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Mind One
Fear in the form of a raging man.
In the center of the heavily guarded room, a man writhed in mingled torment and anger...a man given a greater power than any other human being had ever possessed...a man blessed and cursed with the power of total telepathy...
Watching this first test of the new drub Diazo-L were four observers--a Jesuit doctor-priest, a beautiful young woman psychiatrist, a brilliant, intensely dedicated chemist, and a ruthless billionaire industrialist. And each of them kenw that they had created a force they did not know how to contol...
...and that the world as they knew it might be about to come to an end...
In the center of the heavily guarded room, a man writhed in mingled torment and anger...a man given a greater power than any other human being had ever possessed...a man blessed and cursed with the power of total telepathy...
Watching this first test of the new drub Diazo-L were four observers--a Jesuit doctor-priest, a beautiful young woman psychiatrist, a brilliant, intensely dedicated chemist, and a ruthless billionaire industrialist. And each of them kenw that they had created a force they did not know how to contol...
...and that the world as they knew it might be about to come to an end...
- GenresScience Fiction
240 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1972
1 person is currently reading
27 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 20, 2012
Janice passed this book on to me because we had a discussion about a world where everyone could read each other’s mind. In a nutshell that is the premise of this book. It starts out with Bert Roland, an institutionalized schizophrenic, dealing with being able to hear other’s thoughts and feel their emotions. This neural overload is the result of a new drug that is supposed to treat patients with schizophrenia. Someone missed this side effect on the warning label.
Bert comes to a predictable end which prompts the four people who know what happened; the psychiatrist, the doctor, the biochemist, and the drug company owner, to take the drug themselves to prove whether it was the cause of Bert’s telepathy or not.
It does and the resulting cacophony of thoughts and emotions gets ugly, especially since the doctor and the shrink have some history. Did I mention that the doctor is also a Catholic priest? Eventually the government gets involved and that is when everything goes to crap.
Not everyone gets their dose of wonder drug, but enough do causing society to quickly break down. Fortunately we as a species manage to come back from the edge of oblivion and learn a lesson or two.
I liked the book because the premise is terrific, the characters are well written, and the end is satisfying. What surprised me is that this is the only science fiction novel Dolinsky wrote. He was, however, a prolific television script writer. In the 60’s and early 70’s he wrote scripts for a couple dozen different shows. Of interest to most who will read this review is an episode of Star Trek called Plato’s Stepchildren. If you recall, that episode dealt with a planet of telepath who also possessed kinetic abilities as well. I suspect that was the seed for this novel.
If you can find this book in a used bookstore or on E Bay, buy it and read it. Maybe if you’re lucky you’ll find a science fiction dealer who has an old enough collection to have it.
Bert comes to a predictable end which prompts the four people who know what happened; the psychiatrist, the doctor, the biochemist, and the drug company owner, to take the drug themselves to prove whether it was the cause of Bert’s telepathy or not.
It does and the resulting cacophony of thoughts and emotions gets ugly, especially since the doctor and the shrink have some history. Did I mention that the doctor is also a Catholic priest? Eventually the government gets involved and that is when everything goes to crap.
Not everyone gets their dose of wonder drug, but enough do causing society to quickly break down. Fortunately we as a species manage to come back from the edge of oblivion and learn a lesson or two.
I liked the book because the premise is terrific, the characters are well written, and the end is satisfying. What surprised me is that this is the only science fiction novel Dolinsky wrote. He was, however, a prolific television script writer. In the 60’s and early 70’s he wrote scripts for a couple dozen different shows. Of interest to most who will read this review is an episode of Star Trek called Plato’s Stepchildren. If you recall, that episode dealt with a planet of telepath who also possessed kinetic abilities as well. I suspect that was the seed for this novel.
If you can find this book in a used bookstore or on E Bay, buy it and read it. Maybe if you’re lucky you’ll find a science fiction dealer who has an old enough collection to have it.
October 9, 2017
Read back in the 70s. Good sci-fi about the ability to read others minds.
did-not-finish-or-start
July 15, 2021DNS 7/15/2021
July 12, 2013
It is fascinating how the human family functions where one person has very limited knowledge of what the other is thinking. However, what happens in the event that everyone knows what the other person is thinking? The author gives this scifi story from the perspective of one of his characters who is a doctor and catholic priest, who with his work colleagues, who include a business tycoon, psychiatrist and biochemist, discover a drug that gives absolute insight into other peoples minds - telepathy - as a side effect. The well described characters starting with the main test subject a schizophrenic, called Bert, engage the reader in an emotionally wrenching manner which makes it very very memorable.
Though it is scifi, I don't want to call it that because it's so real in many ways. The interactions, conflicts, moods and thoughts are so well described. So well done are they that there are stretches in the text that you feel the hopelessness and dead feelings that will only get healed when you complete the book to get a somewhat satisfying ending. Noteworthy are the descriptive sincere versus hypocritical faith conflicts and actions, which makes this book not for people who do not like awkward.
Interestingly, I think that psychologically speaking: the thoughts described in the book are what have made society into what it is today. Not that I like what society is now, but I guess trying to explain the issues involved is a way of knowing how to live with it, and that is also what Mike Dolinsky may have also found out.
Though it is scifi, I don't want to call it that because it's so real in many ways. The interactions, conflicts, moods and thoughts are so well described. So well done are they that there are stretches in the text that you feel the hopelessness and dead feelings that will only get healed when you complete the book to get a somewhat satisfying ending. Noteworthy are the descriptive sincere versus hypocritical faith conflicts and actions, which makes this book not for people who do not like awkward.
Interestingly, I think that psychologically speaking: the thoughts described in the book are what have made society into what it is today. Not that I like what society is now, but I guess trying to explain the issues involved is a way of knowing how to live with it, and that is also what Mike Dolinsky may have also found out.
January 9, 2017
The dialog and perspective are so dated that both distracted from the plot, which already wasn't strong for the premise.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews