Part of A.E. van Vogt's highly influential *Isher* series, *The Weapon Shops of Isher* is a landmark of Golden Age science fiction that explores the tension between an authoritarian empire and a mysterious network of weapon shops providing defensive technology to the citizenry. Famously championing the phrase "The right to buy weapons is the right to be free," this classic narrative of time-travel and political intrigue remains one of speculative fiction's most debated and enduring classics.