copyright Information

Copyright 2003 by Baen Books.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

Previously published by Baen Books.

Catastrophe Planet (aka The Breaking Earth) was first published by Berkley in 1966. "The Walls" was first published in Amazing, March 1963. "Cocoon" was first published in Fantastic, December 1962. "Founder's Day" was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July 1966. "Placement Test" was first published in Amazing, July 1964. "Worldmaster" was first published in Worlds of Tomorrow, November 1965. "The Day Before Forever" was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July 1967.

Cover art by Richard Martin.

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

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Opening Lines (Experimental)

I held the turbo-car at a steady hundred and forty, watching the strip of cracked pavement that had been Interstate 10 unreel behind me, keeping a sharp eye ahead through the dust and volcanic smog for any breaks in the pavement too wide for the big car to jump. A brand-new six-megahorse job, it ...

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Copyright

Copyright 2003 by Baen Books.

All Rights Reserved.

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