Book description
Whether or not he had wanted to turn back at the last minute, he
couldn't have - the wave of dirty, hungry people carried him helplessly
along in their fervour reach the temple. Like dope addicts, he told
himself, they don't even care about themselves, only about the thing
that is inside the temple! He remembered the day ten years ago when his
older brother had been made a Warden of Asconel, a prosperous and happy
planet, and he and his other brothers had left in the interests of their
people. Now they returned to a world where a fanatical cult had usurped
the Warden's chair, and men and women were offering themselves up as
human sacrifices to Belizuek - whoever or whatever that being from
beyond the galaxy was . . . I'll find out, he told himself grimly, when
I enter these doors . . . (First published 1965) John Brunner
(1934-1995) was a prolific British SF writer. In 1951, he published his
first novel, Galactic Storm, at the age of just 17, and went on to write
dozens of novels under his own and various house names until his death
in 1995 at the Glasgow Worldcon. He won the Hugo Award and the British
Science Fiction Award for Stand on Zanzibar (a regular contender for the
'best SF novel of all time') and the British Science Fiction Award for
The Jagged Orbit.
