Author:	Spider Robinson
Copyright:	1982
Date Reviewed:	5/27/85
Rating:	8.5

Synopsis: "Mindkiller" is an interleaving of two stories about one man. One story is about Norman Kent, a depressed university professor who botches a suicide attempt on the night his sister Madeleine comes to visit. Madeleine has been working in Switzerland for the past ten years. They soon find that they both need each other emotionally and Madeleine moves in with Norman. After three weeks, Madeleine suddenly disappears and Norman never sees her again. Norman is very distraught and by spring break (after almost forgetting the pain) goes in search of his sister's supposed killer.

Meanwhile, 5 years hence, a thief (we'll call him Joe) comes upon a woman named Karen who is attempting suicide in her home by wireheading. A wirehead is a person who has had electrodes implanted directly into the pleasure center of the brain. To commit suicide, Karen tries to starve herself while receiving total pleasure. Karen is not too happy out being saved but eventually comes to need Joe. She learns that in a world where everyone is tagged, Joe is a non-person. Amnesia years ago caused him to forget completely who he is. Somehow, he found himself living in an underground haven which robs the power and phone companies. Joe uses a left over computer to help him plan his attacks.

Both stories now proceed along similar lines. Norman engineers a mock death and sets out to kill his sister's killer. He determines that the killer is probably Jacques, Madeleine's former lover who just happens to be living in Canada where this story takes place. Meanwhile, Karen sets out to destroy the wirehead business and with Joe's help determines that the whole enterprise is run by one man currently living in Canada. Eventually we find out that Norman did reach Jacques but was captured and had his memory erased to be become Joe. Joe again reaches Jacques but this time instead of fighting him he joins his organization. Jacques never kidnapped Madeleine, she came to him of her own free will. Not only does Jacques control the wireheading industry, he in fact controls the world. With the capability of changing anyone's memory, he can do what he wants. His ultimate goal is to perfect a mechanism to transfer minds and memories from one person to another.

Review: "Mindkiller" is an exceptionally good novel with just one flaw. Firstly, it is very well written. The cover described Spider Robinson as the new Heinlein although he reminds more of Larry Niven. As usual with a well written book, I found it very difficult to put down. What is unusual, at least for the last few well written science fictions that I've read, "Mindkiller" has a real plot. In fact, it has two parallel plots which do more than show people traveling from one place to another. In each case, we become more and more interested in the main character as he learns more and more about his problem. For Norman, it was learning how to deal with his sister's disappearance and learning how to do something about it. For Joe, his path is to his own identity. As to style, I found it most interesting that the Norman story is told in the third person and the Joe story is told in the first person. About half way through the book it becomes obvious that the two men are actually the same person at different times, which is about how it should be. If we knew this too early there would be little suspense and if we knew this too late there would be no suspense as to how it all happened in the first place.

Which bring me to the one flaw. The ending of the Norman story was very logical but the Joe ending was too pat, too happy. The stories are overall depressing so a happy ending ruins the depression I was savoring. I just couldn't accept that after all the problems, Norman wakes up to near world domination. What's more, the Jacques character is simply too powerful. Mindwipping might be a powerful tool but the process as presented is too cumbersome to be used on many people (say a president). Furthermore, why go through all the trouble in the first place. After finding his sister safe and happy, Norman should have been happy to join the organization or at least not oppose it. Still, "Mindkiller" is a very readable novel and I look forward to Robinson's next one.