Domino

by Richard Cowper

From the moment when young Christopher Blackburn is prevailed upon to attend a seance at The Seekers' Temple a series of seemingly inexplicable and increasingly terrifying experiences gradually convinces him that he has been singled out by some unknown power which is bent on his destruction. But why? And what can he have which has attracted the attention of the sinister Guardians? In a desperate hunt for the answers to these questions Christoper learns for himself the old truth that no man is an island; the new one that it is possible to be in two times at the same place; and the sombre one that some of us are more responsible to posterity than we care to admit!

Genres: Science Fiction

167 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Pen name for John Middleton Murry Jr.

Reviews

[iambehindu · Rating 1 out of 5]

A writer succeeds only by reason of the intensity with which they project their drama. When Cowper executes the qualities that define him best, his stories reverberate in the imagination long after they end. If Cowper were still alive and read what I'm about to say, he might roll his eyes, but here it is: I wish he would write the same novel over and over. I want him to keep circling his strengths from different angles, like Monet, Bacon, Kafka, Dostoevsky, and even Malzberg in science fiction. Cowper's skill as a stylist is questionable; he is not a panoramic writer like Stapledon or totally transformative like Nabokov. He is a granular writer, emotionally attuned, exceptional with character, feeling, and minute visuals that persuade the reader to follow his fantasy.

Domino, however, is not a strong work, purely for the aforementioned reasons. When Cowper strays from the anachronistic and romantic qualities that make Phoenix and The Twilight of Briareus (his masterpiece) so wonderful, his stories suffer. Here are the bare bones: a teenager witnesses a séance where the medium calls him by name. He is then pursued by a malevolent force intent on killing him. What follows is a kind of Hardy Boys adventure where much of the novel is spent rehashing events the reader has already experienced. The mystery is finally resolved with a blunt info-dump.

What disappoints me most is that the final big reveal is the very thing Cowper should have focused on. That single page, which exposes the mystery, is more expressive and more foundational to his style than the standard fare mystery novel he chose to write. Even the title, Domino, suggests that Cowper could have experimented with his linear outline more playfully, juxtaposing the mystery with the promising sociological elements he decided to explore fleetingly. It's possible Cowper wrote one exceptional novel; albeit unfortunate, it's more than most can ask for in a lifetime. Yet there are serious craft failures in this novel: wildly inconsistent characterization, protagonists that simply disappear off the page, and most damningly, choosing the least interesting angle for the story. I'm not sure how he rode this one out, but it was a fundamental miscalculation.

Domino will work for some readers. But his missteps remind us of the risk of being a stylist. When the prose and the vision don't align, the error cuts deeper. I'll admit that the novel is not to my taste but still believe the construction is objectively poor. Here's to hoping Cowper gets back in the right lane in future novels.

[Salimbol · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3 and 1/2 stars]