Finished reading it today. Originally published 1969. It’s one of the books Fahim has kicking around.
I haven’t made a regular habit of indicating which books I’ve finished reading – there are just so darned many of them. Perhaps I should try to be more consistent?
Fahim talks about books he’s reading in his blogs sometimes – over several entries – but then, he also sometimes takes a month or two or more to read a book. Granted, he’s busy with a lot of other things – work, programming, more programming, writing, but he also reads slower than I do. We can sit down together, both reading a book, and I’ll read easily twice as much as him in the same time period. Sometimes three or four times as much.
I knew I was a fast reader, but that fast?
Anyway, does anyone want to read my book reviews? Or is this something that perhaps I should post elsewhere? Have a separate blog for book reviews? I dunno.
Back to None but Man.
It’s an old novel, published 35 years ago. Written who knows how long ago before that.
It has certain qualities that, even if I didn’t look at how worn the book was, or the jacket cover art, or the publication date, would have told me it was from back then. Lone Man out to save Earth and Earth colonies from the destruction by another species who is completely different from humans. Respectability plays a big part in the Alien Moldaug nature, everything being either Respectable or NotRespectable.
And All Humans are about Right and NotRight.
And the Lone Man, of course, is the only one who understands what’s really going on, and he alone is in a unique position to save All Humans everywhere. Lone Man is also the only one who can explain to the Alien Moldaug why, even though All Humans are different from Alien Moldaug, they’re Equal. And not deserving of destruction at the hands of the Alien Moldaug. Respectable/NotRespectable is equal to, but not the same as, Right/NotRight.
Even though Lone Man is Human, and is set to save All Humans, he’s also set out to save Alien Moldaug from Certain Destruction. Lone Man wants to save Everyone and have Everyone live in Peace, Love, and Harmony.
Okay, kiddies.
It’s an entertaining enough read – especially if you’re running out of books, like I am. It doesn’t rate up there with, oh, say anything written by Orson Scott Card, but then, OSC writes for a different time and a different audience than Gordon R. Dickinson. GRD, after all, was writing during a time of Communism and Iron Curtain – and this novel, to me, is an analogy of that.
Peace, Brothers. And NotBrothers.
