The Zenin Menace By Donald Sullivan

[kailhofer]

Fitting with discussion lately, here is a good old romp back to the 50's-style story. <br><br>Aliens are ready to conquer the earth, and all we have to stop them is a guy who sells worms for a living. (I love the blurb)<br><br>The plot outline I tout is right on here. Al is likeable, gets caught up in the behind the scene movements of aliens, and has to figure out a way out for himself as well as the planet. Plus, his previously undiscovered insights and a little luck get him to the end of the story. <br><br>I would have liked a little more description, but that's a personal preference. As a character, I think maybe a little more depth to Al would make him more interesting. Something wrong with him to make him more three dimensional in the beginning, and draw readers in a bit. It also might have been fun to throw some kind of extra twist in the end, like having the CAPS people be aliens, too, or maybe Al himself.<br><br>I did like the security officer seeing through him and his plan, which added good tension, and then getting away with it anyway. That was a good scene.<br><br>Fun to read, although don't you wonder if aliens shouldn't have anything better to do than spy on us? :)<br><br>Nate

[Robert_Moriyama]

I'm a sucker for stories about psionic powers, and this was a pretty good one.  In terms of style, it was a throwback to the Good Old Days of Amazing and Galaxy magazines -- not a bad thing, for those of us who like our stories not too heavily seasoned with deliberately obscure symbolism and so forth.<br><br>Your Al, like Al Majius, is a man with Big Potential who only needs something to get him started.  I could see a sequel to this one, with Al helping CAPS to investigate some new alien phenomena (CAPS should always walk softly and carry a high-order telepath) ...<br><br>Another old-fashioned writer whose work this reminds me of is Keith Laumer (creator of the Bolo fighting machines, Retief, and other classic series).  Intrepid heroes fighting against impossible odds -- Dorions and Zenins and Rylls, oh my.  You're not likely to win any lit'rary awards, though -- what beastly luck.<br><br>Robert M.

[Robert_Moriyama]

Keith Laumer.  Wow!  It's been a long time since I read anything by Laumer.  I remember the Retief and Bolo stories.  Keith Laumer was another of the great SF writers who never recieved an award (that I know of), but was more deserving than many who did.

Speaking of Laumer, do you feel that he might have influenced your style?  In several of your stories, I was reminded of one of the past writers, but I couldn't put my finger on who it was.  Now that you mention Laumer, I'm thinking that might have been the writer--especially from his Retief stories.

I've already started on a sequel to Zenin, if only I can work it into a stand-alone story.  Maybe if I can work a few obscure symbolisms into the story, I might become eligible for a literary award, too.

Donald

<br>Just wait until Al develops powers even the Zenin don't have (just enough telekinesis to, say, interfere with arterial blood flow ...).<br><br>I haven't read any Laumer in ages, either.  One book I remember fondly is A Plague of Demons, which features a cyborged hero who could eat Steve Austin for breakfast -- although his strength and other attributes don't save him from having his brain harvested by aliens and used as a living brain for Bolo-like war machines.  (The moral of that story was that you should never give that much firepower to someone who, if he ever wakes up, is going to use it against you.)  I suppose if you squint and think kindly thoughts, some of my stuff might vaguely resemble Laumer -- fairly straight-forward, occasionally humorous (although the times the writing is funny and the times I want it to be funny may not always coincide).<br><br>Robert M.

[kailhofer]

Ah, Laumer. <br><br>Even though I read it as a kid, one of my favorite stories is still "The Last Command."<br><br>Aren't you a big Laumer fan, Dan?<br><br>Nate

[Robert_Moriyama]

Have you read "Hiero's Journey" by Canadian writer Sterling Lanier? It was the first--and I think best-- story I ever read about psionic powers, and I got hooked.

Donald

<br><br>My own psi addiction stems from one of the earliest non-children's books I can remember reading -- which turned out to be Eric Frank Russell's 'Sentinels from Space'. Later, I read James Blish's 'Jack of Eagles' (aka 'Esper', I think), which lent the whole area of mental powers a pseudo-scientific basis (Blish cited the same 'Blackett-Dirac' equations for gravity as he did in his 'Cities in Flight' novels (the basis for 'spindizzy' anti-gravity generators). And of course, there were X-Men comics with Prof. X and Marvel Girl, and Silverberg's 'Dying Inside', and ...<br><br>Robert M.<br><br>