Last Enemy

In a society where assassination is an honored profession and death is treated as a matter of ideology, H. Beam Piper's Last Enemy opens with a feast that becomes a scientific test of faith. Lady Dallona of Hadron watches as Lord Garnon of Roxor invites his own assassin to shoot him, hoping to prove that consciousness survives death and can communicate from beyond the body. The resulting messages from a trance-medium seem to validate the Volitionalist belief in reincarnation and expose the deadly stakes of the philosophical war with the Statisticalists. That discovery draws in Verkan Vall, special assistant to Paratime Police chief Tortha Karf, who is sent to the Second Level Akor-Neb sector to find the missing psychic researcher Dr. Hadron Dalla, secretly living as Dallona. Vall uncovers a lethal gas attack, political manipulation, and a civilization shaped by psychic science, ritual honor, and postwar history. Disguised and indoctrinated for the mission, he enters the towering city of Ghamma, navigates propaganda and intrigue, and turns a slanderous dinner party into a formal duel. His cool precision in the ritual killings earns him the respect of the Society of Assassins—and perhaps a chance to uncover the truth behind Dallona's disappearance before her enemies silence her forever. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.