Summary Of A Guift From Earth

Summary

On the Plateau, a colony was settled by humans 300 years before the book begins. The colony world is a Venusian type planet with a dense, hot, poisonous atmosphere. It would be otherwise uninhabitable, except for a tall plateau that rises up to a breathable layer in the upper atmosphere. This gave the planet a livable area about half the size of California. The Captain of the first colony vessel named the plateau Mount Lookitthat, which was the first thing he said when he saw it.

On arrival, the crew of the first colony vessel used the weapons aboard ship to force the colonists, who recently awoken from suspended animation, to sign a treaty granting rule of the colony to the crew. By the time the book begins, there is a strong class division between Crew and Colonists. The Crew's rule over the Colonists is enforced by fear of Implementation, which is the process of taking criminals and dissecting them and put them in the organ banks. The fresh organs are used to keep the Crew and well behaved Colonists healthy and young.

A ramjet arrives from Earth, carrying a capsule which the government immediately conceals, but not before it has been observed by a rebel belonging to group calling itself the Sons of Earth. Matthew Keller, an ordinary miner, gets casually invited to a party and is drawn into a conversation about psychic powers. Matt is in the middle of talking with a woman from the party, when Implementation agents raid the house, which turns out to be full of Sons of Earth members. In the course of escaping, Matt discovers that he has psychic powers which allow him to avoid notice. He can shrink the pupils of people around him to make them unable to notice him. This allows him to sneak into the colony's hospital and rescue some of the Sons of Earth, before all of them are dissected. Matt is pulled in to the fighting so deep that he is the one who can prevent both Implementation agents and rebels