The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells

What do you think of when you see a copy of The Invisible Man? Normally, I think of a man's descent into darkness. Wells is able to create numerous full blown characters in this short novel. What amazed me this time around was the sympathy I felt for the Invisible Man early in the story. It seems like he is being discriminated against. Children make fun of him. Adults don't even try to think of his feelings. It turns out that they are right. He is evil but would his story have taken a different path if the villagers had shown him compassion? I don't know but it does make you think. Next time you see someone being ignored or picked on, think back to this story.

It makes me think that sometimes people are the scariest things in the world.

"Beast in the House" by Michael Shaara

Published in Orbit#4(1954)

Beast in the House was a very interesting story. The beast in the title is an ordinary looking dog that wanders into the yard. Nothing sounds scary so far. Then, the mother notices that the dog seems to be watching her. But something else does not seem right. The dog's ears do not move when sounds are made. Every dog she has ever seen has it's ears move in reaction to sounds.

In another part of the neighborhood, a man finds the dead body of a dog. The dog has been skinned. What would do something like that? And why?

After reading this story, I know I will be looking at stray dogs more carefully.

Highly recommended.

Tetrasomy Two by Oscar Rossiter

Sometimes a book just jumps out at you. That was the case with this book. I was checking out at a used book store when I saw a table of discounted books. As I scanned the table I saw the name "Tetrasomy Two". The name catches your attention. Reading the back cover made me think of a Philip K. Dick novel.

The mind that runs the universe is locked in the body of a person in an asylum. What better place to hide?

The author naturally reveals the personality of the various characters until you start thinking of them as real people. The main character is Dr. Boyd. He reminds me of Monk on the USA Network TV show. It is obvious that he has numerous problems. As the story progresses the reader starts thinking that the doctor might be going insane. Are any of the things described by the doctor happening or is he suffering a breakdown? The reader is not sure until the final two pages.

I must also admit to being surprised by the revelation near the end. I will not spoil it for you but you will know what I mean when you read it. It was one of those great moments that made sense after you read it.

If you are a fan of Philip K. Dick or Barry Malzberg, hunt down this book. You will enjoy it.

After finishing it, I went in search of more books by Oscar Rossiter. Why did I not hear of him before? Probably because this is his only novel. The author, whose real name was Vernon Skeels, quit writing after completing this novel. Between his professional career and writing Tetrasomy Two, it left no time for his family. The choice was simple for Skeels, family came first.

In the final days of his life, his children would read this novel to him as he lay in a rest home. He was proud to tell people that he wrote a novel.

Why did he use a pen name? Because of his work as a psychiatrist in Seattle. He worried that people would get upset if they thought he used their personality and cases in a novel. Like most good novelists, he used real life as inspiration but did not copy specific cases.

A month after finishing this book, I still wonder what he would have produced if he had continued writing.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Newton's Wake by Ken MacLeod

Sometimes you pick a book because it looks interesting. The cover is amazing, the storyline sounds exciting, the reviews are good, and you take the plunge and buy it. Until I read this book, MacLeod was an author I had not tried. This looked like the perfect book to start with. Maybe it was me but this book sounded better than it actually was. By the time I was a third of the way through, it lost my interest. Other books were calling and I did not care if I read the rest of this story.

One of my problems was the way the author was sidetracked down other paths. It almost seemed like he was not sure what book he wanted to write. Authors like Jack Vance and Roger Zelazny can take you on side roads and keep my interest. Here, it seemed like MacLeod would obsess with details that did not interest me.

Another problem I had was the characters. In general, the characters were not likeable. I found myself not caring who was right and who was wrong. Usually I find some character to cheer for. That was not the case in Newton’s Wake.

I put MacLeod on my list of authors to try again in the future. For now I have too many other authors I want to try. Add the authors I already enjoy and it will be a while until I return to MacLeod’s books.

Walpurgis III by Mike Resnick

When mankind spreads to the stars, various groups filed claims to settle the new worlds. Walpurgis III was one of those worlds. In this case, Satanic covens and practitioners of witchcraft were the groups that claimed this planet.

The book focuses on three characters.

Conrad Bland lives to kill. He has led massacres on many planets. Now he has been granted sanctuary on Walpurgis III. Many people on this planet think he is their Dark Messiah. Bland is planning on killing the inhabitants of this world. When he is done, he will move on to another planet.

Jericho is the best hired killer in the underworld.The Republic (the ruling government of the human worlds) has failed to kill Bland so they turn to Jericho. He is hired to journey to Walpurgis III and kill Bland.

John Sable is the chief detective of one of the largest cities on Walpurgis III. He is an honorable family man who believes in the law. Sable believes that the Republic has sent a killer to his city on a mission to take out Bland. Even though he does not agree with Bland's philosophy and prior actions, he has sworn an oath to uphold the law. He tries to warn his planet's government but they are not concerned. It becomes evident that they are collaborating with the Republic. Sable tries to warn Bland but he also is not concerned.

Jericho moves like an irresistable force towards Bland. He kills effortlessly. Sometimes he does it only to throw the police off his track. By changing identities, he is able evade the police and Bland's troops.

Bland kills everyone in various cities where he thinks Jericho is located. Sable is captured and held prisoner by Bland. The two are waiting together for Jericho to arrive for a final showdown. As Sable sees first hand what Bland has done, he starts to regret trying to stop Jericho.

The book showcases the old question, what would a moral man do when a person wants to kill the embodiment of evil? Sable faces this choice when he has a chance to stop one evil person from committing a crime. In the end, he allows one crime to happen but follows the law afterwards. His choice probably saved millions of lives. It still does not make it any better in his eyes. Sable was a very realistic character. Like many people in real life, he wants to live in a world of absolutes. Sable has to choose between evils and live with the consequences.

Two things stand out at the end of this novel. One was how constant exposure to the atrocities committed by Bland had a numbing effect on Sable. After a while, some of Bland's acts did not create the revolting feelings they initially did. And this permanently scarred Sable. Another was how when Sable returned to his normal life, he could not stop smelling the decaying corpses that he was exposed to in Bland's city. I imagine he remembered that smell for the rest of his life.

Resnick's story is fast paced. His writing style is what I would call transparent. If you are looking for a literary craftsman like Gene Wolfe, this is not the book for you. The reader will not have to ponder and try to decipher the meaning of his sentences. This keeps the story moving and focused. Sable's story will stay with you long after you finish the book.

The author does a great job of incorporating the details that develope this fictional world. Walpurgis III becomes a believable world in Resnick's hands.

It is highly recommended to fans of pulp style stories with a modern sensibility.

Patrimony by Alan Dean Foster

I remember reading Foster's The Tar-Aiym Krang when it was first published. At the time, I thought it was great. It led me to read various other adventures of Pip and Flinx.

Flinx was an orphan gifted with the ability to read other people's emotions. Pip is a flying snake known as a minidrag. The 2 have had many adventures during the last 30 years.

In this book Foster is letting Flinx discover the truth about his father. I picked this one up for that revelation. Unfortunately, either Foster is not as good a writer as he used to be or my tastes have changed since my early teens. Patrimony was a disappointment. It seemed to take forever to get to the end of this 255 page story. It would have been a better story if he had focused on the main story. Instead, we were given many pages of details that were not necessary. The revelation at the end was well done once you get to it.

I do not plan on any more Foster books in the near future. Sometime I might go back and reread Midworld and some of his earlier books. But for now I have enough other authors to read. Alan Dean Foster will remain a favorite from my early years of reading sf but not part of my current must read list.

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Jesus on Mars by Philip Jose Farmer

Synopsis(from the back cover): As billions of people around the globe sit glued to their television sets in the year 2015, Richard Orme, captain of the first expedition to land on Mars, takes another giant step for mankind. His first words, as he steps out of the landing craft onto the red planet, are transmitted to Earth minutes later: "Christopher Columbus, you should be here." Perhaps he was. Someone has been here. A spaceship sits half-buried under the red dust and heavy boulders. Nearby, there's a tunnel door. Richard Orme and his crew, dragged into the tunnel by Martians, enter a strange subterranean world where Martians live in caverns in a hollowed out Mars, a world where Martians pay homage to a sunlike globe-floating high above their cities of the interior. Orme thought they were sun worshippers. But there is a man who dwells within the flaming orb. And these people call him "Jesus". And the man they called "Jesus" would go back to Earth. He would be labeled "the Anti-Christ." And Richard Orme asked himself. Would history repeat itself...once more?

With the death of Philip Jose Farmer on February 25th, 2009 I thought it would be appropriate to review some Farmer books this year. I made a trip to the bookstore and found a copy of Jesus on Mars. I have read some Farmer stories but do not remember seeing this book. Just from reading the synopsis it looks like this one could have caused quite a stir when it appeared.

When Orme and his crew are captured, they find a thriving civilization under the surface of Mars. The society is a mix of Krsh and Jews taken from Earth. Together they have formed a society based on Mosaic laws. The crew has mixed reactions to the revelation that Jesus lives in a glowing orb on Mars. He makes regular appearances to perform miracles, etc. This is hard for the crew to accept. They can see that this society seems to have a lower crime rate and is peaceful. It is completely different from the society they know on Earth. Earth still has problems with war and crime. Unity among the people of Earth is a dream.

Through the course of the story we read how Orme deals with the revelations about Jesus. Jesus meets with him and offers an alternate explanation to what Orme has been led to believe. Jesus returns to Earth with a Martian army to bring his gifts to our world.

This was a very interesting look at how one event can change a society. I liked the fact that Farmer does not preach. He presents various options and lets the characters(and the readers) decide for themselves. Too many times in a story like this, the author tells you what to believe. I prefer Farmer's method.

Jesus on Mars is similar to his Dayworld series in that it showcases the changes a society goes through when a major change is introduced. I have read too many stories where society was basically unchanged by a major event. One of the reasons I liked The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson was because of the way he showed the effects on the world of introducing the chronoliths.

Highly recommended.

Rating: 4 out of 5.