Earthblood

de Keith Laumer, Rosel George Brown

A thundering "space opera" in the old-fashioned tradition of Science Fiction: redolent with people who vault across galactic distances, villainous engines of destruction, and a universe populated by humans, humanoids, monsters-tailed, scaled, and properly tentacled. The story begins in the year 13,000 A.D. The central character is Roan, a pure-strain human, who, as a boy, is kidnapped by the owner of a freak show and sent on a "summer stock" tour by means of spaceship. This weird interplanetary circus troupe is suddenly pirated by another vessel. But its outlaw Commander, the dashing Henry Dread, turns out to be a pure-strain human, and he instantly takes a liking to our youthful hero. From here on out, Earthblood explodes with wild cascades of pure adventure and excitement—the reader follows Dread and Roan as they wander through the universe, sacking planets, keeping a sharp look-out for errant pure-strains, landing at last on the planet Terra, where—to their endless horror—the two realize exactly who the broken-down, corrupt, and decadent inhabitants are: their fellow human-beings. This romping, rumbustious adventure will seem like an old friend to those readers who have been hunting in vain for a complete work of science fiction.