The Hour of Battle

The enemy can take your mind without warning. That's the horror at the center of this taut 1950s space thriller. A small crew mans a Guardian ship orbiting Earth, waiting for an attack that might never come - or might already be inside them. The Attison Detector watches for the telepathic threat, but how do you protect yourself from something that could be controlling your thoughts right now, this second, without you ever knowing? The paranoia is suffocating. Days stretch into weeks of waiting, of staring at a detector that may or may not catch the enemy in time. The men speculate about the captured crew member: is he still in there somewhere, or is something else wearing his mind like a suit? They debate whether to take action, to stop waiting and go on the offensive. But attack against what? An enemy they can't see, can't predict, can't even conceive of? Sheckley builds genuine dread through the simplest of questions: What happens when you lose control of your own thoughts? This is science fiction that gets under your skin.