The novel “Footsteps of Angels” by E.C. Tubb was published for the first time in 2003.
People who have nothing in common start falling into a coma-like state. While doctors around the solar system seem completely impotent, Max Feynman, the father of a girl in that condition, is willing to spend any sum to find a way to bring his daughter back to normality.
In his search, Max Feynman finds a lead that will take him around the solar system looking for people who are supposed to have nothing to do with the strange illness but then what hope may he have to save his daughter?
Edwin Charles Tubb wrote “Footsteps of Angels” around 1988 but the novel remained unpublished for about 15 years. Some technological references suggest that before being published the novel was at least revised.
A curiosity: one character is called Tony Anholt, like an actor who was part of the cast of the television series “Space: 1999”. E.C. Tubb wrote six novels related to that series and the actor died the year before the publication of “Footsteps of Angels” so if the name of the this novel character was decided at the last minute and not during the original writing it would be a posthumous tribute.
“Footsteps of Angels” tells Max Feynman’s journey among the planets looking for clues that will let him discover the cause of his daughter’s strange illness to find a cure for her and the thousands of people who have fallen into the same condition.
In the future the zipdrive technology allows reaching speeds around 5% of the light making fast travelling within the solar system possible so Max Feynman decides to go in person wherever it’s necessary to investigate.
The novel is in some ways also an inner journey for the protagonist and can be seen as a meeting point between the novel “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho and the television series “House, M.D.”. “Footsteps of Angels” hasn’t however the likes of a fable like “The Alchemist”, it may actually be even considered a sci-fi answer to Coelho’s novel.
Max Feynman’s inner journey is in fact of a cognitive kind: in his despair he’s initially willing to accept having to deal with people who offer mystical-religious cures which obviosly fail. The real search begins for him when he agrees to be guided in a strictly rational way by sophisticated analysis carried out by computers to find out where to look for the clues needed to get to the cure. During his research however Feynman can’t see what pieces of knowledge are useful and has to fight the frustration of what seems to be a blind search.
During the novel we discover bit by bit Max Feynman’s story and why he’s so tough and ruthless. The other characters are well defined too with details on them inserted here and there.
“Footsteps of Angels” is definitely a good novel. During its reading you can have the doubt that the story is going nowhere but eventually it all comes together, although in a somewhat predictable way. Since the novel is less than two hundred pages long the pace is quite fast and even those who can guess the ending in advance won’t get bored so I recommend reading it.
