2 / 5 Stars
'A Man of Double Deed' first was published in the UK in 1965. This Berkley Books edition (159 pp.) was issued in the US in December 1967, and features cover art by Richard Powers.
There are two additional novels in the so-called 'Keyman' saga; 'Reflections in a Mirage' (1969) and 'A Ticking Is in Your Head' (1969).
The novel is set in the year 2090. Following a vaguely described Atomic Disaster, the world has been remade into the sort of high-tech, futuristic landscape presented in the Magnus: Robot Fighter comic books of the sixties. Amid towering skyscrapers, the population enjoys lifespans of one hundred years, these years free of want or privation. The cities are clean and spacious, provided with pedwalks and all manner of computer-controlled interior design comforts. Robots both are plentiful and servile, and travel can be accomplished either by personal aircars or spacecraft.
As pleasant as this future world is, a worrisome phenomenon has emerged: young people are running amok, randomly committing acts of violence, including murder. The best efforts of the scientific class cannot discover a cause for this phenomenon, and the political establishment is contemplating the unthinkable; namely, the construction of a planet-based prison, called the War Section, where all evildoers are permanently to be exiled.
The protagonist of 'Double Deed' is one Claus Coman, a man gifted with telepathy. Coman is one of the so-called 'Keymen,' an alliance of telepaths who serve the world government in a clandestine role. As the novel opens, the leaders among the Keymen are convinced that the formation of the War Section is the only recourse for saving humanity. Claus Coman is to be a central operative in a scheme to convince the most influential member of the government to advocate for the War Section. Unfortunately for Coman, there are those opposed to the creation of the War Section, and they have no scruples about using deadly force to thwart any actions on his part.........
'A Man of Double Deed' is an ambitious novel that ultimately falls short in its aspirations. Author Daventry, a Britisher who in the 1960s and 1970s published several sci-fi novels, is very earnest in making the novel cerebral in nature. While this is a laudable goal, in reality, the narrative is overwritten and often tedious; nothing of moment happens until page 107, after which the novel takes on the character of a 60s spy thriller where the story beats come thick and fast.
Much exposition is given to documenting the psychological and emotional stresses of Coman's existence as a telepath. It doesn't help matters that Coman is in a 'throuple' (the word didn't exist in 1965) with two fetching young women named Jonl and Sein. This allows the author to expound on the rewarding humanism of such an 'unconventional' social contract. This approbatory messaging can't help but drag down the thin plotting.
While 'Double Deed' deserves some kudos for trying to rise above the banal nature of much of 1960s science fiction, it fails to offer an engaging storyline, and thus I award it only a Two-Star Rating. I also don't feel a strong compunction to access the other two novels in the series.
For a more expansive review of this novel, I direct readers to the Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations blog.
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