Ravenous to acquire precious metals to feed their technologically dominated culture and voracious military machine, the Psychlos learned of Earth at the dawn of mankind's third millennium, when they encountered a tantalizing deep-space probe made with rare alloys.
The arrival of the invincible Psychlos is now an event lost in legend, the aftermath a world emptied of its people, cleared of all opposition and left as a prize to its conquerors. The Psychlos own Earth, and their Intergalactic Mining Company drains its mineral riches like a parasite drawing blood.
High amongst the Rocky Mountains in a land once called America, a frustrated young man by the name of Jonnie Goodboy Tyler grows tired of watching the remnants of his village and his world slowly die. Challenging the legends about monsters sent to punish man, he decides to do something about it. He boldly sets forth from his village, determined to find his destiny...unaware that he is riding into the clutches of something more evil and dangerous than any legend ever told.
The Psychlo security chief Terl picks up the "animal" on security monitors, making its way toward the ruins of an old man-city once known as Denver. Sick of the green hills, blue skies and poison atmosphere of Earth, Terl yearns for the massive industrial civilization of his purple-hued home world. Only with a secret fortune does the manipulative Terl have any hope of returning from this miserable exile to Psychlo in wealth and comfort.
A good security chief always knows a bit more than everyone else, however, and Terl is one of the best, always on the lookout for "leverage" to bend and twist others to his will. With the man-animal as his pawn, Terl has a devious plan to get hold of the fortune he needs. And then, with all the evidence, including the last humans, destroyed...his plans will be complete. |
"...back in the 1930s and '40s, Hubbard was a leader among the crew of fast, versatile wordsmiths who produced the reams of copy needed to fill the pages of the pulps. In SF, he gained a reputation as a superlative storyteller with total mastery of plot and pacing."
"This has everything: suspense, pathos, politics, war, humor, diplomacy and intergalactic finance."
"SF's new, larger audience is about to discover an old master."
Publishers Weekly
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