Al investigar las muertes, aparentemente accidentales, de unos cientificos, el investigador Bill Graham descubre un secreto horrible que acecha a la humanidad desde su mismo comienzo. Obligado a enfrentarse a un enemigo imprevisto, maligno e implacable, la lucha sera sin cuartel, en la que en ultima instancia estara el destino de la especie humana.

"So long as people insist on thinking with their glands, their bellies, their wallets or anything but their brains, they'll be dopey enough for anything, they'll fall for a Well-Organized, persistent and emotional line of propaganda and make suckers of themselves every time. Mark my words, young man, your first and most formidable obstacle will be provided by millions of emotional dimwits among your fellow beings."

The above quote could have been written about the GOP and tRumpsters.

Eric Frank Russell was a follower of Charles Fort, a man who collected stories of the unexplained, and tried to make sense of them. EFR founded the Fortean Society of Britain (on Facebook, you can find"The Fortean London Society," but I don't know if it's the same), and this story is his tongue-in-cheek attempt to explain the mysteries that take place, in this story, at least. My most un-favorite of EFR's work. ( )

A decent old-school sci-fi adventure, but nothing exceptional. I was interested in reading it since it was inspired by the work of Charles Fort. The first third of the book plays out like a bit of murder mystery, with scientists mysteriously dying around the world, and from there the Fortean phenomena angle is revealed as seemingly unrelated pieces of information culminate in a revelation of planetary significance. From there things escalate into a world war 3 scenario with a race to discovering a sort-of 'silver-bullet' solution to the worlds problem. Main problem with this book is how clunky the writing is, and the 1950's gumshoe aesthetic of the dialogue doesn't help. All-in-all I'd only recommend this book to hardcore classic SF fans. Not many others would enjoy this, despite the clever premise and potential it has. ( )

Great vintage read. Takes me back to my high school days when paperbacks were cheap. Of course, you have to suspend disbelief and agree to buy into the "futuristic" world postulated by the author, but I think it's still fun.

( )

My reactions to reading this novel in 2002.

“Introduction”, Jack L. Chalker -- Brief introduction about Eric Frank Russell, who was one of John W. Campbell’s favorite short story writers before writing, at Campbell’s suggestion, his first novel, Sinister Barrier. It was published in the first issue of the fantasy magazine Campbell started, Unknown. Chalker also talks about Russell’s interest in Charles Fort’s works and the debt this novel owes Fort as well as Russell’s involvement with British Forteans.

Sinister Barrier, Eric Frank Russell -- After first reading this novel about 15 years ago, and I read it over again because, having recently read the works of Charles Fort, I wanted to spot the full amount of his influence on this novel.

Fort would be proud.

Not only is he explicitly mentioned in the first paragraph, but the novel may be the most Fortean of all sf works. The whole premise is taken from Fort’s remark that “I think we’re property.” Russell mostly uses the metaphor of humanity as cows to serve alien masters, our emotions of violence and anger and agony being milk and meat to them. (And the question as to the origin -- extraterrestrials or native to Earth -- of the Vitons is never answered. It is suggested at one point that humanity is a cattle species brought by the Vitons to Earth from elsewhere.)

But Russell wraps up a lot more Fortean items in his story: the wonders and miracles of psychics and religious figures may be a Viton disinformation campaign to discredit paranormal observations (sort of the “occult police” idea from Fort’s Lo!); ball lightening is dying Vitons; UFOs are observed Vitons (Russell may have pioneered the idea of alien abduction in this book); odd coincidences of death and odd disappearances; the allegedly superstitious coastal dwellers and sailors are able, because of a diet high in iodine, able to see the Vitons more often; feelings of dread may be Viton tendrils drinking your emotions.

Russell uses other Fortean paraphernalia: the Fortean magazine Doubt is mentioned, and, after the knowledge of the Viton’s existence is widely disseminated, the U.S. government and newspapers look through newspaper files to spot formerly hidden references to Vitons. Russell mentions some things (like spontaneous combustion and psychic powers) that are included in Fort’s works. Other mentions of Fortean knowledge postdate Fort’s death in 1932. I suspect they are real, and Russell used his Fortean Society membership to gain access to them.

I’m curious as to when this novel was revised. Chalker’s introduction just says it was after WWII which is obvious due to references to Hiroshima and the 1947 harbor explosion in Texas City. On the other hand, there are some odd omissions, the main one being no explicit references to the Japanese in WWII though, especially since an Asian Combine fighting the West features them, kamikazes are mentioned. Other signs of post-WWII revision are a reference to Pakistan and UFOS over North Ireland in 1942. An odd bit of prose is a reference to the 1938 disappearance of a ship Anglo-Australian and Professor Beach saying “no solution had been found in ten years” -- an odd thing to say for a story set in 2015. (I wonder if it originally had a contemporary setting with the war breaking out between American and some portion of the Axis given an original publication date of 1939.)

Russell’s prose is pulpy, sometimes carrying his metaphors on too far, sometimes it has a melodramatic vigor like the first line from Chapter 1: “’Swift death awaits the first cow that leads a revolt against milking,’ mused Professor Peder Bjornsen.”

The plot is roughly similar to Russell’s other Fortean novel, Dreadful Sanctuary. Both start out with a string off odd, seemingly coincidental events. Here it’s the seemingly natural deaths of several prominent scientists. In Dreadful Sanctuary, it was the destruction of several spaceships bound for Venus. In both cases, the protagonist uncovers a vast conspiracy of possibly extraterrestrial origin (though in the revision of Dreadful Sanctuary the Martians are really an Earth cult and here the Vitons may be native to Earth). In both, the protagonists meets a babe related to a dead scientist. This novel is much more involving and epic with America embroiled in a war with the Asian Combine while simultaneously trying to defeat the Vitons and a deadline counted down in hours (though Dreadful Sanctuary with its rocket launch, also has that).

This novel ends happily with the old problem of man’s violent emotions solved (now that we’re no longer provoked by aliens we can all live in rational harmony -- indeed the Asians are not subjected to vengeance but education). Like Dreadful Sanctuary, this novel also seems to make reference to the quack theories of Albert Abrams with its reference to “shortwave therapy”. ( )