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The Mindwarpers
The Brainstealers - Richard Bransome worked in the government's most vital scientific laboratory, under the ultimate security. Nothing - living or inaminate - could crack the security barriers that guarded Bransome and his fellow workers. Nothing known to man...
But something was making key scientists give up their lives' careers, sometimes to just drift away, other times to die. Then Bransome began to remember a past he had completely forgotten - a past in which he had been a cold-blooded murderer! To discover the truth about himself, he set out on a solitary mission that would lead him against the most incredible enemy ever known to the people of Earth!
But something was making key scientists give up their lives' careers, sometimes to just drift away, other times to die. Then Bransome began to remember a past he had completely forgotten - a past in which he had been a cold-blooded murderer! To discover the truth about himself, he set out on a solitary mission that would lead him against the most incredible enemy ever known to the people of Earth!
158 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
About the author
Eric Frank Russell
404 books115 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 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 19, 2017
For his ninth novel out of what would ultimately run to 10, English sci-fi author Eric Frank Russell pulled a bit of a switcheroo on his readers. The book in question was initially released in the U.K. in 1964 in a hardcover edition by British publishing house Dennis Dobson, sporting the title "With a Strange Device." A year later, it was released here in the U.S. as a 50-cent Lancer paperback (the edition that I was fortunate enough to acquire at Brooklyn bookstore extraordinaire Singularity), as its author was turning 60, but with a new and perhaps catchier title: "The Mindwarpers." Written at the height of Cold War tensions, and at the peak of the world's fascination with espionage, spies and suchlike--not to mention a scant two years after the highly praised release of the cinematic stunner "The Manchurian Candidate"--the book, to the surprise of Russell's longtime fans, contained very little in the way of actual science fiction material per se. Rather, it is a rather noirish affair dealing with murder, pursuit and a goodly dose of paranoia. What sci-fi trappings there are only crop up in the book's final chapter, and might not even be so far-fetched as they appear at first blush. Still, as was typical for Russell, the book remains compulsively readable, and the author's tough-guy prose strikes the reader as being a bit more polished than usual, coming as it does relatively late in this author's career. Personally, I found the entire affair most enjoyable, indeed.
In the book, the reader encounters a top-level metallurgist named Richard Bransome; the husband of a pretty wife and father of two young kids. Bransome works in a highly classified government research center where, unfortunately, some strange things have been transpiring lately. Scientists of all grades and fields have been resigning, disappearing, or going on extended leaves; many more than could be attributable to deaths, sicknesses or retirements. Not that this does much to disturb Bransome's easygoing suburban lifestyle. But one day, while sitting in a railway coffee shop, he overhears two truckers discussing human bones that had recently been discovered, buried under a tree in a small town called Burleston, and this immediately awakens a dormant memory in his mind. He flashes back and recalls that some 20 years earlier, he had murdered a woman named Arline Lafarge in that very town, and had buried her body beneath a tree! Thus begins a veritable nightmare for Bransome. He soon notices a rather large man tailing him home every night, while imagining that the cops even now must be closing in on him. He can see nothing for it but to lie to his wife and travel to Burleston himself, to see just how close the law really is on his trail. And after quite the hellacious odyssey, during which Bransome plays cat and mouse with the law and a cagey agent from Military Intelligence, the truth is finally revealed....
I must say, for a goodly portion of Russell's book, the reader wonders about our purported hero. Bransome seems to be such a decent sort when we first meet him; can he then really have committed such a heinous crime two decades back? Or is his brain simply playing tricks on him, and is he--as he mentions somewhere--merely "a boat floating on a sea of illusion"? Russell, to his great credit, keeps us guessing for a while while ratcheting up the tension. And indeed, it strikes this reader that "The Mindwarpers" (more of a spoilerish title, to be sure, although more generally descriptive, than "With a Strange Device") might have worked well as a latter-day Hitchcock outing, what with its lone man on the run, on a cross-country chase, pursuing he knows not what, while at the same time being trailed by the authorities.
Russell's ninth novel might also be the oddball in his canon due to its marked absence of humor, a factor almost as surprising as its dearth of sci-fi content. Russell was supposedly the favorite author of "Astounding Science-Fiction" editor John W. Campbell, and author Brian Aldiss has gone so far as to call him "Campbell's licensed jester." The other three novels that I've read of Russell's--"Men, Martians and Machines," "Wasp" and "The Great Explosion"--have all been very amusing affairs, with any number of laugh-out-loud lines; indeed, "The Great Explosion" is one of the funniest sci-fi novels that I've ever read. How strange, then, to run across a Russell book with nary a single chuckle to be had. This is a rather grim, straight-faced novel, in which the author seems to be trying his hand at the gritty espionage thrillers so in vogue back when. Still, as I say, despite the lack of humor, of aliens, of rocket ships and blasters, his book works splendidly. It is a short, compact affair that propels the reader from one nail-biting set piece to the next; a genuine page-turner.
Thus, I am hard put to understand Scottish critic David Pringle's assessment of the book. Writing in his "Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction," Pringle tells us that the book is "very dated, rather dull." I can sort of understand the first half of that statement--the book is a Cold War thriller, after all...although relations between the U.S. and some other countries that shall go unnamed do seem to be growing a tad chillier these days, don't they?--but "dull"? I’m not exactly sure why Pringle levies that accusation. As I said, this reader found "The Mindwarpers" to be rather swift moving, exciting and suspenseful...in a word, Hitchcockian. Well, I suppose, Mr. Pringle, that this is the reason why there's both vanilla and chocolate out there, right? (And let's not forget that Damien Broderick's "The Dreaming Dragons," which Mr. Pringle chose for inclusion in his "Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels," was a book that I had to force myself to finish.) I don’t know; perhaps I'm just more easily entertained by an interesting tale, well told, than others. I certainly do not regret having had my mind warped by this one, that's for sure....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Eric Frank Russell....)
In the book, the reader encounters a top-level metallurgist named Richard Bransome; the husband of a pretty wife and father of two young kids. Bransome works in a highly classified government research center where, unfortunately, some strange things have been transpiring lately. Scientists of all grades and fields have been resigning, disappearing, or going on extended leaves; many more than could be attributable to deaths, sicknesses or retirements. Not that this does much to disturb Bransome's easygoing suburban lifestyle. But one day, while sitting in a railway coffee shop, he overhears two truckers discussing human bones that had recently been discovered, buried under a tree in a small town called Burleston, and this immediately awakens a dormant memory in his mind. He flashes back and recalls that some 20 years earlier, he had murdered a woman named Arline Lafarge in that very town, and had buried her body beneath a tree! Thus begins a veritable nightmare for Bransome. He soon notices a rather large man tailing him home every night, while imagining that the cops even now must be closing in on him. He can see nothing for it but to lie to his wife and travel to Burleston himself, to see just how close the law really is on his trail. And after quite the hellacious odyssey, during which Bransome plays cat and mouse with the law and a cagey agent from Military Intelligence, the truth is finally revealed....
I must say, for a goodly portion of Russell's book, the reader wonders about our purported hero. Bransome seems to be such a decent sort when we first meet him; can he then really have committed such a heinous crime two decades back? Or is his brain simply playing tricks on him, and is he--as he mentions somewhere--merely "a boat floating on a sea of illusion"? Russell, to his great credit, keeps us guessing for a while while ratcheting up the tension. And indeed, it strikes this reader that "The Mindwarpers" (more of a spoilerish title, to be sure, although more generally descriptive, than "With a Strange Device") might have worked well as a latter-day Hitchcock outing, what with its lone man on the run, on a cross-country chase, pursuing he knows not what, while at the same time being trailed by the authorities.
Russell's ninth novel might also be the oddball in his canon due to its marked absence of humor, a factor almost as surprising as its dearth of sci-fi content. Russell was supposedly the favorite author of "Astounding Science-Fiction" editor John W. Campbell, and author Brian Aldiss has gone so far as to call him "Campbell's licensed jester." The other three novels that I've read of Russell's--"Men, Martians and Machines," "Wasp" and "The Great Explosion"--have all been very amusing affairs, with any number of laugh-out-loud lines; indeed, "The Great Explosion" is one of the funniest sci-fi novels that I've ever read. How strange, then, to run across a Russell book with nary a single chuckle to be had. This is a rather grim, straight-faced novel, in which the author seems to be trying his hand at the gritty espionage thrillers so in vogue back when. Still, as I say, despite the lack of humor, of aliens, of rocket ships and blasters, his book works splendidly. It is a short, compact affair that propels the reader from one nail-biting set piece to the next; a genuine page-turner.
Thus, I am hard put to understand Scottish critic David Pringle's assessment of the book. Writing in his "Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction," Pringle tells us that the book is "very dated, rather dull." I can sort of understand the first half of that statement--the book is a Cold War thriller, after all...although relations between the U.S. and some other countries that shall go unnamed do seem to be growing a tad chillier these days, don't they?--but "dull"? I’m not exactly sure why Pringle levies that accusation. As I said, this reader found "The Mindwarpers" to be rather swift moving, exciting and suspenseful...in a word, Hitchcockian. Well, I suppose, Mr. Pringle, that this is the reason why there's both vanilla and chocolate out there, right? (And let's not forget that Damien Broderick's "The Dreaming Dragons," which Mr. Pringle chose for inclusion in his "Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels," was a book that I had to force myself to finish.) I don’t know; perhaps I'm just more easily entertained by an interesting tale, well told, than others. I certainly do not regret having had my mind warped by this one, that's for sure....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Eric Frank Russell....)
August 13, 2021
The Mindwarpers was Russell's last novel; it was published in 1964 in England as With a Strange Device. It's very different from his better-known science fiction works, and I really wouldn't consider this a science fiction novel. (And I wonder why they put a space ship on the cover?) It's a Cold War suspense thriller in the tradition of The Manchurian Candidate or Who? with intrigue and a noir-flavor rather than his trademark humor. It's not a bad story... it was a fun, taut, tense read at the time... but really not too memorable, and now quite dated.
June 6, 2017
Sandy says "An oddball addition to Russell’s canon". Read his review here: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
November 3, 2025
I really liked this book--after I powered through the info dump of a first chapter that is. Once the story itself begins in chapter two it twists and turns all over the place in the best tradition of a hardboiled crime thriller, which is what this book actually is.
The 1972 Lancer edition I have has a super cool spaceship by Richard Powers on the cover… but not one single hint of a spaceship inside. That this was marketed as space opera like that makes no sense.
But that and the intrusive cigarette ad in the middle aside, this is a twisty, entertaining, well-crafted thriller and well worth digging up a copy.
The 1972 Lancer edition I have has a super cool spaceship by Richard Powers on the cover… but not one single hint of a spaceship inside. That this was marketed as space opera like that makes no sense.
But that and the intrusive cigarette ad in the middle aside, this is a twisty, entertaining, well-crafted thriller and well worth digging up a copy.
June 19, 2021
Brisk, ominous, concise.
May 20, 2021
Not the book I was expecting. Clearly a science fiction book, and with the main character being a metallurgist, I thought it would be about the use of novel materials in an advanced engineering future. However it was a "thriller"about how the brain can be made to believe things that never happened. When I got used to what it was about I quite enjoyed it.
March 3, 2019
42 WORD REVIEW:
Where Russell was renowned for humorous SF, this novel seems more in keeping with Cold War espionage stories (or within Russell’s spectrum, his early Fortean noir outings Sinister Barrier and Dreadful Sanctuary), and maintains its intrigue even upon second or third reading.
Where Russell was renowned for humorous SF, this novel seems more in keeping with Cold War espionage stories (or within Russell’s spectrum, his early Fortean noir outings Sinister Barrier and Dreadful Sanctuary), and maintains its intrigue even upon second or third reading.
November 21, 2019
This is not science fiction. It's a decent whodunnit, an interesting suspense tale, but it is most definitely not science fiction. The cover is just a disappointing, bald faced lie. While I liked the story for what it was, I still want to read the SciFi story that goes with the cover.
December 5, 2024
Oh man, where to start.
The edition I have was published by Lancer. In the advertisement at the back of the book it says "The Great Science Fiction Comes from Lancer!"
Based on this book I do not believe that to be accurate.
I remember buying this book in the early 70s. I was a kid on vacation with my parents in Daytona Beach. I really dug the cover. I mean, look at that space ship. Those fins and shape. What is not to like about that!?
There is no spaceship in this book.
There is literally no mention of space in this book.
This cover has absolutely nothing to do with this book.
"Bransome began to remember a past he had completely forgotten - a past in which he had been a cold-blooded murder." (This came from the back of the book.)
The dialog in this book is ridiculous. It reads more like bad gangster book than the story of a metallurgical engineer trying to figure out why he suddenly remembers that he is a cold-blooded murder. There is always a snappy retort to a simple statement/question. "I'd like to talk to you about something." "Oh yeah, who's asking pally?" Or "I just looked at the facts and added 2 plus 2." "And you came up with 4?"
Oh brother.
There are 10 chapters in this book. Through the first 9 literally nothing had been resolved. Lots of running around, amateur detective work, lost luggage. In the last chapter everything sort of comes together but it still sucked.
And no spaceship.
(One more thing. The early 70s were really weird. Right in the middle of the book is an ad for Kent cigarettes. Lancer. Rhymes with cancer.)
The edition I have was published by Lancer. In the advertisement at the back of the book it says "The Great Science Fiction Comes from Lancer!"
Based on this book I do not believe that to be accurate.
I remember buying this book in the early 70s. I was a kid on vacation with my parents in Daytona Beach. I really dug the cover. I mean, look at that space ship. Those fins and shape. What is not to like about that!?
There is no spaceship in this book.
There is literally no mention of space in this book.
This cover has absolutely nothing to do with this book.
"Bransome began to remember a past he had completely forgotten - a past in which he had been a cold-blooded murder." (This came from the back of the book.)
The dialog in this book is ridiculous. It reads more like bad gangster book than the story of a metallurgical engineer trying to figure out why he suddenly remembers that he is a cold-blooded murder. There is always a snappy retort to a simple statement/question. "I'd like to talk to you about something." "Oh yeah, who's asking pally?" Or "I just looked at the facts and added 2 plus 2." "And you came up with 4?"
Oh brother.
There are 10 chapters in this book. Through the first 9 literally nothing had been resolved. Lots of running around, amateur detective work, lost luggage. In the last chapter everything sort of comes together but it still sucked.
And no spaceship.
(One more thing. The early 70s were really weird. Right in the middle of the book is an ad for Kent cigarettes. Lancer. Rhymes with cancer.)
December 20, 2024
There's a futuristic spaceship on the cover of this book. The entire book takes place on earth and spaceships aren't even mentioned. This is like a spy thriller with 2 main characters and a couple minor characters. It's kind of repetitive. Its only redeeming characteristic is some of the colloquialisms from the 60's. Also the scientist main character punching people in the face is kind of fun. If you picked this up because you liked WASP, then I would suggest you put it back down.
May 30, 2022
Not as bad a book as I was expecting. As I started reading it I was frustrated with the main character's decision making, but I did think it was ultimately ok. It's short and focused enough that it keeps up a decent pace to hold interest.
July 17, 2024
My Airbnb host has a very bad taste in books she chooses to stock at her place. "With a Strange Device" had a promising premise but flopped with clunky dialogue and a plot going nowhere. An intriguing idea wasted on poor execution. Skip it.
October 21, 2018
A great dark sci-fi book with that centers around a complex and interesting main character. Awesome read!
June 22, 2019
Rather pedestrian and predictable, not up to the standard of his better known work.
May 23, 2021
Not as good as his others
Not as good as his sci fi stories. This one is more like a noir murder mystery, good but not great
Not as good as his sci fi stories. This one is more like a noir murder mystery, good but not great
April 28, 2015
1980 grade C+
a mystery
a mystery
April 12, 2017
An exciting story, and even if the ending was coming quite far in, it came well. You have to be of a mind to endure the writing, which has dated some, but it is golden and classic. Not so much of the humour as with Wasp, but worth the read.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews