In The Face Of My Enemy [Mass Market Paperback]

Joseph H. Delaney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1985

Book

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 349 pages
• Publisher: Baen (November 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671559931
• ISBN-13: 978-0671559939
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,998,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joseph Delaney formerly taught media and film studies at a high school in Blackpool, England. He lives with his family in Lancashire, in the middle of boggart territory.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing story about human evolution, February 18, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Wisconsin, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In The Face Of My Enemy (Mass Market Paperback)

An excellent book about the possibilities of immortality and how one man can be the key to the future of the human race. This book is a true epic in one volume, spanning a storyline of thousands of years in the life of one extraordinary man.

2.0 out of 5 stars Passably entertaining but no continuity, May 19, 2005

By 

LP "LP" (Illinois, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In The Face Of My Enemy (Mass Market Paperback)

Old Kah-Sih-Omah, in the late 20th century, digs up an alien computer that, according to the front-of-book summary, he knew was there because his old enemy Ketzal crashed into earth a really long time ago and left his computer there for the taking after fixing his space ship. This launches Kah Sih Omah into space and into the last section of the book.

The trouble is, though this whole plot is mentioned in the front-of-book summary, NOWHERE IN THE BOOK DOES IT APPEAR. Nowhere is Kah-Sih-Omah entombed in ice for a total of 16,000 years in two different stints. Nowhere does an alien crash-land in South America. Nowhere is he allies or enemies with Ketzal.

The center section of the book is a long digression into the middle ages where Kah-Sih-Omah searches for Jesus and Mohammed, believing they're his immortal alien-created brothers ... and then the plot peters out without explanation.

It's like the author started to write three different books, decided none of them were very good, and made them one book - but without fixing the continuity problems.

The discreet sections are entertaining enough, especially the last section dealing with space-colonization. But the characters other than Kah-Sih-Omah are poorly conceived and poorly drawn, and the author failed to sufficiently develop his world (particularly in the future), so the reader is often left confused or with a half-portrait of what's going on. (Not even an outline ... more like the author thought it through half-way, realized it wasn't going to all fit together, and gave up.)

Still, two stars because it's a decent beach read with some interesting exploration of traditional sci-fi themes, as long as you don't mind that it makes no particular sense.