The Hour of Battle

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About this book

The Hour of Battle, by Robert Sheckley, is introduced with the question of just how you protect a race from an enemy who can take over a man's mind without seeming effort or warning. A line of introduction says that, as one of the Guardian ships protecting Earth, the crew had a problem to solve. Edwardson asks, standing at the port and looking at the stars, whether a hand moved, and Morse answers no.

The slender black hand of the indicator rests unwaveringly on zero while the ship's guns are ready, their black mouths open to the stars. A steady hum filled the room and came from the Attison Detector, and the sound reinforced the fact that the Detector was attached to all the other Detectors, forming a gigantic network around Earth. The text asks what armor is there against thought and how you dodge a wavelength.

About the author

Robert Sheckley

Robert Sheckley (1928-2005) was an American science fiction writer celebrated for his witty, satirical short stories. A frequent contributor to Galaxy and other magazines in the 1950s, he became known for absurdist, ironic tales that influenced later humorists such as Douglas Adams.