The story of Donal Graeme of the Dorsal has become a classic of science-fiction interstellar conflict. Gordon R. Dickson's first great novel, it is a powerful vision of a family bred to military triumphs, and of the vast star-strewn galactic civilization which required the services of such a genetically bred family of generals. Donal, Dorsai of the Dorsai, was the final outcome of that long inheritance—a master of space war and strategy—and yet Donal was something new also. For he was the focus of a strange force beyond himself, possibly beyond the very galaxy he served—and that force would place him at the very focal point of a crisis where he would "have to tackle the impossible and conquer the invincible!"