
An Earth State Investigator is dispatched to the hostile swamps of Venus, a world where settlements cling to a poisonous jungle and a mysterious fever drives wanderers into madness. Armed with only a cryptic microfilm and a thin thread of information, he pursues a legendary political refugee—once a diplomat, now a dangerous insurgent whose secret treaty could ignite a rebellion on the outer colonies. The planet’s harsh climate, relentless storms, and the enigmatic “North‑Fever” create a claustrophobic backdrop that tests his resolve at every turn.
As the investigator delves deeper, he discovers that the fugitive has hidden in plain sight, masquerading under a false identity among the planet’s herb‑growing outposts. The thin line between hunter and hunted blurs amid the alien flora, the ever‑present threat of the swamp’s unseen war‑gods, and the looming dread of an unseen virus. Listeners will be drawn into a tense chase where every step could be the last, and the true nature of the danger remains tantalizingly out of reach.
Language
en
Duration
~1 hours (72K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Distributed Proofreaders Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net
Release date
2020-04-29
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1915–1958
A fast, inventive pulp-era storyteller, he helped shape fantasy, horror, and science fiction with a huge range of work under his own name and several pseudonyms. He is also remembered for his close creative partnership with fellow writer C. L. Moore.
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