Page:Amazing Stories v35n11 (1961-11).djvu/142

LEVEL 7. By Mordecai Roshsald. 143 pp. Signet Books. Paper: 50¢.

This book is a real soul chiller. With the utmost seriousness of purpose it joins those many other recent books which have tried, both by rational exposition and fiery oratory, to show us the folly of our current armament race.

Level 7 belongs to the most extreme variety of such books. At the end no one is left, neither insect nor animal nor plant. The Earth has become like another completely alien planet. Though this is the most dramatic subject imaginable, Mr. Roshwald has not indulged in any emotional orgy. In fact, his treatment is just the opposite. He consistently underwrites and understates with the result that the sober story is completely credible. One does not doubt, one does not read quizzically this meticulous, detailed report. From the literary standpoint this involvement with the minutiae of daily living often becomes somewhat dull and tedious, but this only increases the ring of truth. Life is not a series of climaxes, though literature often is.

Structurally, the lack of variety springs from the way in which Mr. Roshwald has chosen to present his story. It is in the form of a diary kept by one of the officers who, 4,000 feet below the surface, stands watch over the push-button that will release the bomb. It is an exacting record of life on Level 7, the lowest level, from the time of his assignment until the end. Along the way there is some satire, some ingenious solutions to the problems of food and water, and a few touches of bitter humor. But everything is overshadowed by the message, and in such a book, it is right that this should be the case.

THE SYNTHETIC MAN. By Theodore Sturgeon. 174 pp. Pyrmid Books. Paper: 35¢.

Originally titled The Dreaming Jewels this is an earlier work by Mr. Sturgeon which I had not read. In it he has again created his own distinctive canvas and peopled it with the "non-human humans" in whom he so often takes delight. He tells of a completely alien civilization which man can not begin to perceive, much less understand. Yet this strange universe is not ahead in time or light years away in anoth-