The Daleth Effect [Paperback]

Harry Harrison (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Berkley Pub Group (December 1977)
• ISBN-10: 0425036499
• ISBN-13: 978-0425036495
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,225,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Middle East politics in 1970's American science fiction, June 11, 2009

By 

A. Daniele (Tucson, Arizona United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Daleth Effect (Paperback)

Many Sci-Fi(Speculative-Fic?)in the 50's through the 80's in the US were of a distincly well informed political sensibility. Numerous of these individuals were Europeans and 1st or 2nd generation immigrants from Europe, many of whose families had fled Hitler and the Germans; many that fled the communist Russians and Stalin.
The era in which they began their educations and writing careers in America was one of explosive growth in both Secondary and post secondary education. Here in the US there was a decided tilt then, toward obtaining a liberal eduction. (Liberal education meaning "well rounded",not politically liberal , at all!)A college student was expected to know as much art, history, psychology and sociology as well as math, biology or physics and engineering.
The result was that many of the best American writers in the English language, in the tradition of Joseph Conrad(a polish immigrant),were among the finest, as well as the most well informed, politically astute writers and also were immigrants.
This was long before the writing of science fiction was at all considered a legitimate form of literature. Rather, It was often ridiculed and treated as a resident of the literary ghetto where labored the writers of comic books or pornography. As a result the publishers who would deal with them at all, in the 50's and early 60's, ruthlessly took advantage of them. In the most barbarous manner, which few of today's writers remember, numerous serious Sci-Fi works were edited and cut up. A virtual gang -rape of a literary class too small, too disorganized and too despised by "mainstream writers" to effectively defend itself and it's practitioners.
Phillip Dick, in many cases, sold novels, written in days to meet arbitrary deadlines and had to sell them for a few hundred dollars,just to eat. Like others, never retaining subsidiary rights to their own material.
Nevertheless, these writers were very well informed intellectually and politically as well as being extremely talented.
This Poul Anderson novel, published in the 70's: "The Daleth Effect"(Daleth is the Hebrew letter equivalent of the English "d".) is an example of much of the era's better writing by Sci-Fi authors.
The story begins with an explosion at an advanced physics research lab in Israel. The individual whose work was responsible for the explosion, aware of the what the accidental explosion proved, walks through the giant hole in the lab walls caused by the explosion, coughing and brushing off the debris, but clutching all his papers and relevant data to prtevent them from getting into anyone elses hands.
Returning home, he takes his passport and almost in a sort of creative daze, takes a flight to Denmark where heasks for political asylum as a citizen or former citizen of Denmark.
It turns out that he has have made a revolutionary discovery that could change the balance of power and terror in the world. He does not trust the Israelis or Americans or anyone but the Danes to protect both him, and his research, from becoming the next weapon of mass destruction in the world. His "Daleth effect" weapon is infinitely more powerful than either Thermo-nuclear bombs or any known form of bio weapon.
The rest of this exciting and very well written book, revolves around both the policy of modern Denmark in the 70's as well as of Denmark's refusal to give up it's Jewish population to the Germans in World War II. This is a little known fact among Americans, and Westerners. I knew I was unaware of it back in the 1970's when this was serialized some time before, in a Science Fiction magazine, but long before it was published as a book.
This refusal to give up their Jewish citizens is what saved the Jewish child to later become the man who discovered the "Daleth Effect" , in post-war Israel. He fears that his discovery may now threaten the world if they get their hands on his research of the "Daleth effect", as the politics of Israe have become so conservative and expansionist.
The book covers both political and personal events which occur around this scientist in the succeeding months. The political machinations and plots carried out by the Soviets and the Americans to steal or blackmail others to steal, the secret.
The conclusion is a surprisingly sophisticated one. Nevertheless it should be remembered that Science Fiction writers could say things which mainstream writers did not dare to utter, even when they were drunk.
This is a wonderful, quick read and is highly informative concerning the post WWII history of European Jews, American-Soviet relations and Israeli activities against the Arab world as well as perhaps the only exposure most readers will ever get concerning the true story of incredibly brave and daring response of the ALL the non Jewish Danes to the attempt by the Germans to separate the Jews from the Danish population in the process of carrying out the Final Solution.
This is a very good book and is superior to most of Harry Harrison's far-right, America-uber-alles space operas. "The Daleth Effect" is a well thought out story about the politics, espionage and the waste of co-opting science for the sole purpose of secret military development. It shows the foolishness of expecting that there are scientific secrets, which once discovered, can ever be kept secret again.
I recommend this book highly. It has some little violence, a pinch of sex, lots of betrayal and political machinations galore as well as potential threats to human existence and security. IT hangs together and is a surprisingly well rounded, sophisticated book that can be read for it's space exploration by 11 year old boys as well as anyone interested in scientific espionage during the Cold War.