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Three to Conquer/Doomsday Eve
THREE TO CONQUER (Previously published as CALL HIM DEAD):
It's the day-after-tomorrow in the USA. Wade Harper is a telepath, as far as he knows the only one in existence. He has managed to keep his paranormal abilities concealed, sure in the knowledge that his beloved government will try anything, including vivisection, to attempt to learn the source of his power. Until a chance encounter reveals to Harper that alien beings have invaded Earth --- and no one else on the planet can possibly detect them! Can he battle the menace without giving up his treasured secrecy? An all-time GREAT!
DOOMSDAY EVE: Williams' apocalyptic future is an Earth which has been at war for half-a-century, with just enough use of atomics to destroy cities and industries, but not enough to wipe out the planet--yet.
Stories are circulating in North America about strange people who seem to have even stranger abilites. Naturally the war government wants to find these people, if they exist, and conscript them. With manpower at a premium, a single intelligence agent, Kurt Zen, is sent to run down the rumors. To his astonishment, he discovers that every one of the far-fetched rumors was true, and that this band of "new people" represents normal humanity's only prayer for survival!
It's the day-after-tomorrow in the USA. Wade Harper is a telepath, as far as he knows the only one in existence. He has managed to keep his paranormal abilities concealed, sure in the knowledge that his beloved government will try anything, including vivisection, to attempt to learn the source of his power. Until a chance encounter reveals to Harper that alien beings have invaded Earth --- and no one else on the planet can possibly detect them! Can he battle the menace without giving up his treasured secrecy? An all-time GREAT!
DOOMSDAY EVE: Williams' apocalyptic future is an Earth which has been at war for half-a-century, with just enough use of atomics to destroy cities and industries, but not enough to wipe out the planet--yet.
Stories are circulating in North America about strange people who seem to have even stranger abilites. Naturally the war government wants to find these people, if they exist, and conscript them. With manpower at a premium, a single intelligence agent, Kurt Zen, is sent to run down the rumors. To his astonishment, he discovers that every one of the far-fetched rumors was true, and that this band of "new people" represents normal humanity's only prayer for survival!
- GenresScience Fiction
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
1 person is currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
Eric Frank Russell
395 books113 followersEric Frank Russell was a British author best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. Much of his work was first published in the United States, in John W. Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction and other pulp magazines. Russell also wrote horror fiction for Weird Tales, and non-fiction articles on Fortean topics. A few of his stories were published under pseudonyms, of which Duncan H. Munro was used most often.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 18, 2019
This was the most disappointing pair of Ace Double novels that I have yet read. The main point of interest is that they both shared a common theme of sci-fi "supermen," albeit in different circumstances.
The first one I read was Eric Frank Russell's Three to Conquer. In it, a precision instruments maker in the near future who happens to be telepathic stumbles across an alien plot to take over humanity. The idea of an alien virus being able to take over terrestrial life forms is pretty sinister, as it is virtually undetectable by humans, but in the end it serves mainly to give Russell's protagonist the ability to serve as the hero by telling cops and FBI agents how to do their job. It's suspenseful, but the ending is disappointingly anticlimactic.
By contrast, Robert Moore Williams's Doomsday Eve is anything but gripping. His story begins with soldiers fighting in a futuristic third World War encountering frequent interventions by "new people" who demonstrate remarkable superpowers. An intelligence officer assigned to investigate them finds out about their mission to save humanity and the impending effort by the "Asiatics" to destroy the continent. Williams telegraphs his ending practically from the book's early pages, leaving much of the book feeling like a wheel-spinning exercise as a result.
The first one I read was Eric Frank Russell's Three to Conquer. In it, a precision instruments maker in the near future who happens to be telepathic stumbles across an alien plot to take over humanity. The idea of an alien virus being able to take over terrestrial life forms is pretty sinister, as it is virtually undetectable by humans, but in the end it serves mainly to give Russell's protagonist the ability to serve as the hero by telling cops and FBI agents how to do their job. It's suspenseful, but the ending is disappointingly anticlimactic.
By contrast, Robert Moore Williams's Doomsday Eve is anything but gripping. His story begins with soldiers fighting in a futuristic third World War encountering frequent interventions by "new people" who demonstrate remarkable superpowers. An intelligence officer assigned to investigate them finds out about their mission to save humanity and the impending effort by the "Asiatics" to destroy the continent. Williams telegraphs his ending practically from the book's early pages, leaving much of the book feeling like a wheel-spinning exercise as a result.
Displaying 1 of 1 review