Showing results by author "Harry Harrison" in All Categories

"The gadget was strictly, beyond any question, a toy. Not a real workable device. Except for the way it could work under a man's mental skin."

The human race has reached the stars, colonized many planets and done amazing things in all areas of scientific progress. But humans are still humans and remain both honorable and not so honorable; some with high ideals and others with very low ones indeed. So why hasn't war occurred in several centuries among the hundreds of planets? Has man really changed? Not on your life it hasn't! Listen to how science has given man peace but at what cost?

In the campy style of 1950s science fiction, this short story seeks to clarify what advancements the Army had made to abolish the need for the Navy. A new and fantastic devise made ships no longer essential to the military operation in America. Would the demand for the abolishment of the Navy?

"The K-Factor" is a sci-fi story by author Harry Harrison, published in 1960. A K-factor is a so called "war factor", more precisely a name of an atomic file that can be used in two ways, as with an atomic bomb. Neel Sidorak, our hero, and his team has to constantly guard Earth's safety, as Earth had settled quite a few planets... Thought provoking and entertaining in equal measure!

The universe is at peace, but it is a very sensitive balance. Will the temptation of absolute power drive the universe once again into war?

Jason dinAlt is a professional gambler who travels between different worlds in the universe. Right now, he is gambling on the planet Cassylia. One day, he meets the ambassador of Pyrrus the most hostile world in the universe. Kerk, the ambassador, offers dinAlt money to run a stake up for him. After Jason finally wins the needed amount, he tries to escape with the money, but gets captured.