The Ciriimian ship was passing in hyperdrive through a classic three-body system, comprising in this case a fiercely white sun circled by a fainter companion and a single planet that swung in precise balance, when the Canthorian Zid broke out of its cage in the specimen hold.

Of the ship's social quartet, Chafis One and Two were asleep at the moment, dreaming wistful dreams of conical Ciriimian cities spearing up to a soft and plum-colored sky. The Zid raged into their communal rest cell, smashed them down from their gimbaled sleeping perches and, with the ravening blood-hunger of its kind, devoured them before they could wake enough to teleport to safety. Terrible creatures, the Canthorian Zid -- and that was just the start

While he was shipwrecked on a dis-tant Jovian moon, with only a cryptic monster for a companion, Paul Shannon had longed for the laughter and friendship of men and women. But when at long last he brought his repaired space craft back to the familiar skies of North America, he was shocked to find AN EARTH GONE MAD. Man's ambitions, women's love, and the eternal clash of wills, had all given way to passive docility of stunned beasts. A new cult, born in the stars, was sweeping the world, promising golory but bringing only complete mental submission. And shannon was torn between unwilling belief and paniky horror as he realized that he himself held the only key to that cosmic riddle. AN EARTH GONE MAD is a terrific experience in science-fiction adventure!

While he was shipwrecked on a distant Jovian moon, with only a cryptic monster for a companion, Paul Shannon had longed for the laughter and friendship of men and women. But when at long last he brought his repaired space craft back to the familiar skies of North America, he was shocked to find an Earth gone mad. Men's ambitions, women's love, and the eternal clash of wills, all had given way to the passive docility of stunned beasts. A new cult, born in the stars, was sweeping the world, promising glory but bringing only complete mental submission. And Shannon was torn between unwilling belief and panicky horror as he realized that he himself held the only key to that cosmic riddle