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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Little Below Par,
By
This review is from: The Puzzle Planet / The Angry Espers (Ace Double D-485) (Mass Market Paperback)
_The Angry Espers_ by Lloyd Biggle, Jr. and _The Puzzle Planet_ by Robert A.W. Lowndes is a pair of slightly below average entries in the Ace Double Novel series. _The Angry Espers_ was Biggle's first novel, while _The Puzzle Planet_ was the fourth and last novel by Doc Lowndes. They are, as Sherlock Holmes would say, not without their points of interest. But neither novel represents the author at his best.
_The Angry Espers_ was first published as a one-shot novel in _Amazing_ in 1959 under the title of "A Taste of Fire." Paul Corban, an Ensign in the Galactic Space Navy, has been rescued from a crash by a race of humanoid aliens. It turns out that the aliens have a number of psionic abilities-- telepathy, teleportation, telekinesis-- along with a phobic hatred of any race not sharing those abilities. They launch a war of extermination against Earth. It must be said that Biggle does an effective job in capturing the social madness of the the aliens and the ruthlessness with which they wage the war. (Of course, _we_ would never engage in such practices!) The solution to the problem, however, is not quite believeable, and there is an ending that seems to me quite abrupt and unnessesary. I give it a two star rating. Lowndes states in an introduction that he wrote _The Puzzle Planet_ in response to a challenge that John W. Campbell, Jr. made when he claimed that the traditional mystery story and science fiction story could not be combined. Writers as varied as Hal Clement, Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, and Randall Garrett proved Campbell wrong. Theoretically, there is no reason why Lowndes shouldn't have a shot at the challenge as well. But is it really a successful sf mystery? The story takes place on the site of an archeological dig on an alien planet with some strange artifacts and some amiable but complex alien inhabitants. The hero is a communications expert with some experience as an amateur detective who has been summoned by the director of the expedition. A series of dirty doings at the dig takes place, culminating in murder. There is a mystery about the planet itself that is fairly interesting and complex. But in spite of a lot of intricate clues, it is really not that difficult to determine the identity of the murderer. The novel is not a complete time waster. But if you approach this one with the expectation that it will be another _Too Many Magicians_ or _The Caves of Steel_, you will be disappointed. Two stars. I feel obligated to close with a footnote on Robert A. W. Lowndes to soften up a somewhat harsh review. He was an able and greatly underrated editor in the science fiction field, usually working on magazines that had little more than shoestring budgets. And he wrote one extremely interesting novel, _Believers' World_ (1959), that was an unusual study of religion, politics, and historical philosophy. He should be remembered for these accomplishments.
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