War with the Gizmos

Murray Leinster's _War with the Gizmos_ (1958) was originally a novella in _Satellite Science Fiction_ under the title "The Strange Invasion" back in 1958. Like Leinster's earlier _The Brain Stealers_ (1954) and his later _The Monster at the Earth's End_ (1959), _War with the Gizmos_ is a monster story. Now (as many sf aficionados can testify), monster novels tend to be relatively strong in the beginning (when the menace is relatively mysterious), but much weaker with the ending. By the end of the novel, the monster has been on stage a lot longer and is not as terrifying as it was before. And we usually learn that the creature has an Achilles Heel of some kind that allows it to be defeated. Actually, Leinster does a lot better with the second half of his novel than you might expect. The hero is Dick Lane, a sportsman and writer for _Forest and Field_ magazine. He is sent on an assignment to investigate the increasing number of violent deaths of animals-- both wild and domestic. Lane suspects that the animal deaths may also be linked to an increasing number of suspicious human deaths. These suspicions are soon confirmed. While investigating the death of rabbits in the Virginia forest, Lane is attacked by gaseous, near invisible creatures that try to smother him to death. But Lane manages to escape and to contact other people. The remainder of the novel is a series of events in which Lane and his companions try to battle the monsters, even though they seem to grow in power. And then there are the monsters themselves. They are nicknamed Gizmos because they appear as ghostly blips on a radar screen. They are gaseous, translucent almost to the point of invisibility, and murderous. We learn late in the novel that when they make a killing. they divide in two by fission. They can attack living things individually. But they can also group together in a cloudlike mass as tall as a five or ten story building or into "a jinnlike swirling cloud" (59) of whirlwinds. They can be killed with fire, but most people don't realize this and become victims of the Gizmos. They can be captured in sheets. pillowcases. and garbage cans; but few Gizmo prisoners live very long. One of the hero's most likeable companions is a long-suffering dog. The Gizmos keep trying to kill the dog, but that animal just keeps on surviving their worst attacks. The novel is passable fun from one of the best craftsmen in science fiction.