Leonard Daventry (1915–1987)

I latched onto Daventry years ago when trying to put together a list of forgotten British sf authors, and found a copy of his best-known novel, A Man of Double Deed, the first book of the Keyman trilogy, the second and third books of which don’t appear to have been published in paperback in the UK, only in the US, and the hardback editions were published by Robert Hale, copies of whose books are as rare as rocking-horse shit these days (apparently because most of their sales were to show more libraries). My copy of You Must Remember Us…, Daventry’s last novel, was published by Robert Hale, and I was extremely lucky to find a near-mint condition copy on eBay for around £20 a year or two ago. It was one of the books I brought with me to Sweden. And… it’s not very good. The earth has managed to destroy itself, and a last starship has escaped from the UK. The carefully-selected crew, however, didn’t make it to the launch site in Wales in time, so those aboard are whoever was available at the time. And they’re sort of muddling along, managing to keep everything running, for the ten-year journey to Alpha Centauri (the means propulsion is left vague). En route, they come across a deserted alien spacecraft, and four of them explore it but find nothing except a line of enigmatic symbols. The ship then vanishes. Some time later, members of the crew begin to develop extremely fast-growing, and fatal, tumours. There is only one cure: they have to transplant their brains into robot bodies. This doesn’t go down too well, and only fifteen of the crew make the change. They then sleep for twenty years. And when they wake up, they’re orbiting an Earth-like planet inhabited by a Neolithic humanoid people… who see the robot crew as gods. It’s all very British, and surprisingly old-fashioned for 1980. A Man of Double Deed had a flavour all its own, but You Must Remember Us… feels very ordinary. Brains transplanted into robot bodies is a relatively common sf trope, and has been around for a long time – ‘Helen ‘O’Loy’ from 1938, for example – and even made appearance in the execrable Legends of Dune series by Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson. These days, of course, it’s not an actual transplant that’s used, more a downloading of the consciousness – the mind as software – such as in Jennifer Pelland’s very good Machine. Daventry’s novel doesn’t add anything to the trope, and I’m not really surprised it never made it into paperback and has been pretty much forgotten. I’d still like to read the rest of the Keyman trilogy, however. show less

There's so much wrong with this book, but it wins points by keeping its head down and plugging along. It's primarily about the emergence of a telepathic society at the stage where they're numerous and powerful enough to be oppressed but probably past the point of no-return evolutionarily. Life is not fun as a telepath. It's like being at a loud party where there's no inhibition on what is said and what is said is often sociopathic.

That set up is the strength of the book. The downsides are a show more 1960's James Bond plot with a 1930's future where Venusians and Martians mingle freely with Earthlings, and there are news reports of alien attacks on our spaceships. There is never any detail about any of this. It's just scenery.

This is an easy book to throw against the wall by page 50. I wouldn't say it's essential to continue to the end, but it does grow on you.

Recommended, sort of. show less

First book by this author. I had never heard of him but I'm impressed. This book may not have done well in the 1960s but it aged well. The author does a good job with world building and designing future societies. The story kept me interested.