Book Review: 'Bander Snatch'
‘Bander Snatch’ (242 pp.) was published by Bantam Books in June, 1979. The cover artist is uncredited.
Kevin O'Donnell, Jr. (1950-2012) was a U.S. writer who produced more than fifty short stories from 1973 - 1998. In addition to 'Bander Snatch', he wrote the novels 'Mayflies' (1979), 'War of Omission' (1982), 'ORA: CLE' (1984), and 'The Shelter' (1987).
The novel is set circa 2130, in a dystopian USA where all the low socioeconomic status people have forcibly been relocated to an enormous pier extending from Ashtabula, Ohio out into Lake Erie. Known as The Jungle, the pier is essentially a giant slum, self-governed by gangs led by so-called 'Jungle Lords'. These Lords have a fractious, but rewarding, relationship with the federal authorities who arrange for the delivery of necessities to The Jungle.
The eponymous Bander is a 22 year-old Jungle Lord who, despite his youth, is a savvy and calculating ruler of the blocks comprising Township 25. Relying on his team of ‘Zulu’ lieutenants to carry out his orders, Bander is seeing success in his campaign to wrest greater control of The Jungle from his bitter rival, the Lord known as Catkiller.
As the novel opens, things are getting complicated for Bander Snatch and his Zulus. Bander’s girlfriend has disappeared, and the dissimulating federal authorities claim to know nothing of her whereabouts. Using all his skills in Jungle-bred spycraft, Bander discovers that said girlfriend is being housed in a government facility……a secretive facility whose function is unknown, but presumably not benign.
Bander Snatch soon will find himself an unwilling participant in a federal project to transport a human being to a planet inhabited by a race of aliens who communicate through telepathy.
Aliens who have a habit of summarily killing people who they find lacking in the niceties of telepathic ‘speech’……..
‘Bander Snatch’ is a two-star novel. While the opening chapters, set in the ruins of The Jungle, are engaging, the middle section of the book, which deals with the theme of First Contact, has a labored quality that is too replete with meandering internal monologues, and stretches of figurative prose (reliant on the frequent use of hyphens) designed to represent telepathic exchanges between our hero and the aliens.
The closing chapters of ‘Bander Snatch’ return to the environs of Ashtabula and The Jungle, but here the narrative takes an uncertain journey into satire, with an emphasis on the plight of citizens confronted by the uncaring and inept bureaucracy of modern times.
The verdict ? ‘Bander Snatch’ is at best a workmanlike example of 1970s science fiction. It's worth searching out if you are are a devotee of the genre's 'ESP' trope, but all other sci-fi fans can safely pass on this title.
