Our main character, Harper, is a typical noirish guy who is at the wrong place and at the wrong time and sees himself involved in a series of murders, but there is a catch, the murderers are humans who have been possessed by alien life-forms from Venus and Harper is the only (?) living telepath on earth.īeing a telepath, Harper is also the only person who can detect the aliens, but the aliens can also detect him whenever he makes psychic contact. While I'd expect some of that from a telepath, it got a bit long in the tooth and felt a little unbelievable at some point.Īn interesting science fiction novel which has not that much of science fiction to it and a lot more of the noir and supernatural thriller. He basically led an investigation involving several local police departments, the FBI, the Department of Defense, and even a national laboratory, and yet he was consistently outsmarting just about everyone. Obviously, a main character with the ability to read minds is going to have a leg up on normal folk, but I thought he was just a tad too smart throughout the book. The book kept up a breakneck pace and had a satisfying conclusion.Įven though I really enjoyed it, I might bump it down to 3.5 stars. Three to Conquer started out as something that appeared to be a pretty typical and mundane mystery with a paranormal twist, but quickly took a sharp left turn and was off and running from there. Three to Conquer was a lot of fun! Obviously, telepathy was a popular idea in this time period of science fiction, as several of the Hugo nominees I've read have focused on this idea. Reminds me of Mark Phillips and Lawrence M.
This a work that shares more from the Pulp age than the Golden one. There's no style here - no noir or literary tricks - and no big ideas. The book, too, has a lot of faults, but has an earnestness to it that makes it likeable as well. Wade Harper had his faults, but he was a generally likeable guy. With his main street, common sense outlook, he'll show those white collar, college educated boys from the nation's capital how things ought to be done. The reader gets to meet the character of Wade Harper, "a squat man with immense breadth of shoulder, hairy hands and bushy eyebrows." Wade Harper is ready for whatever the combined genres of murder mystery and science fiction can throw at him. Firearm enthusiasts, amateur-detective aspiring, federal government-hating, readers of crime novels - and science fiction novels. Gun-toting, do-it-yourselfers with dreams of aiding the local police.
Libertarians who everyday hope for an opportunity to exercise their right to self-defense. This 1956 Hugo finalist is a ready read for libertarians.
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