The Sensitive Man

Short story by Poul Anderson
"The Sensitive Man"
Short story by Poul Anderson
cover art by Joe Richards
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Science fiction
Publication
Published inFantastic Universe
PublisherKing-Size Publications
Media typeMagazine
Publication dateJanuary 1954
Chronology
SeriesThe Psychotechnic League
 
Un-Man 		 
The Big Rain

"The Sensitive Man" is a science fiction novella by American writer Poul Anderson, first published in the January 1954 issue of Fantastic Universe and reprinted in the 1981 collection The Psychotechnic League. The story is a component of the Psychotechnic League future history, and takes place in the year 2009, between "Un-Man" and "The Big Rain".

Plot summary

Michael Tighe of the Psychotechnic Institute has been kidnapped by Thomas Bancroft, a politician with ties to an authoritarian movement called the Actionists. Tighe's adopted son, Simon Delgatty, sets out to find him, but is himself captured by Bancroft and taken to his base on an island off the coast of Mexico. In the course of raising Delgatty, Tighe has trained him to exert conscious control over what are normally subconscious and autonomic brain functions. This allows Delgatty to speed up or slow down his metabolism at will, and also allows him to tell what other people are thinking by listening to them subvocalize their thoughts.

Delgatty escapes from Bancroft's control, and forms an uneasy partnership with Elena Casimir, an undercover FBI agent who has infiltrated Bancroft's organization. Together, Delgatty and Casimir free Tighe and take Bancroft prisoner, then return to the United States. Bancroft will be imprisoned for kidnapping, but the leader of the Actionists, Bertrand Meade, is still free to continue his secret war against the Psychotechnic Institute.

External links

  • v
  • t
  • e
Works by Poul Anderson
Hoka!
  • Earthman's Burden
  • Star Prince Charlie
  • Hoka!
The Psychotechnic League
  • Star Ways
  • The Snows of Ganymede
  • Virgin Planet
  • The Psychotechnic League
  • Cold Victory
  • Starship
Technic History
Polesotechnic League period
of Nicholas van Rijn
Terran Empire period
of Dominic Flandry
  • Ensign Flandry
  • A Circus of Hells
  • The Rebel Worlds
  • The Day of Their Return
  • Agent of the Terran Empire
  • Flandry of Terra
  • A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows
  • A Stone in Heaven
  • The Game of Empire
  • The Long Night
  • Let the Spacemen Beware
History of Rustum
Maurai
Other science fiction novels
Collections
  • Strangers from Earth
  • Un-Man and Other Novellas
  • Time and Stars
  • The Horn of Time
  • Beyond the Beyond
  • Seven Conquest
  • Tales of the Flying Mountains
  • The Queen of Air and Darkness and Other Stories
  • The Worlds of Poul Anderson
  • The Many Worlds of Poul Anderson
  • Homeward and Beyond
  • The Best of Poul Anderson
  • Homebrew
  • Winners
  • The Night Face & Other Stories
  • The Dark Between the Stars
  • Explorations
  • Fantasy
  • Winners
  • Cold Victory
  • The Gods Laughed
  • Starship
  • The Winter of the World / The Queen of Air and Darkness
  • Conflict
  • The Long Night
  • Past Times
  • The Unicorn Trade
  • Dialogue With Darkness
  • Space Folk
  • Alight in the Void
  • The Armies of Elfland
  • Inconstant Star
  • Kinship With the Stars
  • All One Universe
  • Going for Infinity
  • Swordsmen from the Stars
Operation Otherworld
Other fantasy novelsHistorical novels
Novellas and short stories
  • v
  • t
  • e
  • Marius
  • Un-Man
  • The Sensitive Man
  • The Pirate
  • Entity


Stub icon

This article about a science fiction short story (or stories) published in the 1950s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

  • v
  • t
  • e