Past Master (novel)

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**Past Master**

The cover of the Wildside edition
Author	R. A. Lafferty
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Variously described as science fiction, or dramatic fantasy
Publisher	Ace Books
Released	1968
Media Type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	191 pp (first edition, paperback)
ISBN	NA

Past Master is a novel by science fiction writer R. A. Lafferty. It was first published in 1968, and was nominated for the 1968 Nebula award (Rite of Passage won) and the 1969 Hugo award (Stand on Zanzibar won)^[1]. It is generally categorized as part of the New Wave of science fiction.

Past Master is set on the world of Astrobe in the year 2535. To save their dying civilization, the leaders of Astrobe bring Thomas More (or perhaps a copy of Thomas More) from shortly before his death in the year 1535 to be the leader of their society. More struggles with whether to approve of the Astrobian society. He notes its possible connections to his own novel of Utopia, but his judgments are ultimately quite subtle.

1 Plot
2 Release details
3 References
4 External link

[edit] Plot

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[edit] Release details

Lafferty, R.A. [1968] (1968). Past Master, First (in English), New York, USA: Ace Books, 191 pages. OCLC: 10835111.
Lafferty, R.A. [1968] (1968). Past Master (in English). New York, USA: Ace Books, 248 pages. OCLC: 3838861.
Lafferty, R.A. [1968]. Past Master (paperback), Reprint of Ace edition as part of The Garland library of science fiction (in English), New York, USA: Garland Pub., 191 pages. ISBN 0824014219; OCLC: 1693870.
Lafferty, R.A. [1968] (1968). Past Master (softcover), Reprint of first Ace Books? (in English), London, England: Rapp & Whiting, 191 pages. OCLC: 17697.
Lafferty, R.A. [1968] (1970). Past Master (in English). London, England: Science Fiction Book Club, 191 pages. OCLC: 2014876.
Lafferty, R.A. [1968] (1981). Astrobe, der goldene planet (paperback), Deutsche erstausgabe (in German), München; Zürich: Droemer Knaur, 207 pages. OCLC: 70117779.
Lafferty, R.A. [1968] (1982). Past Master (softcover), Ace reprint (in English), New York, USA: Ace Books, 248 pages. ISBN 0441653030; OCLC: 8713622.
Lafferty, R.A. [1968] (1993). Tomasu Moa no daiboken: pasuto masuta (paperback), Inoue, Hiroshi,; 1954- (translator), Shohan; part of the Seishinsha bunko series (in Japanese), Tokyo: Seishinsha, 379 pages. ISBN 4878920300; OCLC: 50672738.
Lafferty, R.A. [1968] (1999). Past Master, Wildside reprint (in English), Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, USA: Wildside Press, 248 pages. ISBN 1880448998.