Stress Pattern

The essence of a truly null-Earth logic may never be as clearly defined as in this novel-length package of interplanetary surprises.

Consider this marooned astronaut. His spaceship and supplies are swallowed in one gulp by something from beneath the featureless plain of an unknown world.

The natives are not hostile but they seem incurious. He is welcome to use their free railroad system--the "alimentary express" of a world-girdling WORMWAY. Those he regards as sane are considered to be crazy. The culture techniques he is sure are crazy turn out to be quite rational--by that worlds standards.

He fathers a child without ever touching the mother. It's when he does physically create his true offspring that he gets his most startling surprise.