Psychogeist, by L. P. Davies

[Extollager]

The Doubleday Science Fiction edition to the left above caught my eye at the Coos Bay Public Library when I was a kid in Oregon. I've remembered it for almost 50 years and decided to get a copy and read it. I'll be posting about it here.

 

[BAYLOR]

Ive never heard of L P Davies. Cool covers.

 

[Extollager]

Baylor, Davies' most famous novel might be The Artificial Man, which I don't remember at all well, though there's a faint impression that it might have been a leetle like the old McGoohan Prisoner TV series.

Maybe it's just that the image on this paperback edition looks a little like McGoohan... no, it's more than that.

 

[BAYLOR]

Baylor, Davies' most famous novel might be The Artificial Man, which I don't remember at all well, though there's a faint impression that it might have been a leetle like the old McGoohan Prisoner TV series.

Maybe it's just that the image on this paperback edition looks a little like McGoohan... no, it's more than that.

It does look a bit like Patrick McGoohan

Ive never seen any book by this writer , even in used bookshops

 

[tinkerdan]

Back in the late 60's I joined the SF bookclub and he had a number of selections listed. (That's the only place I've ever seen his work.)
I still have my copies of
The Artificial Man
Psychogeist
Twilight Journey
All good and pretty distinctive style.

 

[Extollager]

I've now read this. I'll likely read it again eventually. I didn't feel at the end that I had everything put together, since I read it over a period of a week and was often a bit tired when I sat down with it. The setting is rural England, and the author could have worked up a little bit more of a Geoffrey Household feel to some scenes. It's a combination of mystery, sf, and creepy tale. There are a couple or so things that turn out to be red herrings; some readers might feel that they should have been worked into the plot logic a bit better. I don't think I would have persisted with it when I was 12 or 13, when I first came across it. Not something you owe it to yourself to read, but, on the other hand, you could do a lot worse.