Necromancer – Gordon R. Dickson

Ace, printed 1981, copyright 1962, 189 pages

ISBN: 0-441-56851-3

Read January 2013, at age 34

First time read.

What it is:

One of the books of the Childe Cycle – I read it second, but it seems like there’s debate as to the proper reading order.  Far-future idea SF.

From the back cover:

The end of reason?

In the future, life on Earth is good.  Disease is checked, hunger ended, war and suffering abolished.  Justice is available to all, and no man bends the will of another.

Walter Blunt would end this.  His Chantry Guild carries its motto, “DESTRUCT!” and it’s power over the mystical Alternate Laws into the very heart of human society, with devastating effect.  The unwilling instrument of the Guild’s evil is Paul Formain, a cripple whose psychic skill with the Alternate Laws has marked him as Blunt’s heir.  But Formain, now frightened himself, has begun to suspect that his desire for this power stems from a soul no longer wholly his own…

Brief reactions after the break:

I’m having trouble finding an authoritative reading order for this series, so for lack of a better plan, I’m trying for publication order.  I found that Dorsai! wasn’t fantastic, but the books are pretty short, so I decided to try a second one in the series.

It was better than the first, but I didn't find it good.  The main character still had an invincibility complex, and rarely (if ever) made a mistake.  This is partially mitigated by the character not knowing himself and having to figure himself out.  It actually helped quite a lot, insofar as making the character more sympathetic.  The characters, overall, were reasonable, felt kind of like people, and were generally forgettable. 

The plot was pleasingly convoluted, and the writing was good, but I get the feeling that I’m missing the point of the series.  In general, I’m not a particular fan of “superman” stories, and I’m not sure that I’m a fan of grand idea stories, and that seems to be where this series is going.  That means there's a fair bit of hill to climb as far as this series impressing me.  There was enough promise in this book that I’ll keep going, I guess.  

Rating: 2