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Invaders from Rigel

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The year is 1962 and Murray Lee is lucky enough to live in a penthouse apartment in a forty-eight story building in the "pleasure city" of New York. One morning Murray awakes to find that his body has turned mysteriously to metal. He looks like a robot, but still has his human mental functions in tact. Murray is stunned, but the truth does not really sink in. Next he notices that the normal city noises of hustle and bustle are not reaching his ears. Instead there is a dead quiet. Bursting from his apartment door Murray encounters Ben Ruby, who occupies the other apartment on the top floor. Ruby, like Murray, is now a metal man. Ruby, a science boffin, has already worked out that they should drink oil and not water, and that by hooking himself up to a battery he can enjoy the equivalent of a meal. According to Ruby the change must have occurred because of some strange radiation emanating from the enormous comet, which newspaper reports said was on a collision course with Earth. Fortified by each other's company the two decide to explore the building, and then the outside world. They find that everybody they encounter has become solid, unmoving metal, not robot-men. Ruby theorizes that these solid, metal statues, being shielded by the buildings, must have received less radiation and thus not completely changed. But are the two neighbors the only people alive in New York? What further strange circumstances will they come across? Bracing themselves with a `what-ho' attitude the two `men' set out to explore their fortunes.

Right from the start of this novel Fletcher Pratt writes with a cheery, devil-may-care attitude that reveals that he has his tongue firmly wedged in his cheek. The book is filled with absurd circumstance, snappy dialogue and incredulous plot twists. The `science' in the story is so weird that it can't tolerate a moment's serious analysis. Pratt has written a good-natured parody of the type of stories written in the `Golden Age" of science fiction (1930's to 1950's). The ray guns, strange, malevolent aliens and super-fast flying-craft are all there, but with a mock serious aura. The story is closer to true fantasy, and interestingly Pratt had previously published seven fantasy novels, most of them with a humorous bent.

This is a story of action, rather than psychological inquiry, and as a result the characterization is quite rudimentary. Most of his American metal-race come from the same stamp of `jovial-heroic'. The few villains are equally stamped `unfeeling bad-guys'. Interestingly though, this pre-feminism story casts women in a particularly capable role. Metal-woman Gloria Rutherford is a crack shot with weapons and takes equal part in all the fighting action. Robo-woman Mata Lami proves to be particularly quick thinking and of considerable heroism. There is not a teary-eyes, fainting or hysterical woman in sight.

The plot moves along very effectively as Pratt comes up with new developments and further action. The first half of the book is a tale of survival, and the second half is one of escalating war. Ben Ruby is the central hero of the first half of the story, but rather unusually Pratt introduces a new central hero, Herbert Sherman, midway through the book. From that point on Ruby is still there, but playing second fiddle.

If you are interested in light-hearted adventure this book will definitely entertain, especially if you can take the gentle ribbing of this much loved genre. If you want the social analysis of an Isaac Asimov, or the scientific realism of an Arthur C. Clarke, you will definitely not find it here. This is certainly a competent, if not amazing novel.

The story here is not one of effective, scientifically accurate science fiction. It opens with a comet having a close encounter with Earth, with the primary point of impact the Eastern United States. Nearly all of the people in the United States are killed, the few that survive are turned into metal. These people band together and do battle with unusual birdlike creatures, which are part of an invasion force from the Rigel star system. After some time, the American survivors make contact with Australians and they learn that most of the people on the other side of the Earth were not turned into metal, although their skin pigmentation has turned blue.
The two groups join forces and take the battle to the Rigellians, which are based in New York State. After some initial successes, the "humans" suffer some defeats, although they learn that the true Rigellians are shaped like elephants. Using a great deal of questionable science, the "humans" are able to defeat the Rigellians and the metal humans are returned to their fleshly state.
This book is fairly typical of the state of much of science fiction in the fifties and early sixties, where the authors generally wave their hands at scientific accuracy in order to complete the story. This is a pulp story, through and through. Fortunately, the cover image does not have a buxom female n distress with the hint of exposed breast tissue.