Brainstorm

by Walter Dean Myers, Chuck Freedman (Photographer)

FORTIA, the army of the world in the year 2076, investigates a powerful, sinister ray that beams to earth from the planet Suffes causing people to lose their minds.

Genres: Science Fiction

90 pages, Library Binding

First published September 1, 1977

About the author

pseudonyms:
Stacie Williams
Stacie Johnson

Walter Dean Myers was born on August 12, 1937 in Martinsburg, West Virginia but moved to Harlem with his foster parents at age three. He was brought up and went to public school there. He attended Stuyvesant High School until the age of seventeen when he joined the army.

After serving four years in the army, he worked at various jobs and earned a BA from Empire State College. He wrote full time after 1977.

Walter wrote from childhood, first finding success in 1969 when he won the Council on Interracial Books for Children contest, which resulted in the publication of his first book for children, Where Does the Day Go?, by Parent's Magazine Press. He published over seventy books for children and young adults. He received many awards for his work in this field including the Coretta Scott King Award, five times. Two of his books were awarded Newbery Honors. He was awarded the Margaret A. Edwards Award and the Virginia Hamilton Award. For one of his books, Monster, he received the first Michael Printz Award for Young Adult literature awarded by the American Library Association. Monster and Autobiography of My Dead Brother were selected as National Book Award Finalists.

In addition to the publication of his books, Walter contributed to educational and literary publications. He visited schools to speak to children, teachers, librarians, and parents. For three years he led a writing workshop for children in a school in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Walter Dean Myers was married, had three grown children and lived in Jersey City, New Jersey. He died on July 1, 2014, following a brief illness. He was 76 years old.

Reviews

[Leothefox · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is more of a novelty than anything. It's a juvenile science-fiction book from 1977 that's full illustrated with black and white photographs of models in improvised sci-fi gear. It's basically the kind of thing I would have found in my school library as a kid around 1988 or so (I wouldn't have read it then, just checked out the pictures). Anyhow, that takes care of why I bought the book in the first place.

The story is a very simple affair about future earth being attacked by unexplained storms that erase people's minds. A crew of teenagers is sent out to take care of it, but their spaceship is caught in a tractor-beam and brought to a planet where two huge computers run everything for a helpless population.

In terms of characters there's really nothing going on. People keep trying and failing to solve the problem of the computers trying scan them or suck their minds or just straight-up disintegrate them. The themes are pretty generic for sci-fi of the time, of humans regressing when their technology advances. There are a couple of dated touches, like one female crew-member having a deadly weapon that “makes her equal to men in war”.

Anyhow, this is worth picking up for the giddy fun of seeing all the somewhat abstract photos that illustrate it. It's a good way to drop in on the 70s sci-fi concept without having to suffer through 200+ pages of “serious” content.

[Matt Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short, fun sci-fi pulp from the 70s. Reminds me of a Star Trek: TOS filler episode, which is NOT a bad thing! I also enjoyed the low budget photography used to illustrate the book.