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The Lantern of God

THEY WERE PLEASURE DROIDS

 Designed for maximum esthetic sensibility and appeal, these human-gene-based androids were intended for consumption on the wealthier colony planets - but when the interstellar cargo ship transporting them to their fate suffered catastrophic systems failure all that changed. Automatic emergency procedures dropped them on a nearby deserted planet and in the two thousand years that have passed since then the droids have forgotten their provenance and created a world of their own.

 But "real" humans, descendants of the starship's crew, have arrived upon the scene. Unless they do something to save themselves, a two-thousand-year era of droid freedom is about to come to a sharp and bloody end.

Cover Art by Larry Elmore

ORDER Paperback

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, March 1989

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-13: 978-0-671-69821-8
ISBN-10: 0-671-69821-4

Copyright© 1989 by John Dalmas

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original
Baen publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
https://www.baen.com

Electronic version by Baen Books
https://www.baen.com

This story is dedicated to
Jim Baen
for his years of encouragement

And while I'm at it I'd like to acknowledge three persons who've influenced this and other stories of mine:

Rod Martin (with whom I co-authored THE PLAYMASTERS) for his interesting ideas and work in metaphysics and metapsychology.

Bill Bailie for access to his personal library, his advice on matters technical and his manuscript critiques.

And Gail for her manuscript critiques and her understanding tolerance of, for example, my strange working hours (like all night when I'm on a roll). It's interesting how many SF writers share life with a truly outstanding spouse.

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