review of
John Brunner's Father of Lies & Bruce Duncan's Mirror Image
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - October 14, 2013

This is the 17th bk I've read by Brunner unless you count Ace Doubles as 2 bks in wch case it's the 19th. The cover proclaims: "Two complete science fiction novels" but, no, they're both novellas. Nonetheless, they both have reasonably well developed plots so I'll let the novel/la distinction slide.

I've long since concluded that Brunner, even at his most genre generic crankin'-em-out, is a great SF writer who never lets me down. "Father of Lies" usually refers to the 'devil' & I wonder if that title was imposed on Brunner by the publisher.

The story's interesting enuf: a group of independent paranormal investigators discover that there's a mysterious area that seems to exist in a different sort of time zone from its surrounding areas: "And to cap everything else, there are errors on the Ordnance Survey map of the area. A roughly circular area of about a hundred and twenty square miles is not as it's shown on the map." (p 43) The group manages to penetrate the area & find myths like dragons & ogres alive & well.

I really have nothing to say about this that wdn't just give away too much. There's not much to this but it's Brunner so I was entertained. The 2nd novella, by an author I'm not familiar w/, was even more generic. Bruce Duncan's Mirror Image starts off w/: "The Mermaid Club was a honky-tonk joint with a loud rock and roll group called the Apes trying to cover their lack of talent by making a great deal of noise." (p 87) Ha! I wonder if that's how the author feels about all rock & roll or if he's just trying to set the mood in a particular way. Either way, I can relate: volume often covers up lack of playing ability.

Aliens from outer space invade earth w/ the intention of sucking it dry of resources. They duplicate humans in order to infiltrate.

""Who are you?"

""Zoltons," Garth said.

""You're joking!"

""We come from a planet not yet known to your scientists."

""For what reason?"

""To extend our rule into your solar system.["]" - p 101

It's not all as 'bad' as the above quote, I admit that I picked that as the most generic example. If this was an early work by Duncan I can imagine that he might've gone on to better things. Dunno, As it was, it was well enuf plotted n'at. In the end I didn't care much, none of the ideas were surprising enuf to do much for me.

If you're just starting to read SF & you're looking for great literature or startling ideas don't start w/ this one. If you're just looking for something to distract you from the utter boredom & despair of yr life this might suffice for a day. ( )