The novel “Dagger of the Mind” by Bob Shaw was published for the first time in 1979.
John Redpath works as a guinea pig in a telepathy research project. One morning he sees out the door of his house someone with his face flayed but blames the horrific vision on a new drug he was injected to try to stimulate his mental abilities. Therefore he decides to abandon the research even if it’s his only source of income.
Trying to get back to his normal routine, when he goes to the lab to communicate his decision, Redpath flirts with Leila Mostyn, a researcher who works on the project he’s a guinea pig of and with whom he’d like to start a relationship. Soon, however, more and more strange events start happening. The encounter with a strange woman brings him into contact with a strange group of people but this helps to make him think that he lost his mental sanity.
Often in his stories Bob Shaw included people suffering from some illness or disability and in many cases the problem was with sight-related. In “Dagger of the Mind” the protagonist John Redpath is a epileptic and his problem isnìt a sight limitation but, on the contrary, that fact that he’s starting to see more than he’d care to.
For John Redpath being a guinea pig in a research on telepathy seems the only way to have a stable job. When a new drug causes him horrific visions he thinks it’s not worth going on anyway. At that point, however, a series of more unexpected events quickly disrupt his life.
The first part of “Dagger of the Mind” is focused on the analysis of the John Redpath’s mental state and is in my opinion by far the best part of the novel. At first, Redpath is almost a normal person trying to live with epilepsy and leads quite a common life even though his work is peculiar.
Like so many people, his mind is occupied by love problems. He likes Leila Mostyn, a researcher who works with him at the research laboratory but his relationship with her is complex. He think Leila likes him too but she doesn’t want to get committed and has relationships with other men, a fact that is frustrating for Redpath.
John Redpath’s mental state changes when a horrible vision is just the first of stranger and stranger events. Bob Shaw has always developed really well the protagonists of his stories and in “Dagger of the Mind” he combines this characteristic with a story that in some ways resembles Philip K. Dick’s style.
Let’s be clear, Bob Shaw didn’t write stories about fragmented realities and the stuff like that. In fact, in “Dagger of the Mind” he shows point of view of other characters, especially Leila, that allow the reader to understand what’s really going on.
The story takes a turn in the second part of the novel but I think the change is negative. Bob Shaw introduces a new element in the story, a plot twist that’s decisive to get to the ending. The problem is that to me this new element doesn’t seem adequately developed and this weakens the last part of “Dagger of the Mind”.
In essence, most of the novel is a compelling story of mental powers that despite certain tones more typical of horror than science fiction includes a strong psychological introspection. The final part is, however, something different, as if Bob Shaw didn’t know how to get to the end and to do this he added an element. However, in my opinion that makes the ending rather trite.
It’s a shame because I think with a good ending “Dagger of the Mind” could be one of the best novels by Bob Shaw. As it is, I can’t say it’s a bad novel but obviously a disappointing ending weighs in an overall judgement much more than a flaw in another part of the story. For this reason it’s really hard to recommend it though for Bob Shaw’s fans and for people who appreciate this kind of novels it may still be worth reading it.
