Before The Puppet Masters or Invasion of the Body Snatchers, there was Sinister Barrier. It's a chilling mix of horror with science fiction, all presented with a hard-boiled noir style tempered with a pleasantly English flavor. It was Russell's first novel and appeared in 1939 and so is obviously somewhat dated, but it's a deserving classic and still a good read. 30 s Martin327 152

The fear of communism sweeping America in the 1950s caused people to look at each other and wonder. Was he a communist? He looked ordinary. You simply could not tell.

And with this worry Eric Frank Russell wrote "Sinister Barrier" where everyday people were under the control of alien beings.

How could you shoot them when you didn't know who "them" could be?

Enjoy!science-fiction5 s V.W. SingerAuthor 33 books97

[Spoiler Alert - no details, but the general plot features are discussed]

Before there was the "Matrix" or "Aliens" or even "X-Files" and "Fringe", there was Sinister Barrier the 1939 debut novel by Britis SF author Eric Frank Russell, a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

The author starts with the questions, "If everyone wants peace, then why don't we get it?" and "If there are aliens, why haven't they appeared yet?"

The answer is even more terrifying than Morpheus's answer to Neo in The Matrix. Humans are cattle to an alien race, and have always been. They share the world with us and feed off of our nervous energy, the more intense the better, especially fear and anger.

The enemy is not invisible, but simply exist in a frequency range that unaided human eyes cannot see. And they can read our minds. Anyone who even thinks about the possibility of their existence is doomed as soon as one of the aliens comes close enough to sense his or her thoughts.

But as science progresses, an accidental discovery reveals their secret, even though the discoverers die flies, one after the other. But the secret spreads, and finally the truth is revealed.

However, truth does not bring freedom. Instead it brings doom. Unable to hide any longer, the aliens, any rancher faced with rebellious cattle, decides to wipe the human race out in a great feast of terror and agony.

Merely being able to see the aliens is no help, since we, the humans, still cannot touch them. All we can do is run - and die.

The story is told from the viewpoint of a pair of security agents, Fox and Mulder, who are assigned to investigate the mysterious chain of deaths of prominent scientists.

The book was written in 1939, so the language is reminiscent of a noir detective thriller of the period and may jar some modern readers, but the tone is not heavy or intrusive. Given that it was before World War 2, the writer's future world is incredibly predictive.

Police forensics are emphasised, using such things as 3D cameras and lasers to detect impressions in fibrous surfaces, telephones have video screens and conference speaker capabilities. The most common vehicle is the gyrocycle, a fully covered, two wheel vehicle that can remain upright by itself, something that is actually in development right at this moment and is slowly coming to market. Pistol bullets are "segmentary" similar to experimental frangible bullets of today.

The book is an alien invasion, murder mystery, and horror story all in one and is the grandfather to all the iconic stories mentioned at the beginning.

If you enjoy truly classic science fiction and a rousing thriller, read Sinister Barrier.6 s Joshua Buhs647 121

Sinister Barrier was Russell's breakthrough, and probably the story for which he is still best known. It takes as its starting point Charles Fort's musing that humans are property. The owners end up being some blue orbs that feed on our various energies and read our minds--killing those who it thinks are too close to understanding their status as sheep. The sinister barrier of the title is the edge of the human visual spectrum: as it turns out, the Vitons--as they come to be called--can only be seen by using techniques that allow the expansion of the visual spectrum.

The book is fine, the idea better than the actual execution. There's an introduction in my edition, by Jack L. Chalker, which excuses the dated science--but that's not really the problem. Indeed, the science is so dated it seems science fiction. More problematic is the breezy dialogue, steeped in 1940s-era tough guy slang, and the ease with which everyone accepts the discovery and moves on from there. The love story feels tacked on--and not very motivated by love--and especially trivial compared to the stakes: so the main character wants to save humanity, and also get a date.

To be fair, the first half of the book works well as a mystery, though there are too many red herrings, and too many leads that suddenly disappear, as though Russell were stretching things. (Needless chase scenes are not a new Hollywood invention!) The second half, in which the vitons are cast off, does not work nearly as well, though Russell does his best to maintain suspense. Supposedly, he originally wrote a different, more downbeat conclusion; the one here is very happy and doesn't really fit the book's tone.rediscovered-fiction science5 s Peter Tillman3,721 407

This is one of the first (maybe the first?) of the classic paranoia plots: what if "we humans are property of some more highly evolved beings that live in a realm that we cannot see. Those invisible beings are immaterial: they are made of energy and Russell compares them to ball lightning. How could we ever hope to revolt against such beings? Therein lies a story." Quote is from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siniste... [caution: SPOILERS!] , and the tale is (by recollection) up to Russell's usual high standards: 3.5 stars? Let's see what SFE has to say: they note some gross "yellow peril" racism, which I don't recall (but I haven't read the book in decades). So YMMV.

Anyway, the basic trope here is Parasitism and Symbiosis, http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/... , with us as the victims, of course. Recommended, if you can put up with the pulpy stuff. This reprint is of the 1943 novel (novelette by today's standards). First publication was in 1939: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cg... So the "Yellow Peril" would have been topical. Note that there was a revised, expanded ed. published in 1948, 253 pp. This Galaxy reprint was 158 pp, and the original magazine pub in 1939 was 164 pp. Available FREE online at https://archive.org/details/galaxy_no...

Note that in 1949, "Astounding" magazine reviewer P. Schuyler Miller praised the 1948 expanded novel as "a fast-moving adventure in which punch follows punch from beginning to end." Miller reported that Russell had made more effective use of the ideas of Charles Fort than almost any other author.fantasy freebies own-copy ...more5 s Riju GangulyAuthor 33 books1,582

This novel, most works of Russell, is more about humanity than the inhuman or non-human perils that they face. It's a thinly veiled exploration as well as exploitation of paranoia resulting from the cold war situation. Basic question that it seeks to address is: what would you do if you are surrounded, in fact controlled by invisible enemies?
Unfortunately, the protagonist goes for stock response ray guns and such stuff. But the book was enjoyable. It had also inspired a Bengali work named ??????? ????? by Adrish Bardhan, who had penned a Professor Nut-Boltu-Chakra story around it.7 s Oscar2,033 527

En un futuro cercano (desde el punto de vista en que fue escrita la obra, que data de 1939), se están produciendo una serie de misteriosas muertas de científicos, aparentemente accidentales o naturales. Bill Graham, un agente estadounidense, es testigo involuntario de una de estas muertes. Sin embargo, cuando investiga un poco más en el asunto, empieza a sospechar que dichas muertes son más bien asesinatos. Pero, ¿quiénes son los artífices?

‘Barrera siniestra’ (Sinister Barrier, 1939), del escritor Eric Frank Russell, es una novela de ciencia ficción encuadrada en ese curioso subgénero que es el de las invasiones silenciosas, donde destacan ‘¿Quién anda ahí?, de John W. Campbell, Jr., ‘Amos de títeres’, de Robert A. Heinlein, y ‘La invasión de los ladrones de cuerpos’, de Jack Finney. La novela empieza como una historia policial, pero según se suceden los acontecimientos, se va adentrando más en el género fantástico. En resumen, un libro entretenido e interesante.ciencia-ficción clásicos misterio-suspense ...more4 s Colin SinclairAuthor 6 books6

Enormous fun. Great concept, well executed and rattles along at a brisk pace.

Scientists are dying - suicide, sudden heart attacks, horrible accidents - and a government investigator looks into the deaths and discovers an awful truth that threatens the world. Written in the late 1930s, so some of the phrasing is kind of wierd and things can get a bit clunky and overblown at times. And then there's the appalling attitude to women on display :-/

Despite the faults, I enjoyed it a lot.2 s Rod PyleAuthor 20 books70 Read

50 years old and still creepy as hell!2 s Alien920 6

Eine ganze Reihe Wissenschaftler sterben. Ermittler Graham kommt schließlich drauf, dass sie nach der Erweiterung des menschlichen Seh-Spektrums ins Infrarote sahen, dass kugelförmige Energiewesen herumschweben, die die wirklichen Herrscher der Erde sind.

Ich fand den Roman ziemlich dürftig. Und dies auch wenn ich Zugeständnisse mache, weil es Russells Erstlingswerk war und in den 40ern geschrieben wurde.
Reisserisch, unglaubwürdig, voller Logiklöcher.quit-reading sf1 Derelict Space Sheep1,167 17

Russell’s first novel evinces nothing of his later puckishness. Instead it is a hardboiled SF invasion yarn that reads well under its own steam but less so when the characters act as mouthpieces for Russell’s Fortean beliefs, which informed the chilling concept.science-fiction1 Williwaw452 22

I'm hovering between 2 and 3 stars on this. It would make a great (and doubtless "bad") disaster movie. The premise is that beings called Vitons are living off our negative emotions, and controlling our history to get the best possible harvest. But we are unaware of them until a scientist (in a technologically advanced future) invents a way for humans to "see" wavelengths that are ordinarily invisible. The scientist shares his knowledge with others before the Vitons destroy him. The Vitons can read minds, so they pursue anyone else (at first, only some fellow-scientists) who has obtained the forbidden knowledge that will make humanity aware of them.

Anyway, the book was fun at the beginning, because it's unknown why prominent scientists are dying suddenly and violently. There are great descriptions of these guys going up in balls of flame or plummeting from high-rise windows. Cities blow up, and World War III begins. That's why this book is the perfect model for a mega-disaster movie.

A bit more than half way through, the plot starts to drag. Clearly, it's just a matter of time before humans figure out how to outwit the Vitons and then live happily ever after.

I should mention that the Vitons are floating blue spheres that can anchor themselves into our nervous systems and take nourishment. Russell is constantly comparing this process to the milking of a cow.

I was inspired to read this after learning that the book was originally presented as a serial in the legendary pulp magazine, "Unknown," edited by John W. Campbell. The magazine only lasted about 4 years (1939 to 1943, I think), but it is credited with beginning a whole new tradition in modern fantasy writing. Other works which appeared in "Unknown" include: Jack Williamson's novel, "Darker Than You Think," a book that brilliantly combines lycanthropy, anthropology and pseudo-science for a surprisingly good story; Leiber's first Grey Mouser story; and several excellent but lesser-known Heinlein stories. I'd love to lay my hands on a copy of "Unknown," but the prices are beyond what I'm willing to pay.

"Sinister Barrier" disappointed me. It is, more than anything, a disaster/action novel. In a way, it's in the tradition of H.G. Wells's "War of the Worlds," but the premise is that we have been unwittingly been dominated by an invisible species for the duration of our history. All hell breaks loose when we discover our dominators. I'll give Russell credit for the originality of his premise, and his decent prose.

The title of this book, however, suggests something more creepy and insidious than what we get. Instead, we get gratuitous violence this: "He saw Sheehan, an operative, shove the muzzle of his gun straight into a slobbering mouth and let her blow. Gobs of noggin, slop and goo flew in all directions as the headless victim toppled under his stamping feet."

If you're in the mood for a potboiler, this is the book for you.



1 Michael Adams379 19

A decent old-school sci-fi adventure, but nothing exceptional. I was interested in reading it since it was inspired by the work of Charles Fort. The first third of the book plays out a bit of murder mystery, with scientists mysteriously dying around the world, and from there the Fortean phenomena angle is revealed as seemingly unrelated pieces of information culminate in a revelation of planetary significance. From there things escalate into a world war 3 scenario with a race to discovering a sort-of 'silver-bullet' solution to the worlds problem. Main problem with this book is how clunky the writing is, and the 1950's gumshoe aesthetic of the dialogue doesn't help. All-in-all I'd only recommend this book to hardcore classic SF fans. Not many others would enjoy this, despite the clever premise and potential it has.classic-sci-fi forteana1 Rob280

A great science fiction read that has all the charm of classic science fiction ( Asimov's), but with a very original premise and wonderful execution. It actually feels it was written in the 60s or 70s rather than the 40s.

All the technology basically holds up - much better than the majority of its peers. The idea of a new take on War of the Worlds is excellent.

In fact my only gripe with the book is that it does feel quite sexist, particularly as it finishes. I definitely winced a few times while reading it -- but its a product of its time and among 1940s sci-fi it's certainly a 5-star book.1 Cecile51 4

What can I say? I didn't this book at all. I laboured through it hoping it would get better, but I was disappointed to the end.
I suppose I was looking for a funny story Wasp or Next of Kin, I guess I'll stick with these two of this author.francais sf1 Enrico52

I had high hopes for this -- but it just did not hold up, it almost seems non sensical
some creatures who live on weird vibration frequency? how is that science?
it's not really awful, but just so perfunctory.1 JoeK353 5

I read somewhere that this story was the reason John W. Campbell created a new fantasy companion magazine to Astounding. While I can see the concepts are in some ways revolutionary for the time, I wasn't too happy with the execution. I found the story ran a little long, and I was slow to finish it even though it wasn't all that long. To some extent it may have been some dis of the main protagonist who was alternately unrealistically intuitive, or recklessly stupid. Specifically his attempted rescue of Hetty who was a puppet of the Vitons. What could he hope to accomplish there. Luckily Hetty blurts out key information and Graham escapes with only half a dozen other agents dying for the cause. There could have been another way to get the info that would have made more sense, but this is "pulp" and action must trump logic. (And as I'm learning by reading the rest of the issue, Campbell is into high ESP mode, which didn't enhance my enjoyment either.)
I read the Galaxy paperback version of this book which was updated for publication, but I did have access to the original pulp version and did a quick comparison between the two. The original came out in 1939, but the novelization came out after WWII and Russell expanded it to include the use of nuclear weapons. He obviously didn't know the true danger atomic bombs really posed. Had the Vitons really gone whole-hog they did in the book, humanity would have died of radiation poisoning in months, thus destroying their food supply.
Russell also felt compelled to put a lot of the "evidence" for Vitons that inspired the novel. I'm sure that these were pulled from Charles Fort's work to help lend authenticity to the tale, it just slowed things down and didn't help convince me of the "truth" of the tale any more than the rest of the book. The same can be said of Graham's search for answers. The first half of the book was a chase from one soon-to-be-dead scientist to the next.
The ending, while similar, was altered from the original. I d the new one better, but I found that Russell moved the mention of the "sinister barrier" to the beginning of the re-print, and it seemed more impactful in the original where it was mentioned on the last page and sort of underlined just what the barrier was.
Finally, the cover of the pulp, while lovely, is barely related to the contents. It seems more a yellow menace cover from one of the more grisly pulps Terror Tales. The cover of the Galaxy novel while more accurate, probably didn't help sell any extra copies of the story.This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full review Kathy KS1,180 4

I've read about Sinister Barrier that complain about how the writing is too pulp science fiction-. Well, surprise! It was originally published in a pulp magazine during the late 1940s. For those of us that have read scads of science fiction written before I own lifetimes (and much since!) it is often representative of its time and place.

Hyped as something Invasion of the Body Snatchers, I can see where the comparison comes from and can, actually, imagine a movie made today on the basic premise. We have the visual effects now to make it work.

But is it great fiction? No, but it was fun to be reminded of the B science fiction movies I grew up watching on our black and white TV (Sunday afternoons, maybe?). A threat to mankind is discovered and the science community gathers to try to invent something that will help save us all from the current monster/asteroid/virus, etc. One of the things I began to muse on while reading is the pervasive optimism that is exuded in these books and movies. Things may be bad, but we'll discover a solution eventually and all will, once again, be well. [Side note: my siblings and I grew up calling huge electrical towers "monster killers" because of the movies!]

I did find interesting the method of spreading the research facilities around and broadcasting the research and findings so that no one facility could be demolished and lose all the gains of research. The story takes place in 2015 and Russell did somethings in the society correct, the video calls.first-contact internet-archive-open-library new-york ...more Timothy175 13

Sinister Barrier (1939; 1966), is Erik Frank Russell’s 14-chapter science fiction novel wherein he explains UFOs and “aliens” in Fortean terms. Russell was a huge fan of Charles Fort, as explained by Jack L. Chalker in the introduction and on the first page before the first chapter begins. In this work of fiction Russell explores Fort’s notion that humanity “is property.”

The title is explained in the sixth chapter, where the mystery gets its first answer: “The scale of electro-magnetic vibrations extends over sixty octaves, of which the human eye can see but one. Beyond that sinister barrier of our limitations, outside that poor, ineffective range of vision, bossing every man jack of us from the cradle to the grave, invisibly preying on us as ruthlessly as any parasite, are our malicious, all-powerful lords and masters—the creatures who really own the Earth!”

A magnificently paranoid premise, on the order of the Gnostics’ “principalities and powers.” (See “The Hypostasis of the Archons” from the Nag-Hammadi collection.) Russell calls these invisible wardens of the Earth the “Vitons.”

Note that Sinister Barrier was written before the waves of UFO reports of the 1940s and early 50s.

A magnificent premise and a good first six chapters, but the second half of this thriller-style sf novel is routine. Though Russell was a more than competent writer, this reads mainly a very competent pulp, one or two steps above, say, Jerry Sohl’s The Haploids. Indeed, Sohl’s first novel, written 13 years later, is structured almost identically, right down to the concluding osculation.

Well, The Haploids ends with dialogue of a romantic nature, while this exits on a kiss.

Under-dramatized with scant sense of interiority, its genius really climaxes when the explanation is given. After the seventh chapter, the book is routine. Reet1,258 9

"So long as people insist on thinking with their glands, their bellies, their wallets or anything but their brains, they'll be dopey enough for anything, they'll fall for a Well-Organized, persistent and emotional line of propaganda and make suckers of themselves every time. Mark my words, young man, your first and most formidable obstacle will be provided by millions of emotional dimwits among your fellow beings."

The above quote could have been written about the GOP and tRumpsters.

Eric Frank Russell was a follower of Charles Fort, a man who collected stories of the unexplained, and tried to make sense of them. EFR founded the Fortean Society of Britain (on Facebook, you can find"The Fortean London Society," but I don't know if it's the same), and this story is his tongue-in-cheek attempt to explain the mysteries that take place, in this story, at least. My most un-favorite of EFR's work. Matthew MillerAuthor 2 books3

It had a rhythm to it.

The book did a lot of technical things well. Stakes were upped, the plot moved, the events got rolling, and there was never enough time.

Not a single bit of it seemed a normal human interaction.

But Russell had no fear. If the characters should try to break the secrecy, they tried. If the enemy would counter attack, they did. There was an internal logical consistency about it that operated without restraint. It bordered on madness at times, but it didn't chicken out.

It was pulp. It was good pulp, but if you don't pulp, it isn't for you. I pulp, so I enjoyed it quite a bit. Julian Meynell675 21

This is a book about sinister monsters that lurk just out of sight controlling and manipulating humans and feeding off them. It's a work that is a fusion of science fiction and a tough detective mystery. It is all action pretty much, with numerous strange deaths. It is a fun fast read, although the ending does not quite work. I suppose it was always heading to a climax, which would feel unsatisfactory but it's still a flaw. You would only want to read this if you were interested in SF from this era, but if you are it is a fun, albeit fairly pointless action set piece.20th-century british reviewed ...more Sasha206 41

“From now on, every time a troublemaker shoots his trap, we’ve got to ask ourselves a question of immense significance; who’s talking now?” He put a long, delicate finger on the article under discussion. “Here is the first psychological counterstroke, the first blow of intended unity– the crafty encouragement of suspicion that somewhere lurks a threat of dictatorship. The good old smear technique. Millions fall for it every time. Millions will always fall so long as they would rather believe a lie than doubt the truth.” Andrea Sacchi182 2

Meh. Un fumettone con tutti i crismi. Not impressed.
Non particoloarmente malvagio di per se', probabilmente figlio del proprio tempo. Le (poche) idee originali sono un po' soffocate dall'attenzione sul protagonista, appiattito sul proprio stereoptipo di agente speciale infallibile, una sorta di James Bond, tombeur de femmes, cui nulla puo' andar storto e al quale, quando vengono meno gli innumerevoli talenti naturali, una bella botta di culo da' la necessaria spinta nella giusta direzione.
Luca Frasca383 6

Lettura non indispensabile.
Un romanzo noioso e scontato, con personaggi bidimensionali e dialoghi al limite del ridicolo.
Il copione ideale per un mediocre b-movie di fantascienza, per altro datata. Jim Davis399 23

Didn't finish. Didn't the writing style. Eugene Zaikonnikov26 1 follower

On one hand the story is entertaining. On the other, the novel casually is racist in most 1930s way. Jay Rothermel756 7

A very clever scifi romp. Fast-paced and enjoyable. Alessio bozza27

Più poliziesco che fantascientifico, paga un poco i suoi anni, ma su lascia leggere ben volentieri e per i tempi esprime diversi spunti e trovate interessanti. Liam497 47

Autor del comentario:
=================================