For the man and the woman it was the only chance of escape together from the horror of atomic war. The risk was undeniable but the calculations were precise. Nothing had been overlooked - except the one point of detail that was to lead inevitably to the greatest horror of all...
Wow, what a book. Calculated Risk was a random find at a used bookstore. I saw 'science thriller', a cool 60's cover, and took a chance. I now want to read all the novels of Charles Eric Maine, and have just bought a copy of Isotope Man. Maine is also the writer of the films The Electronic Monster (1959) and The Mind of Mr. Soames (1970).
In the devastated radioactive world of the future, Phillip and Kay fight for basic survival in one of the fenced in camps on the outskirts of a ruined London. The ramshackle corrugated tin shacks make up the primitive settlement, with searchlights, security teams and mutant patrols to keep the infected in. After the first hydrogen bombs exploded over London (and many other cities), the hard gamma radiation ravaged the bodies and minds of the survivors.
As a psychoneural scientist on the verge of a breakthrough just before the H-bombs, Phillip has a plan to escape with Kay. Through the night and the the perimeter barricades, they make their way to his underground lab. Using a compact nuclear generator unit and Loetze's experimental theory in psychoneural quanta, they take a calculated risk - they can send their minds back over 400 years to the twentieth century, inhabiting bodies already alive in that time. Thier current bodies will die and the minds of the new bodies will be replaced by theirs.
They are successful.
Philip wakes up in London in the body of young Nick Brent, with a beautiful fiancé and promising advertising job. He must learn his name, what money is, where he lives - all without arousing suspicion to those around him. He manages quite well and is pleasantly surprised by his new life.
When he looks for Kay at the agreed meeting place, with the agreed identifier, he does find her. She has been waiting for him for three months and is now in a new body - an aged, infirm and poor old woman! Does love cross all boundaries?
Nick/Phillip can either stay with his new young finance, job, and upper class life - or he can rescue Kay from loneliness and pain. She forces him to find a way to recreate the Loetze experiment, and Phillip sets out to reinvent his life as a scientist. Will he be able to reproduce the machine with current technology? Will they again be transported to another time? Seems like a simple premise, perhaps used before, but his style and attention to character makes it an enjoyable read.
The attention to scientific detail (even if it is fictional!) is engaging. I especially loved the explanations of cybernetic feedback of the four equations, the fourth being the imaginary number 'operator i', causing the neural data to move into the fourth dimension of time! A great combination of science, relationships, and action, the plot rolls right along building speed until the final exciting moments - a real roller coaster of emotions.
I haven't seen much online about Maine, except his Wikipedia page, and a blog by Lyn McConchie titled "Have You Overlooked Charles Eric Maine?". I hope with my reviews to throw some light on rare books and authors. I often look for information when deciding on new authors and I think he is a great find.
I read this in two days - one of those books you keep thinking about and can't wait to keep reading, and then literally on the edge of my seat, I was turning the pages to a finale I didn't see coming!
Shocking, exciting - A great science thriller! For me it was a real hit.
1960 / Hardcover / 191 pages
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