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The Big Brain #3
Energy Zero
THE BIG BRAIN IS POWERLESS...
And so Is the rest of the country. Call It energy crisis. black-out, magnetic warp .. call It what you will, but there is lust no electricity, plain and simple. tights won't light, motors won't start. auxiliary generators are dead. And without any AC. DC Is on Its knees, reedy to surrender.
Even Colin Garrett, whose super brain can untangle the most Incomprehensible technical problem. finds this truly a current conundrum. But even If he has to short every circuit in his brain. Garrett must learn who pulled the switch on Washington!
And so Is the rest of the country. Call It energy crisis. black-out, magnetic warp .. call It what you will, but there is lust no electricity, plain and simple. tights won't light, motors won't start. auxiliary generators are dead. And without any AC. DC Is on Its knees, reedy to surrender.
Even Colin Garrett, whose super brain can untangle the most Incomprehensible technical problem. finds this truly a current conundrum. But even If he has to short every circuit in his brain. Garrett must learn who pulled the switch on Washington!
- GenresScience Fiction
159 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1976
23 people want to read
About the author
Gary Brandner
91 books112 followersGary Phil Brandner (May 31, 1930 – September 22, 2013) was an American horror author best known for his werewolf themed trilogy of novels, The Howling. The first book in the series was loosely adapted as a motion picture in 1981. Brandner's second and third Howling novels, published in 1979 and 1985 respectively, have no connection to the film series, though he was involved in writing the screenplay for the second Howling film, Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf. The fourth film in the Howling series, Howling IV: The Original Nightmare, is actually the closest adaptation of Brandner's original novel, though this too varies to some degree.
Brandner's novel Walkers was adapted and filmed for television as From The Dead Of Night. He also wrote the screenplay for the 1988 horror film Cameron's Closet.
Born in the Midwest and much traveled during his formative years, Brandner published more than 30 novels, over 100 short stories, and also wrote a handful of screenplays. He attended college at the University of Washington where he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. After graduating in 1955, he worked as an amateur boxer, bartender, surveyor, loan company investigator, advertising copywriter, and technical writer before turning to fiction writing. Brandner lived with his wife, Martine Wood Brandner, and several cats in Reno, Nevada.
He died of esophageal cancer in 2013.
Brandner's novel Walkers was adapted and filmed for television as From The Dead Of Night. He also wrote the screenplay for the 1988 horror film Cameron's Closet.
Born in the Midwest and much traveled during his formative years, Brandner published more than 30 novels, over 100 short stories, and also wrote a handful of screenplays. He attended college at the University of Washington where he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. After graduating in 1955, he worked as an amateur boxer, bartender, surveyor, loan company investigator, advertising copywriter, and technical writer before turning to fiction writing. Brandner lived with his wife, Martine Wood Brandner, and several cats in Reno, Nevada.
He died of esophageal cancer in 2013.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 15, 2024
Here ends Gary Brandner's "Big Brain" series after its third volume. He abandons his naming convention from the first two ("The Aardvark Affair" and "The Beelzebub Business") and opts for the more straightforward "Energy Zero." I guess he figured out that he wasn't going to work his way through the entire alphabet.
What drew to these books in the first place is the absolutely bonkers cover art for them. These are the books that the term "pulpy" was invented for. Brandner, if he is known at all, is best known for the being the author of the novel that the Howling film was based on. He churned out a million of these short books in the course of his career. Energy Zero is from 1976, and it feels very much like something from that era.
Our hero, Colin Garrett aka the Big Brain, is a sort of James Bond-ian figure except more racist and sexist. The plot here is a "ripped from the headlines" tale about energy shortages and a secret super-weapon developed by the Chinese that can cause blackouts at will.
Don't worry, there is plenty of casual observations about the unknowable and mysterious character of the Chinese, and there is a love interest involving a Chinese woman that includes this passage (pg. 26): "Garrett had read of the ancient skills of Oriental courtesans. Li Chang was far from ancient, yet she possessed all the skills. Shortly she urged him over her, and they joined together in a maelstrom of frenzied intercourse. She was all moist passion and practiced movements, yet she subjugated her body to his, following his lead like an artful dance partner." Just so you know what you are getting into.
While there is little to no literary value here, I still can't help admiring it somehow as a sort of Platonic ideal of what a 1970s pulp novel is like, and certainly gleaned some extremely guilty enjoyment from it in that respect. Nonetheless, the audience for this book in the year 2024 must be vanishingly small.
What drew to these books in the first place is the absolutely bonkers cover art for them. These are the books that the term "pulpy" was invented for. Brandner, if he is known at all, is best known for the being the author of the novel that the Howling film was based on. He churned out a million of these short books in the course of his career. Energy Zero is from 1976, and it feels very much like something from that era.
Our hero, Colin Garrett aka the Big Brain, is a sort of James Bond-ian figure except more racist and sexist. The plot here is a "ripped from the headlines" tale about energy shortages and a secret super-weapon developed by the Chinese that can cause blackouts at will.
Don't worry, there is plenty of casual observations about the unknowable and mysterious character of the Chinese, and there is a love interest involving a Chinese woman that includes this passage (pg. 26): "Garrett had read of the ancient skills of Oriental courtesans. Li Chang was far from ancient, yet she possessed all the skills. Shortly she urged him over her, and they joined together in a maelstrom of frenzied intercourse. She was all moist passion and practiced movements, yet she subjugated her body to his, following his lead like an artful dance partner." Just so you know what you are getting into.
While there is little to no literary value here, I still can't help admiring it somehow as a sort of Platonic ideal of what a 1970s pulp novel is like, and certainly gleaned some extremely guilty enjoyment from it in that respect. Nonetheless, the audience for this book in the year 2024 must be vanishingly small.
Displaying 1 of 1 review