A Case of Conscience

James Blish

1958

Mankind has been amongst the stars for a century now and knows many types of aliens. None violent but all with their version of the Fall. All, that is, until the Lithians who live in an apparent Eden. It's the job of the four-man committee to decide whether the Lithians are as pacific as they seem.

Father Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez, the expedition's biologist, is initially delighted by Lithian culture but as his investigation uncovers the way in which the Lithian young develop, he comes to the conclusion that the Lithians are a sending of the Adversary!

Back on Earth, the Father studies the development of a young Lithian until it is freed into the strange society of the Shelter Cities. Being of the Lithian race with that people's ability to come to logical conclusions the young Lithian sees that things are ripe for revolution and sets about creating it! Meanwhile, his home world has been designated as the site to establish a weapons factory by the UN and anathema by the pope. The father has been given instructions to exorcise Lithia itself. Was the planet destroying blast to do with exorcism or a failed nuclear experiment?

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This is part of the Science Fiction Masterworks series.

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