Vital statistics

The Rithian Terror

by Damon Knight

Cover artist: Jack Gaughan

Publisher: Ace

Pub year: 1965

Cover price: 45¢

 

Search for a copy of this book

 

Book detail for The Rithian Terror

Cover tagline

How do you find a space spy who substitutes perfectly for anyone in the universe?

Back cover text

Part of Ace Double: Off Center

Support SF Paperbacks.com, buy this book using the links below

Interior text

The spy beneath the skin

The fate of the Earth Empire hung in the balance — and Security Commissioner Spangler knew it was up to him to find the monster, the Rithian Terror, as some called it. Seven Rithians had landed on Earth. Six had been disposed of. One was loose.

Surely, Spangler reasoned, the stereoptic fluoroscope would flush it out. "That's one test the Rithian can't meet, no matter how good his human disguise may be." Spangler explained to Pembun, the strange, little Colonial who had been sent to help find the monster.

But Pembun didn't agree. "The trouble," he said, "is that the Rithi have no bones. Which would be indication enough under a fluoroscope, if it weren't for the fact that it can easily swallow a skeleton."

Spangler shuddered.