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If you had a high IQ, a yen to do the science-thing in your own way, then Iskola was your place. Iskola was an island on the colony planet Martas, and it was owned & controlled by the man who had led the colonists.
To qualify for Iskola, besides talent, you needed something else--you had to mind your own business about the other experimenters and the rest of the world.
Which sounded wonderful for certain kinds of mental wizards and do-it-yourself idealists. And was also quite perfect for another sharp-eyed type. The kind that perfected villainy to a complex science. That is where Interstellar Agents Rex Sixx and Roger Lowry came into the picture. Because something very, very evil was coming to a boil in Utopia.
To qualify for Iskola, besides talent, you needed something else--you had to mind your own business about the other experimenters and the rest of the world.
Which sounded wonderful for certain kinds of mental wizards and do-it-yourself idealists. And was also quite perfect for another sharp-eyed type. The kind that perfected villainy to a complex science. That is where Interstellar Agents Rex Sixx and Roger Lowry came into the picture. Because something very, very evil was coming to a boil in Utopia.
- GenresScience Fiction
141 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 22, 2020
DAW Collectors #16
Cover Artist: Jack Gaughan
Phillifent, John Thomas a. k.a. John Rackham
10 November 1916 - 15 December 1976
Interstellar Agents Rex Sixx and Roger Lowry always get the crap jobs, the gigs that no one else wants. This new bodyguarding assignment seems like a cakewalk, so why did it fall in their laps? This should be as easy as the furlough they just came off of. The secretive colony of Iskola has asked for assistance and consulting, and all Sixx and Lowry need to do is get special agent investigator Louise Latham to Iskola on the planet Martas, make sure no harm comes to her while she is consulting with the Iskolans, and bring her home. What could possibly go wrong?
To start with, Miss Latham isn’t your average investigator and Iskola isn’t your average colony. But at least Sixx and Lowry already know a little about Iskola. A private island colony, the only way to gain residency is to pass a battery of tests and prove you are a genius. Privacy is a very big deal there, and no one seems to be sure exactly what happens on the island other than genius
John T. Phillifent also wrote these Man From U.N.C.L.E. books
The Mad Scientist Affair (1966)
The Corfu Affair (1967)
The Power Cube Affair (1968)
Cover Artist: Jack Gaughan
Phillifent, John Thomas a. k.a. John Rackham
10 November 1916 - 15 December 1976
Interstellar Agents Rex Sixx and Roger Lowry always get the crap jobs, the gigs that no one else wants. This new bodyguarding assignment seems like a cakewalk, so why did it fall in their laps? This should be as easy as the furlough they just came off of. The secretive colony of Iskola has asked for assistance and consulting, and all Sixx and Lowry need to do is get special agent investigator Louise Latham to Iskola on the planet Martas, make sure no harm comes to her while she is consulting with the Iskolans, and bring her home. What could possibly go wrong?
To start with, Miss Latham isn’t your average investigator and Iskola isn’t your average colony. But at least Sixx and Lowry already know a little about Iskola. A private island colony, the only way to gain residency is to pass a battery of tests and prove you are a genius. Privacy is a very big deal there, and no one seems to be sure exactly what happens on the island other than genius
John T. Phillifent also wrote these Man From U.N.C.L.E. books
The Mad Scientist Affair (1966)
The Corfu Affair (1967)
The Power Cube Affair (1968)
September 29, 2017
Interesting premise concerning a group of 3 private investigators looking into a murder on a colony planet of super-intellectual types, but rather poorly written to where it's difficult to follow the details of the story.
August 14, 2026
Two agents from Interstellar Security, Rex Sixx and Roger Lowry, are hired to escort a lady cop while she investigates a crime wave on another planet. That planet contains an island populated entirely by geniuses, but those super-smart people are suffering from an unexplained crime wave. And by the time our protagonists arrive on the island, there's been a murder.
The lady cop, by the way, has a nervous system that works overtime, allowing her to sense things and predict danger, but requires her to drink lots of alcohol to keep her senses from overloading.
Even before they arrive at the planet, there are several attempts to kill them. And when they arrive on the island, they find a small population of geniuses who live largely in isolation from each other while they conduct their reasearch. They are convinced they've established a safe and secure environment, but the presence of a dead man seems to counter that belief. Before long, the cop and the two security agents find out that this mini-society is in serious danger.
The plot is interesting, the protagonists are likeable and there's plenty of well-described action. The problem with the novel is the author's habit of having pretty much each character frequently pontificate about various subjects. Sometimes, this provides necessary information. Sometimes, it seems to exist because the author needed to add to the word count. For gosh sakes, we don't need to know the details of how Rex Sixx's needle gun works. We just need to know what we already did know--that it fires knock-out darts. Shut up about it and move on, Phillifent!
I still enjoyed the novel, since the mini-lectures that threatened to make it a slog were all short and, to be fair, often interesting in themselves. But the story would have benefited from a little streamlining.
The lady cop, by the way, has a nervous system that works overtime, allowing her to sense things and predict danger, but requires her to drink lots of alcohol to keep her senses from overloading.
Even before they arrive at the planet, there are several attempts to kill them. And when they arrive on the island, they find a small population of geniuses who live largely in isolation from each other while they conduct their reasearch. They are convinced they've established a safe and secure environment, but the presence of a dead man seems to counter that belief. Before long, the cop and the two security agents find out that this mini-society is in serious danger.
The plot is interesting, the protagonists are likeable and there's plenty of well-described action. The problem with the novel is the author's habit of having pretty much each character frequently pontificate about various subjects. Sometimes, this provides necessary information. Sometimes, it seems to exist because the author needed to add to the word count. For gosh sakes, we don't need to know the details of how Rex Sixx's needle gun works. We just need to know what we already did know--that it fires knock-out darts. Shut up about it and move on, Phillifent!
I still enjoyed the novel, since the mini-lectures that threatened to make it a slog were all short and, to be fair, often interesting in themselves. But the story would have benefited from a little streamlining.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews