Book Review: 'Of Men and Monsters' by William Tenn
I remember buying this book back in September 1978, convinced by the great Boris Vallejo art that it was an action-based sci-fi novel. In reality, to my disappointment, ‘Of Men and Monsters’ (December 1975, 251 pp.) was an exemplar of deceptive marketing by Ballantine / Del Rey: a novel from 1968, repackaged for the 1970s with a more attention-getting cover.
‘William Tenn’ was the pseudonym of the UK-born writer Philip Klass (1920 – 2010) who began publishing short stories in sci-fi pulp magazines in the late 40s. Tenn published a story called "The Men in the Walls" in the October 1963 issue of Galaxy magazine and later expanded the story into a novel, titled 'Of Men and Monsters', released in paperback by Ballantine Books in June 1968.
Additional paperback editions since have been issued by a number of US and UK publishers; according to the ISFDB, most recently in 2011, by Gollancz.
‘Of Men’ is set on a future Earth that has been invaded by a race of giant aliens, with humanity reduced to scrabbling out a precarious existence as vermin within the walls of the alien domiciles. The aliens, and their intentions, never are clearly described, reflecting an effort on Tenn’s part to present them as omnipotent figures whose nature essentially is incomprehensible to humans. The narrative is centered on the adventures of a boy named Eric, who, in the opening chapters of the novel, embarks on a manhood ceremony that involves leaving his tribe’s territory to filch food from the aliens.
Eric's efforts soon come to naught, as he is among a number of tribesmen captured by the aliens, caged in a research facility, and used to validate formulations of 'pest control' sprays (the 'pests', of course, being humans). This segment of the book is Tenn's rather blunt way of informing those more dull-witted readers (who up to this point may be unaware that the novel is satire) exactly what type of sci-fi novel they are reading.
I won’t disclose any further spoilers, save to say that Eric manages to find both allies and an escape plan, and a strategy by which Humanity may persevere in an otherwise indifferent universe.
Tenn clearly designed his novel to be a mordant rebuke of the sci-fi stories and novels of the pulp and postwar eras, in which plucky humans relied on ingenuity and courage to overcome their oppression at the hands of technologically and militarily superior aliens. In ‘Of Men and Monsters,’ the struggles of its human protagonists fail to do more than attract incidental notice by the aliens; indeed, humanity’s efforts are so inherently futile that they make a mockery of classic sci-fi tropes. Since it is intended as a rather ponderous exercise in allegory, ‘Of Men’ is dull. Action sequences are comparatively rare, and subordinate to overly plentiful dialogue passages which allow Tenn to sermonize, in an oblique fashion.
The verdict ? ‘Of Men and Monsters’ deserves a One Star Rating, nothing more. In the interests of fairness I will note that Joachim Boaz, over at the 'Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations' blog, gave the novel a 4 of 5 Star Rating. I also note that Rob Chilson’s 1989 novel ‘Men Like Rats’ is a homage to ‘Of Men and Monsters’, but, perhaps because Chilson’s novel is more action-oriented, I found it moderately more entertaining than Tenn’s book.........
