Project Gutenberg 2006-09-20 Public domain in the USA. 186 Piper, H. Beam 1904 1964 Piper, Henry Beam Piper, Horace Beam The Keeper Produced from Venture Science Fiction, July 1957. Wikipedia page about this book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Keeper_(short_story) Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "The Keeper" by H. Beam Piper is a science fiction novella published in the mid-20th century. Set in a distant future where humanity has ventured into space and civilizations have risen and fallen, the book revolves around themes of legacy, guardianship, and the battle against greed. The story follows Raud, an elderly man designated as the Keeper of a powerful artifact, the Crown, which holds significant historical importance. In the narrative, Raud lives a solitary existence in the Northland, protecting the Crown and his home with the help of his two dogs. When his home is invaded and the Crown is stolen by a group of thieves, including Vahr Farg's son and three Southron deserters, Raud embarks on a perilous quest to retrieve it. Amidst harsh weather conditions and the dangers of the Ice-Father, he faces internal conflicts regarding his duty as a Keeper and the realities of aging. His journey culminates in a confrontation where he fights to reclaim the Crown, ultimately recognizing both the value of the artifact and his own inadequacies as its guardian. The story explores the relationship between the past and present, emphasizing the importance of responsibility and the surprising resilience of the human spirit. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 89.2 (6th grade). Easy to read. en Science fiction PS Text Science Fiction Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Category: Novels 79087 2025-08-08T08:50:31.056609 text/html 75748 2009-01-17T11:24:44 text/html 136230 2025-08-08T08:50:34.748616 application/epub+zip 135037 2025-08-08T08:50:32.535616 application/epub+zip 84088 2025-08-08T08:50:31.559613 application/epub+zip 201212 2025-08-08T08:50:36.457622 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 194174 2025-08-08T08:50:34.201592 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 118348 2022-09-09T08:54:57.951442 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 73145 2025-08-08T08:50:30.807638 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 73032 2009-01-17T11:24:20 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 18724 2025-08-08T08:50:36.586585 application/rdf+xml 9144 2025-08-08T08:50:32.057602 image/jpeg 2598 2025-08-08T08:50:31.806648 image/jpeg 77408 2009-01-17T11:24:56 application/octet-stream application/zip 27603 2009-01-17T11:24:56 application/octet-stream application/zip 132441 2025-08-08T08:50:31.067613 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia