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Man from Tomorrow
This is the 1980 British paperback publication of Tucker's 1954 novel of telepathy and ESP. Paul Breen discovers that he has telepathic powers. As a loyal American he lends his powers to the U.S. government but soon finds out that the government is not to be trusted. Also published as "Man from Tomorrow."
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1954
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87 people want to read
About the author
Wilson Tucker
66 books33 followersArthur Wilson "Bob" Tucker was an American mystery, action adventure, and science fiction writer, who wrote as Wilson Tucker.
He was also a prominent member of science fiction fandom, who wrote extensively for fanzines under the name Bob Tucker, a family nickname bestowed in childhood.
He was also a prominent member of science fiction fandom, who wrote extensively for fanzines under the name Bob Tucker, a family nickname bestowed in childhood.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 10, 2023
Wild Talent (1954) aka Man From Tomorrow
1982 Grade B+
2009 Grade A
2023 Grade A+
Wow, Tucker is a very good story teller and telling a story is basically what all novels are about. This story just grows and grows and grows. I don't think I speed read anything. At this time it would be classified as a SciFi period spy novel. The real history of those years appears to be correct. The one thing that makes it SciFi is the protagonist.
As a kid in the 1930s, he discovers he has telepathy. In the 1940s a few government agents discover the ability when he is drafted during WW2. From then on, he is used to spy on people so much, his life is not his own or very pleasant. But that does force him to grow and increase his powers. He escapes to freedom in the 1950s.
It is incredibly solid social SciFi that I had a hard time putting down. I never had any problem knowing the characters or the locations. One note, the story is not fully told in chronological order. I started on chapter 2 and read through chapter 15 (my note in the book recommended that). Then I read chapter 1 and the final chapter, 16. You might be able to skip chapter 1 altogether. Those two chapters are basically the end of the story. Chapter 1's prose is a bit off read that way, but I liked it.
RECOMMENDED whatever way you read it.
1982 Grade B+
2009 Grade A
2023 Grade A+
Wow, Tucker is a very good story teller and telling a story is basically what all novels are about. This story just grows and grows and grows. I don't think I speed read anything. At this time it would be classified as a SciFi period spy novel. The real history of those years appears to be correct. The one thing that makes it SciFi is the protagonist.
As a kid in the 1930s, he discovers he has telepathy. In the 1940s a few government agents discover the ability when he is drafted during WW2. From then on, he is used to spy on people so much, his life is not his own or very pleasant. But that does force him to grow and increase his powers. He escapes to freedom in the 1950s.
It is incredibly solid social SciFi that I had a hard time putting down. I never had any problem knowing the characters or the locations. One note, the story is not fully told in chronological order. I started on chapter 2 and read through chapter 15 (my note in the book recommended that). Then I read chapter 1 and the final chapter, 16. You might be able to skip chapter 1 altogether. Those two chapters are basically the end of the story. Chapter 1's prose is a bit off read that way, but I liked it.
RECOMMENDED whatever way you read it.
January 29, 2015
I love old, page-turner sci-fi, and this didn't disappoint. It's about the role of telepaths in post WWII America, but its reflections on government spying feel relevant today, too.
January 4, 2014
‘What IS Paul Breen?
An ordinary, patriotic American with unusual powers? Or the first, chilling incarnation of a threat that has haunted the mind of Man ever since he first gazed into the heavens – the threat of invasion from another planet?
Certainly, Breen’s mind had extraordinary – some would say terrifying – potential. No wonder the scientists and politicians who examined him were so quick to see devastating political uses for his telepathic powers.
But Breen’s ‘wild talent’ was a double-edged sword: true, he could pierce the hearts of America’s enemies. Bust just as clearly, he could read the guilty secrets of the nation he was born to serve…’
Blurb from the 1980 Coronet paperback edition
Tucker take an interesting look at telepathy in ‘Wild Talent’, a novel which begins in the depression of the 1930s, rushes us through World War II and lands us in the Nineteen Fifties. It is the story of Paul Breen, a young man with gifts which he neither understands nor welcomes.
While visiting the Chicago World Fair in the 30s, he witnesses the murder of a policeman and, reaching the man just as he is dying, manages to extract from his mind not only the policeman’s name and his call-sign, but the names of his murderers.
Not knowing what to do he writes an anonymous letter to the President about the murder.
Much later, Breen is identified through his fingerprints found on the envelope and is recruited into a government project where he becomes a virtual slave to the system, using his powers to receive information from US agents abroad (though in the main in the USSR) and to follow the thoughts of his colleagues nearer at hand.
The head of the project, Slater, finds Breen to be a useful tool, but is worried that the telepath will uncover his own terrible secret.
It’s an interesting novel to emerge from the Nineteen Fifties, being as much an examination of xenophobia as an attack on the Establishment. If we compare this with ‘The Puppet Masters’ we see Heinlein’s government agency as being immune to corruption, unless of course their minds are controlled by the fiendish alien slugs.
Tucker has no such illusions. At least three government employees are selling secrets to the highest bidder, and a sergeant is exposed by Breen as having fraudulently diverted shipments of coal for sale to his own personal benefit.
The ending, in which Breen is discovered by a secret group of telepaths, clear in their belief that they are the next stage of human evolution, is upbeat and optimistic. However, the implicit secrecy of their existence and their fear of being discovered says much about the paranoia of the time.
An ordinary, patriotic American with unusual powers? Or the first, chilling incarnation of a threat that has haunted the mind of Man ever since he first gazed into the heavens – the threat of invasion from another planet?
Certainly, Breen’s mind had extraordinary – some would say terrifying – potential. No wonder the scientists and politicians who examined him were so quick to see devastating political uses for his telepathic powers.
But Breen’s ‘wild talent’ was a double-edged sword: true, he could pierce the hearts of America’s enemies. Bust just as clearly, he could read the guilty secrets of the nation he was born to serve…’
Blurb from the 1980 Coronet paperback edition
Tucker take an interesting look at telepathy in ‘Wild Talent’, a novel which begins in the depression of the 1930s, rushes us through World War II and lands us in the Nineteen Fifties. It is the story of Paul Breen, a young man with gifts which he neither understands nor welcomes.
While visiting the Chicago World Fair in the 30s, he witnesses the murder of a policeman and, reaching the man just as he is dying, manages to extract from his mind not only the policeman’s name and his call-sign, but the names of his murderers.
Not knowing what to do he writes an anonymous letter to the President about the murder.
Much later, Breen is identified through his fingerprints found on the envelope and is recruited into a government project where he becomes a virtual slave to the system, using his powers to receive information from US agents abroad (though in the main in the USSR) and to follow the thoughts of his colleagues nearer at hand.
The head of the project, Slater, finds Breen to be a useful tool, but is worried that the telepath will uncover his own terrible secret.
It’s an interesting novel to emerge from the Nineteen Fifties, being as much an examination of xenophobia as an attack on the Establishment. If we compare this with ‘The Puppet Masters’ we see Heinlein’s government agency as being immune to corruption, unless of course their minds are controlled by the fiendish alien slugs.
Tucker has no such illusions. At least three government employees are selling secrets to the highest bidder, and a sergeant is exposed by Breen as having fraudulently diverted shipments of coal for sale to his own personal benefit.
The ending, in which Breen is discovered by a secret group of telepaths, clear in their belief that they are the next stage of human evolution, is upbeat and optimistic. However, the implicit secrecy of their existence and their fear of being discovered says much about the paranoia of the time.
July 23, 2018
1950s exploration of what happens to an individual possessing a special talent and becoming ensnared in government spying and double dealing. Tucker focuses on the individual and the trials the character endures as he idealistically cooperates with his "handlers", but quickly becomes aware that he is being totally manipulated and in the end has to fight for his survival against an archenemy who has had virtual total control over his life from the very beginning. I liked this story because Tucker really has no ideological axe to grind here. A CIA-like organization seeks to spy on everyone to US advantage and the suspense involves possible penetration of the organization and the perversion of the protagonist's telepathy by Russian agents, but Tucker makes it quite clear that every country at the time was seeking whatever power advantages they could obtain with the cost to well-meaning individuals being totally irrelevant. Tucker, by inference, makes the point that whatever positive and potential benefits to mankind that an individual's "talent" may possess, there is the risk that such talents may be perverted for use by the power-crazed. In the end, ideology is spoken or written babble; what can bury us are our human brethren. Thematically similar to Who? by Algis Budrys and an interesting companion piece. Both books are devoid of jingoism and its counterpart, spitting on the land that bred you, and focus on the individual spirit, recommending no 'ism' for the salvation of the human species. Strong on story and plotting with dialogue that usually does not rise above the ordinary.
September 19, 2022
Imagine you met someone who could read your mind, who knew everything you planned to do before you did it. Imagine he could move things and influence your thoughts. How would you feel about this man? This book takes on the challenges the reader to explore how he or she might react to such a man and how that man might feel about the way normal people react to him.
I loved everything about this book. I enjoyed the way Tucker set a scene, I liked the way that Breen's character developed, I liked the friendship between Breen and Conklin, and the friction between Breen and Slater. My only criticisms are that I wish we would have gotten to see more of Breen's childhood with his aunt, I wish we could have seen the accident that led to Breen being orphaned, I wish there had been more of a relationship between Breen and Roy, I wish a certain Conklin scene would have been more powerful, I wish there had been more of a relationship between Breen and Slater, and I wish that Karen and Martha had been merged into one character. Basically, my problem with the book is that I wish it had been longer.
I loved everything about this book. I enjoyed the way Tucker set a scene, I liked the way that Breen's character developed, I liked the friendship between Breen and Conklin, and the friction between Breen and Slater. My only criticisms are that I wish we would have gotten to see more of Breen's childhood with his aunt, I wish we could have seen the accident that led to Breen being orphaned, I wish there had been more of a relationship between Breen and Roy, I wish a certain Conklin scene would have been more powerful, I wish there had been more of a relationship between Breen and Slater, and I wish that Karen and Martha had been merged into one character. Basically, my problem with the book is that I wish it had been longer.
January 25, 2025
Man from Tomorrow is another book from my late father's science fiction collection. Originally published under the title Wild Talent, it follows the life of Paul Breen, a man born with psychic abilities, as he slowly discovers that he's different from others, gladly puts his talents to use in the service of his country, and comes to realize that he's being used--and that he's not the only one who has such talents.
It's an interesting read, and although the some of the storytelling techniques are no longer in vogue, it's generally fast-paced and engaging. My father, who always wrote the dates he finished reading books on the last page, read it four times (1955, 2003, 2013, and 2014), and put a PostIt note on the front page saying, "Save!" I'm not quite sure why the note. He was the sort to never throw out a book. But yes, I'll be saving this one.
It's an interesting read, and although the some of the storytelling techniques are no longer in vogue, it's generally fast-paced and engaging. My father, who always wrote the dates he finished reading books on the last page, read it four times (1955, 2003, 2013, and 2014), and put a PostIt note on the front page saying, "Save!" I'm not quite sure why the note. He was the sort to never throw out a book. But yes, I'll be saving this one.
July 2, 2020
A telepath is recruited by the U.S. military, but discovers they cannot be trusted. a Science Fiction Book Club selection.
March 11, 2022
It’s a quick read but I got bored 70% of the way through.
December 29, 2024
Just poorly executed from a writing and storytelling perspective but not a bad idea, if unoriginal.
DNF @20%
DNF @20%
November 21, 2019
Gelesen als Der Unheimliche
Paul Breen war der unerwünschteste Mensch, den man in seiner Nähe haben wollte. Dabei verfügte er über eine Begabung, die unabsehbare Möglichkeiten eröffnete ...
Ein Roman der nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg und im Kalten Krieg lokalisiert ist. Amerikanische Spione mit Psi-Fähigkeiten gegen die Russen. Ausserdem die Abrechnung eines Agenten mit Psi-Fähigkeiten mit seinem Vorgesetzten.
Ich fand die Story nicht schlecht, vorallem das Ende. Wer politische Sci-Fi angesiedelt im Kalten Krieg mag, für den könnte es etwas sein. Ansonsten....
Paul Breen war der unerwünschteste Mensch, den man in seiner Nähe haben wollte. Dabei verfügte er über eine Begabung, die unabsehbare Möglichkeiten eröffnete ...
Ein Roman der nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg und im Kalten Krieg lokalisiert ist. Amerikanische Spione mit Psi-Fähigkeiten gegen die Russen. Ausserdem die Abrechnung eines Agenten mit Psi-Fähigkeiten mit seinem Vorgesetzten.
Ich fand die Story nicht schlecht, vorallem das Ende. Wer politische Sci-Fi angesiedelt im Kalten Krieg mag, für den könnte es etwas sein. Ansonsten....
May 29, 2015
aka and read as "Wild Talent" (grade A)
April 1, 2008
triste, angry & prescient romance about government surveillance
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews