The object arrived without warning, tearing a spiral path of devastation across the rural landscape. After the explotion, searchers sifted through the immense pile of debris ... to discover a fantastically instrumented capsule, and a strangely human pilot, stone dead. Bowden Karvel's theory, that the capsule's port of origin lay in the distant future, seemed a plausible explanation. But while investigating, the capsule was accidentally dispatched again through time ... only to reappear with an alien navigator, this time destroying a small French town. One thing seemed imperative: a human operator must man the intricate controls of the capsule, riding it forward to its mysterious point of origin. And Bowden Karvel seemed the perfect choice to make the trip...
Biggle was born in 1923 in Waterloo, Iowa. He served in World War II as a communications sergeant in a rifle company of the 102nd Infantry Division; during the war, he was wounded twice. His second wound, a shrapnel wound in his leg received near the Elbe River at the end of the war, left him disabled for life.
After the war, Biggle resumed his education. He received an A.B. Degree with High Distinction from Wayne State University and M.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan. Biggle taught at the University of Michigan and at Eastern Michigan University in the 1950s. He began writing professionally in 1955 and became a full-time writer with the publication of his novel, All the Colors of Darkness in 1963; he continued in the writing profession until his death.
It started off good in Part 1 with an interesting SF enigma taking place in current time (1965) with interesting characters with a military attitude common at the time. It switched to a time travel story in Part 2 and the only time travel I saw taking place was the author reverting back to late 1930's pulp fiction conventions and style. His depiction of the future was poorly done and not very interesting. In Part 3 we travel to the past with some not very interesting aliens and unrealistic view of prehistoric Earth.
Not a good start but eventually picked up into a rather weird time travel story all full of the clunky machismo, outright gross gender bias, and colonial exceptionalism typical of SF of the time. Still, put on your Mad Men filter and enjoy!
The cover here is for a different edition than the one I read. Usually, I'd add my edition so that the image cd be correct but I'm not doing that today.
review of Lloyd Biggle Jr.'s The Fury Out of Time by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - January 5, 2026
I got this bk b/c it was one of two that I found in a bkstore that were both $1.50. I only had $3 & some change. I'd never heard of Biggle. The title seemed like something imposed on the author for commercial reasons by the publisher, although I have no idea whether that's true or not. I had low expectations. As it turned out, I loved it!. It's a time travel novel, a genre I'm very fond of, & it might be one of my favorites w/in this genre.
This was very inspired, very imaginative. Biggle's plot is full of entertaining characters & twists & turns that keep things lively from start to finish. His main character, an astronaut whose career was cut short by the loss of a leg, has a sense of humor & ethics & adventure that make sure he, & the reader, never have a dull moment. I was so enthusiastic about this that I've bought 4 more novels by him since. In general, I found the writing fun.
"He shaved slowly, dressed himself slowly. It was afternoon when he finished, but he had no hunger.
"Nor any thirst. He had never experienced a craving for drink. He drank only when he had nothing better to do, which was, unfortunately, almost always." - p 7
"The colonels were arguing again, but Haskins was paying very little attention to them. He was really interested in only two kinds of people—those who could tell him what he wanted to know, and those who could do something he wanted done." - p 20
That reminds me of H. Beam Piper, whose writing I've been reading recently.
A mysterious vessel appears, causing a swath of destruction. It is accompanied by an anomolous betterfly.
"["]Tell me this, Professor. While this future butterfly is evolving, what changes might take place in the human race?"
""What a question to ask a lepidopterologis! Oh, I vaguely recall some speculation on the subject. The man of the future may be totally bald. Vestiges such as the appendix and perhaps the tailbone might disappear altogether. There may be changes in the teeth, as one devastating result of the civilized diet. The feet will be modified by the corrosive restrictions of shoes. Experts have produced long lists of such things, but I don't remember much about them except that they always gave me the impression that I'd rather not be around to meet their subject."" - p 40
Our hero, having reasoned that the vessel is a time machine, is chosen to pilot it back to the future from whence it came - to diplomatically convince the future people to not send any more time machines back again b/c of the destruction that its "Force X" causes. The news of all this having leaked out to the press there's a great hubbub of pros & cons.
"The screaming headlines, the thousand variations on the thought 'WHAT DOES THE FUTURE WANT FROM US?" And the absurdly speculative answers: natural resources, slaves, markets, havens from atomic holocausts . . . absurdly speculative, and at the same time terrifyingly plausible." - p 78
Karvel, the protagonist, has a flippant sense of humor throughout, tempered by a sensitivity to the sufferings of others.
""We're going to name an air base after you. Thought you'd like to know."
""One in Antarctica, I suppose. I'm glad I won't be there to hear the speeches."" - p 83
Karvel reaches the future from wch the time machine had come at some point. He inadvertently wreaks massive destruction, including of human life. A mob rushes for him but he's rescued by a pilot in an air vehicle.
"The pilot returned to offer Karvel a bowl of deeply browned balls of food. He accepted with a nod of thanks, and cautiously placed one in his mouth. It disintegrated into a thick paste before he could begin to chew it. A highly appropriate food, he thought, for a people who had no teeth and—what was it the report had said?—no stomachs. "Prechewed and predigested meat balls," he told himself wryly." - p 94
There being no language in common, Karvel & his hosts must learn how to speak to each other.
"That night he received more lessons, or perhaps the same lessons. The sterile muttering of the walls blended grotesquely in his shapeless dreams with the haunting screams from the devastated city and Lieutenant Ostrander's youthful laughter. The next day he fancied that he had a precarious grip on a word or two, but he could think of no adequate way to test his knowledge. Were they saying, How is your breakfast, when they brought food? Or Eat this quickly so we can get back to work? Or May your digestive efforts be bountiful? Was it a blessing that they intoned with his first sip of mush, or pointed commentary on his table manners?" - p 100
Biggle really thought things thru.
There're various nation states, all semi-autonomous from each other except for trading. There's an "Overseer" that the nation states approach for ultimate decision making. The Overseer lives on the Moon but comes to Earth when needed. The Overseer lusts for Karvel's language teacher. He also has the power to basically get whatever he wants & has a harem on the moon.
""Dunzalo might not let her go. She has a fairly high number. She's Languages 9-17, and she seems to be an accomplished scholar."
""She's one of the bearded ones, too. I suppose there's a taboo involved—life pledged to learning, or some such thing. I'll look it up. But these Earth cities will trade anyone, if they're offered enough. Languages 9-17, is it? I'll trade for her the next time I go to Dunzalo. She's even worth a special trip. Lovely thing—what she must look like without that beard! On second thought, though, maybe I like her better with it on."" - p 144
This next touch was so inspired that I include it even tho it's a bit of a spoiler.
"Karvel stepped forward cautiously as the Shuttle settled onto the city's tallest tower. The leg was no longe merely joined to him. It was his servant, it obeyed his wishes; but he continued to regard it as a honored guest, in delicate health, rather than as a member of the family. He babied it." - p 152
This is a wild ride. W/o giving too much away, he joins forces w/ some non-humans called "Hras". Here's a bit about their eating habits:
"He learned that they had no sensation of taste, as he understood it; nor did they have any means, or any necessity, of chewing their food. In actual fact, they chewed it with their hands and placed it directly into their stomachs." - p 189
All in all, this was so absolutely wonderful that if his other work lives up to it he's going to enter my pantheon of SF greats ( http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Reviewe... ). It's fantastic to've been reading SF for 60 yrs or so & to just be discovering Biggle now!
There are three worlds in this 223 page book and a journey in each world. The world building and character development are great in all three worlds even the one in present day earth. Part one is in the present. The delightful & grumpy protagonist sees an "explosion" and investigates. The whole world gets involved in the investigation and the device that caused it. Part two is the in the far future and explores a whole new civilization. Part three is in the far past and even the aliens are fun to read about.
The journey in part three becomes a little tedious and the end is sketchy but it is a decidedly good book book even though my rating has gone down each read. Biggle is a good story teller.
This was one of my top ten SF books of all time when it appeared, and I’d still put it in the top twenty, even with so much published since. I could hardly wait to see what happened next, and it goes through all sorts of unexpected twists and turns before arriving at a very satisfying ending. Mr Biggle writes easily and naturally, with a touch of ironical humour.
Disabled Air Force Major Bowden Karvel is hanging out with some friends at a local tavern, when he sees trees starting to fall in the valley below, in a widening spiral of destruction. At the centre is some sort of spherical vehicle, with some sort of human pilot in it — stone dead.
Where did it come from? The capsule itself is the only clue, and the only way to find out where it came from is for a live pilot to take it to its point of origin...
The last book of my 2024, which means I reached my goal of 35 for the first time since 2021 (coming a very shameful 3 books short last year and one book short in 2022). For the first time since then, I can look back on a year and say it was a success instead of an embarrassing failure.
This was a pickup from the book store because I like the 60s/70s paperback sci fi aesthetic and it had a picture of a bug man on the cover. It delivered on both accounts- for the 60s aesthetic, the main character is said to be a misogynist by page 8 or 9, it involves a bit about the French being scared of rolling backpacks, and has some fun time travel paradoxes involving both past and future misaligning in the present, and on the bug men it concludes with a set of telepathic insects who travel the stars, are kind of lazy, and stick food directly into their stomachs rather than inefficiently chewing them. What more can you ask for from this sort of thing?
This was an interesting read. An unknown capsule suddenly appears and is surrounded immediately by a deadly force that swirls concentrically out from it, much like the rings on a pond when a stone is tossed in. Scientists and the military are baffled wondering where it came from. As they are studying it, suddenly it disappears, only to reappear later in France. It's finally determined that it is some sort of time machine, automatically assumed to come from a distant future. But what if that was wrong and it came from the distant past? Some interesting concepts here and the action is enough to pull the reader in. It is recommended if you like time paradoxes.
I enjoyed this book very much. It is imaginative and very well written. And despite some minor sexism , the author creates believable characters that you care for. This is science-fiction adventure with a great central idea. Biggle, Jr. is a neglected science fiction author that I am going to read a lot more of.
Pretty good recommendation from a random Reddit thread a while back.
The audiobook narrator picked a slightly odd voice for the protagonist that made him sound like some old fashioned Robocop or Terminator, but that did fit at times.
I'll check out some other stuff by Lloyd Biggle Jr.
Libro di una noia infinita; finito solo per onor di firma. La trama è astrusa, un paio di paradossi temporali male assortiti e mal sviluppati. Traduzione come al solito che lascia a desiderare in questa collana dei Cosmo Argento
Funnily enough, I read much of this book in Detroit, where the author is from.
It starts off as a biting, satirical commentary on the 60s military in the style of Joseph Heller. The main character, Bowden Karvel, is an astronaut/pilot that retired early due to disability and couldn't handle it, living on his pension outside the base and drinking himself to death.
When he takes the lead and figuring out what a mysterious black craft is and where it came from, he ends up travelling through time and space to find the answer and make sure no one else dies from it's mysterious force waves.
The book does feel dated, but the characters, not just Bowden, but all of them, are very, very good. The story is interesting and handles time travel well (which is a rarity for me)... it's clear that it makes the characters in the book's heads hurt as much as it does mine. We get some unique aliens, an extremely unique future society, and dinosaurs, all in one package, what more can you ask for?
The only criticism I would have is there isn't really a moral or statement to me made.. except perhaps the usual 'communism bad' of the 60s... it seems like a story this well crafted should have one.
I'll definitely be looking for some of his Holmes stuff!
I found this book on the YMCA sharing shelf, and it's a pulp sci-fi book from 1965! The craziest part is that it's a paperback and the binding isn't even broken. It appears to have never been read. Fascinating! The story looks pretty horrible and the first 6 pages support my initial thoughts. However, it is about time travel, so I will give it a very patient attempt. Outlook: poor.
It really started taking off around page 14, and now I can't put it down! I'm on page 108 and it's starting to get a bit strange. Hope it keeps up the excitement and ends well!
Just finished! LOVED IT! I gave it 5 stars because I had such low expectations that my experience was thus heightened. By reading this review, I hope I didn't spoil the experience for you!
A somewhat dated sci-fi mystery that really drives you to finish. Time travel is the main plot point, with the mystery revolving around who sent the device and whether it was from the past or the future. Vast separations of time are explored leaving you feeling that humanity has and will play such a small role on Earth. Bowden Karvel is somewhat atypical as the protagonist, jaded and cynical. His desire to be alone and the need to just get away from everyone/everything is what drives him... and that character flaw is one that appeals to me.
un bel libro influenzato dai timori del tempo, con un protagonista insolito, con una trama non lineare e accattivante, peccato la conclusione che dopo diversi colpi di scena lascia un poco di amaro in bocca.
The good: I liked the hero. He could have been whining and feeling sorry for himself a lot, as is the norm these days, but he's a typical old-fashioned hero who doesn't think of himself as one. He just does his duty/the right thing.
The writer also has a talent for skipping skippable scenes. Just when you think there's a dull dozen pages coming up, because the character has to travel on foot from one city to another, the hero is suddenly where he was going, without page after page of description of this strange, futuristic world. Just think how much more readable Lord of the Rings would have been without all the dull traveling!
The bad: No matter where or when the hero ends up, he's by far the smartest one there.
The time traveling is handled badly.
This was certainly not a must-read, but I'm not sorry I did.