Project Gutenberg 2016-01-27 Public domain in the USA. 153 Smith, Evelyn E. 1922 2000 Hunter, Mel 1927 2004 Hunter Man's Best Friend Produced from Galaxy Science Fiction April 1955 Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "Man's Best Friend" by Evelyn E. Smith is a science fiction short story written during the mid-20th century. The narrative explores themes of fate, leadership, and the interplay between technology and human nature. It follows the absurd yet intriguing journey of a young man, Gervase Schnee, who is unexpectedly thrust into the role of ruler in a society governed by a machine that predicts destiny. In the story, Gervase learns that he has been chosen by the Prognosticator to assassinate the current ruler, Overlord Kipp, as part of a bizarre tradition that determines leadership. Despite his initial resistance to this violent fate, Gervase navigates the absurdities of his situation with a mix of resignation and humor. As he encounters various characters, including salesmen and former rulers hiding their identities, he ultimately discovers that the mystical machine's pronouncements are influenced by more personal and mundane forces. The story culminates in a comedic twist, revealing that Gervase's mother is the one manipulating events through the Prognosticator, underscoring the themes of familial influence and the randomness of political power. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 77.1 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. en Science fiction Short stories PS Text Science Fiction Browsing: Literature Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Browsing: Fiction Category: Short Stories Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Category: Humour 50192 2025-06-20T13:30:14.103462 text/html 26555 2024-10-22T23:47:50 text/html 209114 2025-06-20T13:30:16.186451 application/epub+zip 207957 2025-06-20T13:30:14.547478 application/epub+zip 78795 2025-06-20T13:30:14.301470 application/epub+zip 243417 2025-06-20T13:30:17.563433 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 236375 2025-06-20T13:30:15.964466 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 107475 2022-09-23T08:28:23.537243 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 43355 2023-09-22T07:50:47.760413 text/plain 23624 2024-10-22T23:47:50 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 16781 2025-06-20T13:30:17.709473 application/rdf+xml 24963 2025-06-20T13:30:14.384475 image/jpeg 4487 2025-06-20T13:30:14.342441 image/jpeg 188619 2025-06-20T13:30:14.115500 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 en.wikipedia