Since he was no one, he could become anyone.

The nameless man helped build the International Data Bank, a global surveillance network designed to record every movement, transaction, and decision made by every human being. Recognizing that the government database would destroy digital privacy, he erased his records, changed his face, and created a secret back door into the system. Now officially nonexistent, he survives as a freelance investigator and covert operative, accepting dangerous assignments that require someone who can infiltrate any organization—then vanish without a trace.

His latest manufactured identity is John Donne. His assignment: investigate the Hangman, an adaptive robot trained with neural patterns from four brilliant scientists and sent to explore the outer solar system. After disappearing during its deep-space mission, the advanced machine has suddenly returned to Earth—and one of its creators is dead.

As the surviving developers fear they are being hunted one by one, Donne must determine whether the sentient robot has come home seeking revenge. To prevent another murder, the identity-shifting investigator must discover not only how the rogue artificial intelligence thinks, but why it may have learned to kill.

Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella, Roger Zelazny’s Home Is the Hangman is a prescient techno-thriller blending futuristic detective fiction, psychological suspense, and philosophical science fiction. Through its exploration of machine consciousness, neural imprinting, free will, and moral responsibility, the story asks whether humanity can be held accountable for the minds it creates—and whether a sentient machine should answer for the instincts its developers gave it. This gripping tale concludes the three interconnected adventures featured in Zelazny’s My Name Is Legion.

Perfect for fans of Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester, Ursula K. Le Guin, John Brunner, William Gibson, and Harlan Ellison, as well as readers of proto-cyberpunk, surveillance dystopias, secret-agent adventures, near-future conspiracies, corporate espionage, covert operations, nuclear fission, atomic-age techno-thrillers, off-the-grid antiheroes, sci-fi murder mysteries, and cerebral speculative fiction about government surveillance, geopolitical power, corporate ambition, and the ethics of scientific progress.

"A storyteller without peer. He created worlds as colorful and exotic and memorable as any our genre has ever seen."  –George R. R. Martin

". . . his performance was never anything other than dazzling."  –Robert Silverberg

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