It doesn't seem long ago that I was recommending MEN, MARTIANS AND MACHINES to you, but in fact it is quite a few months. Long enough for that book to go out of print, and a pocket-book edition to appear (from Corgi, 2/6),

and for Mr. Russell's newest novel to join the ranks of the better class of s-f.

 

THREE TO CONQUER:  Eric Frank Russell (Dobson, 12/6 244 pp) is of course the three-part serial which started in ASF BRE 1956 January, under the title CALL HIM DEAD, in which Wade Harper, solitary telepath and microforger, uncovers the first traces of an alien invasion of earth. Wade "hears " a police patrolman die, finds the body—and as his telepathic powers are a secret he shares with no one, is automatically suspect. When, following very rapidly, he shoots and kills an "innocent" woman without either warning or obvious reason the hunt for Wade is up — fast and furious. He surrenders himself to the FBI, convinces the agent interviewing him that there is actually a great deal behind the two apparently motiveless killings, and by demonstration of his powers manages to get the attention of persons of authority. Wade then becomes the hunter of the aliens... or perhaps it would be apt to say the hound. For Wade's ability, once recognised, bids well to cut him off from the human race as a freak, possibly untrustworthy. Wade is then faced with two problems; how to  destroy the alien invaders, and how to preserve his own independence—possibly his own life — from his fellow Terrans' fear of the different.

 

Mr. Russell is an accomplished writer, and this combination of science-fiction with a  "spy hunt" story is a gripping yarn which is well-worth reading, and adding to your shelf for a later re-read. If my précis above may give you cause for thinking that the theme is familiar, my apologies. The basic theme may have seen use in previous yarns - invasion of earth by aliens is a stock plot - but Mr. Russell's workmanship makes this a "different" story.

 

If you have a liking for Verne and Wells, if perhaps you read with enjoyment the re-issue of Verne's JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH, if you prefer prehistoric monsters to spaceships, or if you subscribe to the doctrine of a hollow earth, then PLUTONIA is a title you mustn't miss. The influence of Verne is acknowledged, the story takes place just prior to the entry of Russia into the first World War (it was written shortly after) and that fact is used in the story to explain the loss of the proofs brought back by the party of explorers who penetrate the inner earth through the arctic ice. The author was, naturally, a Russian, a professor of geology, V. A. Obruchev, and although some of the theories propounded in the story and in the footnotes may be outworn and dated, they are put forward clearly and convincingly by M. Obruchev and his characters. Somewhat slow paced, opening with the usual "letter received," followed by the meeting, the announcement of the formation of the exploratory party, the secrecy of its real intentions, the old-styled method of scene setting of the voyage through the ice; then comes the story proper, of the small party with dog-teams who venture across the ice and find that although they are — according to the eye — going up hill, their instruments tell them they are going down! Then on into the warmer land of the interior, where they meet with a more convincing array of monstrosities than Professor Challenger and his party met in the Lost World. The translation was by Mr. B. Pearce, and whilst I'm not in a position to make comparisons with the original text, I enjoyed the translation and feel that Mr. Pearce has undoubtedly done the work justice. (PLUTONIA Obruchev; Lawrence & Wishart, 15/-, 319pp, 31 illustrations)

 

from Nebula No.23. August 1957