About the Book
This novella first appeared in Startling Stories magazine in 1954. It was reissued in book form in 1964.
Cover: Underwood-Miller, 1983.
The Houses of Iszm were alive. Lush, elaborate, hollow trees wherein
the walls, floors, ceilings and even the furniture and plumbing were
part of the living, thriving plant.
The people of Iszm were
guarded and afraid. Alone in the universe they possessed the secret of
cultivating such dwekkings. They held a gigantic, lucrative monopoly,
exporting such homes to all other worlds. With the universe facing a
population crisis and a desperate need for cheep, organic dwelling
places, aliens from other worlds, including Earth, had long tried to
steal a female house-seed to break the monopoly.
But iszic
security was efficient and ruthless. As Earthling botanist Aile Farr,
spearheading the most ingenious plat of all, discovered...
