In a wildly altered Earth where the Greek and Roman gods have returned in full power, war is outlawed, prudery has vanished, and New York has become a city of temples, sacred symbols, and public rites. William Forrester, an Athenan teacher and reluctant demi-god, must navigate a society where religion, desire, and political power are inseparable—while staying faithful to Athena and the woman he loves. His problems begin in the classroom, where a beautiful freshman devoted to Venus tries to seduce him in exchange for a passing grade, turning an ordinary history lesson into a comic, tense collision of professionalism and temptation. That uneasy mix of satire, sensuality, and supernatural order deepens as Forrester lectures on humanity's arrogance, war, and divine punishment, even as he finds himself unnervingly drawn to one attentive student. The pressure mounts during New York's Autumn Bacchanal, a riotous Dionysian festival of wine, music, confetti, chanting, and tightly controlled chaos. With Diana's guidance, Forrester is pushed to stand in for the god of revelry, endure the procession, and confront the vast machinery of divine rule. Along the way, he learns the gods are part of a larger system of occupied "nodes," that many ancient deities were substitutes or constructs, and that the pantheon survives because humanity still needs it. By the end, Forrester discovers he has passed his trial—and that Diana herself is a substitute god. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.

À propos de l'auteur

Garrett, Randall

Randall Garrett was an American science fiction and fantasy writer whose lively imagination and sharp wit made him a distinctive voice in mid-20th-century genre fiction. Born in 1927, he came of age during a period when pulp magazines, paperback originals, and the expanding world of speculative storytelling offered fertile ground for ambitious new writers, and he quickly proved adept at moving between science fiction, mystery, and adventure. Garrett built a reputation for fast-paced, idea-driven stories that combined humor, ingenuity, and a strong sense of narrative momentum, earning a devoted readership through his magazine fiction and later his collaborations and series work. His writing often explores intelligence, problem-solving, social order, and the tension between individual freedom and institutional power, all while keeping a playful, accessible tone that makes serious questions feel entertaining rather than heavy-handed. That balance gives his work lasting relevance: readers today can still recognize in his stories the appeal of clever resistance, the absurdities of bureaucracy, and the thrill of seeing a resourceful mind outmaneuver a complicated world. Garrett’s legacy lies in helping define a form of speculative fiction that is both entertaining and intellectually nimble, and his influence endures in writers who value wit as much as world-building. Readers who enjoy classic science fiction with humor, inventive plotting, and a brisk, old-school sense of adventure are especially likely to appreciate his work.