The Watcher

by Jane Palmer

The planet Ojal has been invaded. A mysterious vampire force has almost sucked dry the energy pools on which the Ojalie depend. Controller Opu is charged with finding a solution. Breaking Galactic law and coping with severe childcare problems, her search ultimately leads to Earth where the characters involved are not all what they seem. There is an unnervingly independent student, two sinister spiritualists, a bullet-proof policeman, and a youthful watcher apparently over a hundred years old. First published by The Women's Press in 1986 This edition from Dodo Books

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

177 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1986

About the author

Jane Palmer’s first title, “The Planet Dweller”, was published by The Women’s Press in their science fiction list in 1985. They also published “The Watcher” (now republished by Dodo as “The Kybion”) in 1986, and the sequel to “The Planet Dweller”, “Moving Moosevan”, in 1990.
Swift Publishers published “The Drune” (now republished as “Babel’s Basement” by Dodo) in 1999.
The author also illustrates under the name of Dandi Palmer.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came across this Women's Press paperback in a charity shop and the blurb immediately sold it to me:

The planet Ojal has been invaded. A mysterious vampire force has almost sucked dry the energy pools on which the Ojalie depend. Controller Opu is charged with finding a solution. Breaking Galactic law and coping with severe childcare problems, her search ultimately leads to Earth where the characters involved are not all what they seem. There is an unnervingly independent student, two sinister spiritualists, a bullet-proof black policeman, and a youthful watcher apparently over a hundred years old.

That sounds like just my kind of nonsense, combined with a rather nice cover illustration of flying aliens. It did indeed prove to be quite silly. As the blurb suggests, the action is split between the planet Ojal and Earth. I found the scenes on Ojal most enjoyable, as the world of flying aliens has some nicely imagined details juxtaposed with the trials of working life. Opu's tribulations are recounted in appealingly deadpan style: '"Well, it was worth a try, I suppose," Opu told the staff, wondering how anyone could have been so stupid.' We've all been there, Opu. I felt sorry for her daughter, though, as the poor child is constantly referred to as a brat and handed off to acquaintances. The melodramatic events on Earth were rather less effective and the plot very oddly paced. It is basically resolved halfway through the book, then another much more minor difficulty takes up the remaining 80 pages. The twists are also fairly predictable although I didn't immediately twig that Weatherby was the alien android.

A quote on the back describes 'The Watcher' as 'a joyous send up of the sf genre'. I think there is some truth in that, although the parody isn't always effective. This isn't exactly a lost classic of the science fiction genre, but it was a fun diversion and therefore highly suitable lockdown reading.

[Evan]

Clumsy and lacking focus. It lacked the humour that the blurb says it has. I found it hard to care about anything in the novel. But maybe other people will enjoy it more than I did.

[Ape · Rating 2 out of 5]

2009 bookcrossing journal:

What a random, wierd book. It is such a daft story - and ok, it says on the back that this is sci-fi satire; but to be perfectly honest at times it comes across as poorly plotted and poorly written as if she was in a rush to write this thing. There's a quote on the back of this book: "Another joyous send up to the sf genre, combining Jane Palmer's gift for satire with a new cast of eccentrics, as plausible as anyone you'd find in the average bus queue" - Mary Gentle, Interzone. I wonder if I was reading the same book.

OK, I did read this all the way through so it's not awful-awful... I just felt it could have been written better and not have this feeling of rushed. And characters would come to the most unbelieveable conclussions really quickly without any evidence or reason - now was that supposed to be part of the satire? It went over my head. It just seemed weak to me.

However, I don't usually read sci-fi either so maybe I don't appreciate it for that either.

This is a very odd story that starts off on a planet of beaked, flying hermaphrodites (excuse my spelling) who are all referred to as "she" - this book is from the Women's Press, so it's supposed to be about women. They're having problems on this planet. They live off sunshine, but there is an alien creature coming to the planet and sucking up their energy. So Controller Opu (who is a modern woman suffering from a full time job and having to arrange child care for her brat - her words, not mine) finds out where this thing is coming from. Our planet!!! Shock!! So arrangements are made to send an android thing to earth to catch up with this alien thing before it completely destroys their planet.

And it just gets more ridiculous and random from there with wierd characters on earth, some slimey monsters and an android that developes feelings.

This was published in 1986 - maybe this was the current trend and style at the time? I don't know as I'm not into sci fi.

[D · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Watcher is a little slippery. If I described the bones of its plot or its characters (which include a planet threatened with destruction from an energy-being, time travel, sea monsters, and a conveniently bulletproof resident of Earth) it would sound either like a pulp-era space opera, or a consciously zany send-up of same (perhaps in the mode of Goulart or Harrison). But although The Watcher isn't without flashes of dry humor, its characters certainly take their situations seriously, and since the novel is very much concerned with the internal lives of the characters, the overall tone is fairly serious.

The plot also has an unusual structure, almost like two tightly coupled novellas, where the resolution of one conflict leads into a new one. It also seems to deliberately establish some expectations and then deftly manoeuvre away from them. Palmer's prose has a trick of unfolding important reversals with no buildup and no subsequent fanfare; she demands an attentive reader.

I didn't think it was completely successful; there a few things-are-not-as-they-at-first-seemed reveals that seem ill-supported or even illogical, and there's a slightly unsatisfying deus ex machina quality to some of the plot twists. But it assuredly held my interest, and made me curious to read more from Palmer, a writer I hadn't encountered before.

(note: this novel was republished (for the US market?) as The Kybion)

[J Hampshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Watcher, renamed The Kybion, follows Gabrielle, a teenage girl,as she stays in a remote seaside cottage after sitting her A levels. She unpicks a local mystery and meets an unlikely policeman.

Meanwhile Controller Opu has her own problems: a skilled and demanding job and a ghastly sprog to care for. I loved her/him (hermaphrodite).

A thoroughly enjoyable book that makes you care about the characters.

[Wolverina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much stronger than her other novel The Planet Dweller, Palmer writes an entertaining novel questioning what sentient life is and how it is best protected. I especially love her alien lifeforms they are creative, amusing and startlingly relatable

[Michelle Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

This blew me away when I read it as a teenager, and I have recently been planning to read it again.