000 02594cam a22003853u 4500
001 77528
003 UtSlPG
005 20260610134809.0
006 m
007 cr n
008 260607r20251955utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d
040 _aUtSlPG
041 7 _aen
_2iso639-1
050 4 _aPS
100 1 _aHerbert, Frank,
_d1920-1986
245 1 4 _aThe nothing
264 1 _aSalt Lake City, UT :
_bProject Gutenberg,
_c2025
300 _a1 online resource :
_bmultiple file formats
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
490 1 _aProduced from Fantastic Universe, January 1956 (Vol. 4, No. 6).
500 _aRelease date is 2025-12-22
508 _aTom Trussel (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
520 _aThe nothing by Frank Herbert is a science fiction short story written in the mid-20th century. It imagines a future society built on psychic talents that are fading away, and examines genetic planning, predestination, and the risk of choosing a freer, less certain tomorrow. Jean Carlysle, a teen pyrokinetic, quarrels with her father and goes to a tavern where she meets Claude, a “Nothing” without powers and a fugitive from a government preserve. Both are detained and taken to the Sonoma Preserve, where Claude’s father, Mensor Williams—an elite prescient-telepath—explains that psychic abilities are regressing across generations; in secret, the preserves are reviving old mechanical skills and arranging marriages to sustain crucial talents. Citing a strong genetic match and claiming to have foreseen it, Williams swiftly marries Jean and Claude, giving Jean a telepathy-blocking implant. After Jean briefly returns home, she learns Williams only foresaw their meeting, not their future together. Claude resents the manipulation, but Jean embraces the commitment, and the pair decide to face a “cloudy” future no prescient can see, asserting their own choice amid a world losing its gifts. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
534 _pOriginally published:
_cNew York: King-Size Publications, Inc., 1955
653 _aScience fiction
653 _aShort stories
653 _aMate selection -- Fiction
653 _aPsychic ability -- Fiction
700 1 _aEmshwiller, Ed,
_d1925-1990
830 0 _aProduced from Fantastic Universe, January 1956 (Vol. 4, No. 6).
856 4 _uhttps://archive.org/details/Fantastic_Universe_v04n06_1956-01
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77528
999 _c118248
_d118248