The novel “Sinister Barrier” by Eric Frank Russell was published for the first time in 1939 in the magazine “Unknown” and in 1943 as a book in a revised and expanded version.
Bill Graham is shocked when two scientists his agency has funded die within a short time. A quick investigation leads him to discover that they were two of the many scientists who have recently died, and that some of them appeared to have gone mad. This situation immediately raises his suspicions.
When he turns to the police, Bill Graham is met with skepticism because there’s no evidence that the scientists were murdered, but Lieutenant Art Wohl helps him uncover other cases, making such a coincidence highly unlikely. Gathering fragments of information, the two of them discover that Peder Bjornsen had identified the presence of strange creatures, visible only in infrared light, which appear to be able to control humans.
“Sinister Barrier” was Eric Frank Russell’s first published novel. The author was explicitly inspired by the ideas of Charles Fort, who spent his life documenting alleged paranormal or otherwise anomalous and inexplicable phenomena. The ideas expressed in his books were well-suited to fantasy and science fiction stories; in this case, the idea of humanity as cattle of another species.
At the beginning of the novel, before dying of a heart attack, Professor Peder Bjornsen comments that swift death awaits the first cow that leads a revolt against milking. It’s a comment that leads to reflections on what would happen to a cow if it realized it was living only to be exploited by beings of another species.
Eric Frank Russell was a fan of Charles Fort’s books and drew on the idea of humanity as livestock to build a story that begins as a detective story, in some ways closer to the hard-boiled thrillers typical of the time than to a science fiction tale. Perhaps this is why, among the many characters who appear in the novel, Lieutenant Art Wohl is among the very few with a distinct personality.
In developing the plot, Eric Frank Russell also includes various technical and scientific elements that offer a vision that, at the time, was decidedly futuristic for 2015, where the story begins. Police work is also influenced by the possibility of using advanced tools during investigations. These investigations increasingly lead to research conducted by scientists, even if they are very dangerous for whoever conducts them.
The novel changes connotations and tones as the two protagonists shed light on what’s really happening to so many scientists. The progressive understanding of what lies behind so many historical events leads to growing paranoia and more. Even events recorded throughout time as inexplicable are reinterpreted, thanks to the author’s inspiration from Charles Fort’s works.
The story unfolds at a fast pace and with plenty of action, including dangers for the protagonists and others. Plot twists and surprises help keep the reader’s attention until the end. The characters tend to have little development, but this is a typical problem with stories of that era.
Eric Frank Russell wasn’t the only writer who exploited Charles Fort’s ideas, but “Sinister Barrier” is probably the most famous among the works of this type. It was already a science fiction classic when it inspired the “Star Trek” original series episode “Day of the Dove.” Decades later, it’s a must-have for any science fiction fan. You can buy it on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
