After releasing a murderer name Conger from prison, government agents steal the skeletal remains of the long-dead founder of a pacifist religion. Providing Conger with a time machine and the man's skull for identification, the agents order him to travel back two centuries and kill the enigmatic founder before he starts his pacifist movement. ( )

I love a good short story and this is a really fine one by a great short story writer. I just love this quote from the story "Those who take lives will lose their own. Those who kill, will die. But he who gives his own life away will live again!" ( )

The Skull is a short story with a simple premise, as told in the first few pages: send a convict back in time to assassinate the progenitor of a cult named the First Church. The story follows Conger, our convict, through time as he tracks down his target.

The plot develops quickly without sacrificing pertinent details. Time travel is known for its mind-bending qualities, and this story is no exception, which uses those qualities to good effect.

Recommended if you enjoy speculative fiction with a hint of paradoxes. ( )

Not one of Philip K. Dicks best stories but it keeps your attention and manages to seem fresh rather than old. ( )

Synopsis: Conger has been removed from jail to do a job. He is to murder someone; however, this person has been dead for hundreds of years. The man to be killed had ended war; this wasn't good for the future because it allowed an increase in population, along with an increase in social issues. He goes back in time, but can't seem to find who he's looking for; he realizes that he is The Founder.
Review: Written in September 1952 for World of Science Fiction, this interesting story that harkens back to the 'clothes make the man' stories. ( )