Title: Anything you can do...
First published: 1963
Description: When an extraordinary alien creature becomes Earth's most feared master criminal, it becomes necessary to develop a super-human to do it battle.

That the Nipe had embarked on its incredible career of robbery and murder had been, more or less, an accident. After all, it was a civilized being of high intelligence, intent only on establishing contact with the Earth's Real People. Those pitiful creatures with only two eyes and four limbs, with their slow, slow reflexes and their savage weapons, couldn't be the ruling life-form! Why, they didn't even keep the Customs . . . and any civilized species must surely adhere to ritual.

But why, then, had the Nipe been unable to find the Real People? Obviously, they had some reason to remain hidden, and that left the Nipe but one alternative — to build a communicator with which it could reach its home.

It would take time, and a great deal of specialized equipment, to build the transmitter. And in the course of collecting the necessary materials, the Nipe occasionally had no alternative but to kill. Even though the humans weren't Real People, the Nipe at least showed them the respect of devouring their remains—after all, the Real People might be watching.

In the year 2081 A.D.-the Nipe's opinion notwithstanding—the Earth was a highly civilized planet. And, although the Nipe was a pretty big nuisance, it was clear to the administrators of Government City that its technological knowledge could contribute greatly to Earth's understanding. Therefore, it was decided that although they could blast the Nipe to smithereens with a single bomb, the best course of action would be to keep tabs on it in its lair in the old New York subway system until a man could be trained, and equipped with reflexes quick enough to prevent the Nipe from killing him before he could convince it that it was safe with the humans.

The neurophysical institute took nearly five years to perform the tedious series of operations and affect the training program to convert Bart Stanton into a super-human. But when they'd finished with him, there still remained another, even stranger part of the great plan to carry out.

In the exciting climax and weird denouement of this unusual novel are twists and turns that make ANYTHING YOU CAN Do ... a remarkable study of conflict between alien cultures—and a compelling tale about the idiosyncrasies of human nature.
Subjects: Fiction, Human-alien encounters, American Science fiction
LC classification: PZ4.L269 An