This is the first of a new series of reviews after I have re-read all the Eric Frank Russell books.
EFR is definitely my all time favourite SF writer - irreverent with burocracy, witty, intelligent. He has a light touch and a superb sense of the ridiculous and how we might deal with it.
With a Strange Device is his last novel, the most perfect one in terms of structure and the work of a mature and inspired writer. It is so sad that it was his last, because after this the inspiration to write just upped and left and there was to be no more.
The premise here is simple. Your life is normal, routine, you work, have a nice family, nice possessions and then suddenly something you overhear in a diner brings back the horror of the crime you committed 20 years ago and had submerged into your sunconscious..."Why did I kill Arline....?" How do you react? Your world crashes around you, you wait for the knock at the door....
Of course you're not the murdering type and the tale is not so simple and this is where this thriller almost becomes SF. You expect it to be an SF novel and it's so clever that you believe it, but in fact with another genre marked on the cover you might call it a detective thriller just as easily. In fact, it's outstanding and because it's so good the pigeon-hole is not important.
EFR's transatlantic style persuades that this is set in the USA with consumate ease, but in fact he was a Liverpudlian. Remarkable.
If you haven't read EFR yet, then it's high time you did.
