Recent reads

Darker than you think, by Jack Williamson. Will Barbee, newspaper reporter, knew that there was something very strange about the sultry redhead who met him at the airport. Things got even stranger when she became, somehow, involved in the death of an elderly friend who had outre theories about the history of the human race. But he didn't know quite how strange she would turn out to be....

I hate reviews that give away too much of the story. And so I won't say much more than that about the details of the plot. I will suggest that any prospective reader -- unless he already knows the premise of the book -- should avoid reading the recent reprint edition's introduction by Douglas E. Winter, which fails to respect this principle.

Sadly, I didn't, and I suspect that the slight boredom I felt when reading most of the book resulted from that premature knowledge. I read the first few chapters with interest, and then started skimming chapters as the narrator seemed to remain doggedly oblivious to something that the introduction had made blindingly obvious.

The last few chapters, though, regained my interest by positing a dramatic alternate history of the human race. Darker than you think, indeed.