Imitation of Death

In a future where perfect human duplicates can be manufactured, one man decides to stage a coup with the ultimate weapon: a walking, talking clone of a powerful politician. Max Fleigh has a plan to overthrow Councilman Curtis and seize control of the Plutarchy, and he's enlisted the enigmatic Jeremiah Greek to create a similacrum convincing enough to infiltrate the highest levels of power. But when your double starts developing opinions of its own, when the imitation begins to breathe and think and perhaps even want, the line between puppet and puppetmaster dissolves. This is a cold, tight little thriller about the terrors of being copied perfectly, of watching your own creation become a threat you can't control. Del Rey was one of SF's most reliable craftsmen, and while this isn't his celebrated work, it anticipates克隆 anxiety decades before it became cultural commonplace. The political machinations feel uncomfortably prescient, and the final confrontation lands with genuine bite.