This is a SF author that I enjoy a lot and this novel was no exception, although it was more a supernatural horror with a SF twist at the end. A number of strange occurences are happening throughout America. In a remote log cabin, animals freeze solid, only to come alive again as they thaw and a father and son are driven into murdering each other. A town turns on each other, murdering and scrawling messages of pain in their death throes. The only survivor, a small boy, hears the voices of the love ones he saw die, as well as seeing a stranger in his dreams, a soldier trying to tell him something. As the phenomenon increase, a band of pyshics and scientists are drafted in an effort to discover what it is that is haunting and attacking an entire nation. The answer is very, very scary. I won't spoil it for you, but I was blown away by the punchline to the book. Another lecture on man'sfolly? Maybe, but that doesn't subtract from the enjoyment of the novel.
I picked this book up in a charity shop because I like the author or, rather, I like some of his other books that he has written. Psychlone was a disappointment however. The overall idea, once I'd finished the book, was interesting and thought provoking, however the characters were not well developed, probably because there were so many of them. The plotting was too complicated (for me) and there were a couple of Deus Ex Machina moments.Having said that I didn't feel compelled to hurl the book across the room at any point and some of the imagery was really good. Fecal graffiti and elemental boars made out of gravel. Good stuff.
What do You think about Psychlone (1979)?
I may be just a wuss because some parts of this book really scared me! I guess this is more horror than science fiction. It's about a psychlone which is a cyclone of psychic energy.The psychlone is made of vengeful Japanese who were killed in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. If you're caught in the middle of a nuclear blast then not only is your body vaporized but your soul is destroyed as well. You die a complete death. However, if you're at the fringe of the explosion, your body dies but your soul is m
—Hien
