All My Sins Remembered

Joe Haldeman

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In this powerful, provocative SF classic, a young man of peace is transformed into an intergalactic killer. Once Otto McGavin was a kind and gentle soul; then he was recruited by the all-powerful Confederación. An ultrasecretive, government-linked organization, the Confederación's stated mission of protecting threatened life, both human and alien, throughout the galaxy greatly appeals to the Anglo-Buddhist McGavin as he eagerly prepares to embark on a career of diplomacy and selfless works. But Otto's new masters have other plans for the idealistic young recruit. Through a process of immersion therapy and hypnosis, and by encasing him in temporary bodies of plastiflesh, scientists can overlay Otto's true persona with other ones, transforming him completely—body, mind, and soul—into the ruthlessly effective prime operator the Confederación wants him to be. But decades of interstellar subterfuge and violence, and years spent wearing the personae of spies and cold-blooded killers, must ultimately take their toll—and before he leaves behind the lives that have been cruelly thrust upon him, Otto McGavin will have to somehow come to terms with who he really is and the monstrous things he has done.