Fifty Per Cent Prophet: Restored Classics to Go Edition

Randall Garrett

Sep 2026 · Otbebookpublishing

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About this ebook

Dr. Joachim looks like a carnival mystic, but beneath the robes and theatrics he is Peter J. Forsythe, a sharp-eyed confidence man whose "prophecies" may be part intuition, part fraud, and part something far stranger. When glamorous stripper Susan thanks him for steering her away from a doomed flight, the encounter opens into a world where hidden motives, practiced deception, and genuine precognition are dangerously hard to tell apart. That ambiguity draws him into the Society for Mystical and Metaphysical Research, a sprawling front for occult seekers and secret investigators led by the true believer J. Harlan Balfour and the cool, telepathic Brian Taggert. Behind the harmless façade of eccentrics and mediums, the Society is probing a mysterious predictor whose warnings have preceded disasters around the globe, from reactor explosions to ship disappearances and a dam collapse. The same machine-typed letters point to Joachim/Forsythe—and to a looming meteor strike on Moonbase One. As Forsythe is brought into the project, he finds his "gift" tested with electronic equipment, volunteer subjects, and computer analysis, while telepathic minds quietly surround the work. A secret government investigation grows more urgent amid a kidnapped scientist, a disrupted antigravity project, and Soviet suspicion over unusual rocket traffic. In this tense blend of science fiction, espionage, and psychic intrigue, the central question remains: is Forsythe a fraud, a prophet, or both? This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.

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About the author

Randall Garrett was an American writer whose lively imagination and sharp wit made him a memorable voice in mid-century science fiction and fantasy. Born in 1927 and active during the energetic magazine era that helped shape modern genre storytelling, he became known for blending adventure, satire, mystery, and speculative ideas with a distinctly playful intelligence. Over the course of his career, he produced a wide range of stories that won him a devoted readership, including clever future histories, inventive alternate-world tales, and humorous fantasies that showed how comfortably he moved between seriousness and comedy. His work often explored the uses and abuses of power, the tension between reason and belief, the resilience of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, and the comic absurdity that can lurk inside bureaucracies and grand theories alike. Those themes still feel fresh today because they speak to modern anxieties about institutions, expertise, and the stories societies tell themselves. Garrett's legacy lies in his ability to make speculative fiction entertaining without losing its intelligence, offering readers both a good story and a sly commentary on human nature. Readers who enjoy brisk pacing, witty dialogue, imaginative worldbuilding, and a touch of irreverence will find his work especially rewarding.

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