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Book description

The world designated 49381D is a small backwater planet inhabited by simple agrarians. The Galactic Expansion Service has an agent posted there to slowly bring the native species under the auspices of the Galactic community. But the new Sector Chief, Harb Mallard, is a man of action. In less than two years he has attained his present rank and he is in a hurry to proceed even higher. With a display of false bravado backed up by hidden technological wonders, Harb Mallard infiltrates a warlike faction of the native population. He intends to rise swiftly to a position of power and then present the Galactic Expansion Service with a fully converted population in record time. But what Harb doesn't know is enough to cost him his sanity. The ultimate lesson is learned too late, for the end is always a direct result of the means. Gordon R. Dickson (1923 - 2001) Gordon Rupert Dickson was born in Alberta, Canada, in 1923 but resided in the United States from the age of thirteen. Along with Robert A. Heinlein, he is regarded as one of the fathers of military space opera, his Dorsai! sequence being an early exemplar of both military SF and Future History. Dickson was one of the rare breed of authors as well known for his fantasy as his SF - The Dragon and the George, the first novel in his Dragon Knight sequence, was shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award and won the British Fantasy Award. Dickson's work also won him three Hugos and Nebula. He died in 2001.