Customer Reviews

The Golden Enemy

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I was a kid, I read this book and although I lived through a terrible incident at the time, this book was so gripping and the message so intriguing & powerful that I was transported to another world, another land, another way of life. Wow! I re-read this book countless times, and it inspired me enough that I saved it for the child I hoped to have one day, and is my favorite Alexander Key book, although I also loved The Forgotten Door and Escape From Witch Mountain (much better than the movie, by the way). I only saved maybe 5 books, and this is my #1 favorite of all the books I read in childhood.

This book is so incredibly effective in showing how prejudices can begin & get out of hand; and yet there is only one way out of prejudice and that is through understanding what the other is going through. The drama with which Alexander Key sets the stage for this story to be told was very exciting and emotional for me to read as a child. I remember reading it with a flashlight under the covers, unable to stop reading it. How well I remember the emotion of joy with the ending, yet sadness to read the last sentence and know this wonderful tale was finished by me.

I hope that this book will keep circulating and getting the attention it deserves.

Baseline story: The Golden Enemy is a gigantic bear of a species that has been killed by humans. There is only one left, and it is being hunted relentlessly by the humans remaining. The boy in the story, a teenager, rides his hovercraft around the planet hunting this bear, intending to kill it because of what happened to his family. They communicate telepathically, with hatred and sadness being their first messages. By the end of the book, this is all transformed in a way that opens one's mind to the possibilities of living in a world without prejudice. It transformed my thinking forever, in a very positive way.

The fact that Alexander Key could take such a "heavy" topic and spin it into a superb story that keeps one on the edge of their seat is remarkable.

By the way: years later, my son read this book. He also loved it and re-read it often, and it now sits on his shelf, being saved for the child he hopes to have one day...

He creates beautiful worlds--yet, underneath the beauty, the realization that its fate rests on the human race who may abuse it.

Reading this novel as a child I couldn't put it down. The interaction between humans and the natural world had a strong influence on my future thinking about our own planet and how we treat it. The character development is excellent for this level of writing and children will be able to easily identify themselves with the main protaganists. I would strongly recommend it to others-- if they can find it.

I purchased this book on the strong recommendation of the reviews here, because Alexander Key's "The Forgotten Door" is my all-time favorite and I wanted to read more of his works. While I found this story intriguing, it prompted questions. For one thing: if man had evolved in the intervening centuries so that he is no longer a hunter or meat-eater and is peaceful, and this giant bear can read peoples' minds, why wouldn't the bear know that man has changed and not go on a rampage? And if man had evolved into a peaceful, agrarian, vegetarian state, it seems incongruous that given this threat, the old violent ways would flare up instantly and prompt the men to impulsively opt for killing the beast as the only solution.
The book has a great message, but these questions bothered me. I guess, obviously, man hadn't really evolved. Maybe only the boy had and represented a new kind of human.
What does anyone else think?
I thought it was pretty cool that the hover sleds used solar power. This book was first published in 1969.

I READ THIS BOOK AS A CHILD AND IT SWEPT ME AWAY FIREST I HATED TO READ BUT AS SOON AS I STARTED I COULD NOT PUT THE BOOK DOWN

I first read this book when I was 14 and absolutely loved it. The plot is one of the most original that I have ever read. Although the Forgotten Door by Key is a lot better known and I have also read that, I think that Golden Enemy is a lot better. Although it is targeted towards teenagers, I think that adult science fiction readers would also enjoy it.