The space ships were miracles of power and precision; the men who manned them, rich in endurance and courage. Every detail had been checked and double checked; every detail except--
A daring adventure with huge dollops of geographical, technological, and scientific information, touches of humor, and a slow build-up followed by one exciting incident after another.
Working on the theory that you can skin a sucker in space as well as on Earth, the con team of Harding and Sheckly operated furtively but profitably among natives of the outer planets. That is--until there was a question of turnabout being fair play in a world where natives took their skinning literally!
How could this man awaken with no past--no childhood--no recollection except of a vague world of terror from which his mother cried out for vengeance and the slaughter of his own people stood as a monument of infamy?
A room in San Francisco where strange things happened -- or a doorway into another cosmos, a different world, or perhaps the key to the past or future?
Computers are increasingly important, and public companies are often taking over roles reserved for government agencies in the 50's. Even the comments about not really understanding how hard it is to produce really random data is all spot on. What was missed of course was the fact computer prices would drop as fast as they grew more powerful, union/mob style gangsters would go out of fashion and ESP wouldn't pan out at all.