A Plague of Demons

The first half of this novel is one of the greatest SF comicbook hero styled action stories for guys ever written in the history of the universe! An incredibly exciting, often funny, first person hard boiled detective narrative about a covert government agent physically augmented to deal with an invasion of hideous dog aliens, who, unbeknownst to the human population at large, have been harvesting human brains from concocted casualties in areas of human war activity, perhaps for centuries, for their own sinister purposes.
The second half of the novel disappointingly shifts into a talking tank story that bored the snot out of me after the exhilaration of the first part (none of Laumer's Bolo Tank novels for me, I guess ) until the show more admittedly wild VanVogt styled conclusion.The novel has a very similar structure to Dinosaur Beach, and in that regard is less successful, but the first half is just so awesome, anyone looking for cyborg vs. alien combat with great action scenes should pick this book up tomorrow. show less

Substance: Non-stop violent action as the hero runs from aliens harvesting human brains for nefarious ends. Typical 1960s sf jingo militarism and homo sapiens exceptionalism (not that I'm complaining). Complicated super-conspiracies and dering-do; mix of genius and face-palming stupidity. Brain in the machine technology is interesting; compare to McCaffry's "Ship Who Sang" series.
Philosophical theme is that Good and Evil continually oppose each other, and Man is a mixture of the two.

Style: Fast-moving action and sympathetic characters. Some stereotyping.

NOTES:
As I have noted in other sf books, the authors are prone to amusing anomalies, which I will call
"Chronaticisms" or future-anachromisms, in which common technology, attitudes, or show more language are carried-over into the future in jarring juxtopositions.
Here, there are supertech gadgets and transportation by rocket, but gas stations still have attendants that fill your tank. My favorite is Heinlein's space pilots with on-board computers who still astrogate with slide-rules.
Examples could be multiplied, nor are current writers exempt (see K. S. Robinson's out-dated Global Warming politics).

See Scott Card's essay on his website links about the split between Left and Right in SF writing. show less

Good action adventure novel by the one of the better writers in the "golden age" of science fiction. Laumer gave us two distinct styles of SF writing. One was the fun "smart alec" style seen in the "Retief and Oleary" books. The other was the more serious action adventure tales. This one is a good ride with lots of danger and a very strange ending which led to his BOLO stories. I liked it.

An early work, surprised it made the HN list. certainly wasn't bad, nice to see the demons, I feel they have a legendary place in SF, probably because of Barlow's. Weird second plot at the end though.

Secret agent John Bravais uncovers alien beings invisibly harvesting soldiers' brains from battlefields to fight an interstellar war, leading to his own surgical enhancement and a fight for humanity's future against these canine-like entities.

6/10. Strange book about a man who is faced with dealing with aliens who are harvesting humans. A fairly standard read.

Read Online: http://webscriptions.net/10.1125/Baen/0743435885/0743435885.htm