Beyond The Barrier by Damon Knight (book review)
For those Brits old enough to remember, back in the late 1960s, our libraries released pamphlets of required reading in the various genres, including SF. Of course, not all of the books noted were easy to come across, including in the libraries. I’m pretty sure Damon Knight’s ‘Beyond The Barrier’ was on that list and was one of books in my recent job lot.
The back cover gets a little obsessed with what a Zog is when really this book is a time travel story. Professor Gordon Naismith finds his life going down the tubes when he is accused of committing murder after a demonstration of quasi-matter that shows a dozen alternative realities within a limited range. Even if it was possible of one his alternatives could have done it, the murder was way of its range and their science wasn’t that good yet. Even so, Naismith gets locked up until a lawyer gets him released.
Seeking out who did this for him, he finds Churan and one of his students, Samarantha Lull, who tells him he is a Shefth and he has to kill a Zog. Its quickly revealed its one of a number of 30 foot long carnivore creatures in the future so that mystery is quickly solved. All of the proceedings against him are to divorce him from his present to go 200,000 years into the future. Both Churan and Lull are aliens from 82 Eridani and see their job as training Naismith for this mission before sending him to an alternative reality to take on the Zog.
Much of the rest is spoiler. As I was reading this book, I kept thinking the plot was somewhat Van Vogt-like, confirmed towards the end as Naismith was revealed as an amnesic about his real identity and even using lie detectors. For those who don’t know Damon Knight wrote a rather damning review of ‘The World Of Null-A’ which Van Vogt addressed in the paperback edition and actually agree with cutting out some of the detail from the magazine version. For Knight to emulate him 16 years later does seem a little odd although he might not have found his own voice at the time or simply trying out the technique.
Its an odd book but better than ‘A Is For Anything’ the last Knight book I reviewed.
GF Willmetts
August 2024
(pub: Corgi Books, 1964. 123 page paperback. Price: varies)
