Some Will Not Die by Algis Budrys

I guess I am on a Violin Concerto kick these days.  Here is Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61: I. Allegro ma non troppo by New York Philharmonic Orchestra.  The soloist is Hilary Hahn.  I am just becoming acquainted with her playing.  I think she displays a controlled power tempered by a refined and polished technique.

 This is the third book by Algis Budrys I have read but it won't be the last.  I have a few to go.  

The reason is because Josh and I were visiting one of our favorite bookstores, Gladewater Books.  

Let me interrupt myself here and say that Gladewater is a rinky dink town, twenty minutes west of my home with a population of 6, 427 and I'm pretty sure that includes everybody's dogs.  But they have a fabulous bookstore (and about a million antique stores, if you're interested).  The owner and his wife are both lawyers.  He was a prosecution attorney in Houston and came to Gladewater to relax.  He picked the right place.  If you have high blood pressure, move to Gladewater.

But as I said, it boasts of a wonderful bookstore run by this retired attorney and his wife, who is not retired which probably takes the stress off of trying to stay in business.

Recently they hired a young girl who knows where every single book you've ever wanted is in the bookstore.  And that's saying a lot because there's a lot of books.

Anyway, I had just read Algis Budrys' marvelous "Who?" and was eager to get my hands on more of Budrys' books.  The girl, who is maybe almost intrusively friendly, asked if I needed help.  Usually I like to browse without a store clerk following me around begging to help me, but this time I asked,

"Have any Algis Budrys?"

She ran off so fast I thought I had offended her, but shortly she came back with a pile of old paperbacks and handed them to me.  

And that, folks, is why I now own quite a few Budrys and you will be reading the reviews of all of them before the year is out.

While "Who?" was very good, the second, "Michaelmas", was a bit of a bore.  Budrys can get bogged down in minutiae, which really does not propel the plot.  I would place "Some Will Not Die" above Michaelmas and below "Who?"  The review below will hopefully tell why.

Some Will Not Die by Algis Budrys

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I read this book to my husband as we were traveling from Virginia Beach to Washington D.C. I think if I was not reading this to Josh I would have given up on it. However, I am glad I finished it because the story was not without merit. I will briefly describe the plot, what I liked and what I didn't like.

A plague has hit America and the country is plunged into a culture of barbarism. Everyone is out for themselves, pillaging and looting and killing or being killed.

In New York City, Matthew Garvin is one man who struggles to survive, even killing his best friend (which is understandable because his friend wanted to eat him). He stumbles across a woman who is trying to steal medicine out of an abandoned pharmacy for her father. Garvin and the girl team up, cover each other for snipers on the roofs of buildings.

They finally reach the apartment but the father dies anyway. Garvin lives with the young woman and together they manage to scrape out a living.

One day, the encounter their neighbors and risk getting to know them. They team up and with the leadership of his neighbor, Gustav Berendsten, they eventually unite with all the tenants of their building. This leads ultimately to uniting with other apartments, which inevitably leads to turf and power wars. Berendsten wants to unite all people and he ruthlessly attempts it after building a powerful army which fights other factions.

The story jumps back and forth between prologues which are in the future and the past. Each new section takes place with a different generation. We see that America develops from tribal warfare, to gentry that fights with other towns to people eventually learning to live civilly with each other.

I liked how Budrys kept the story growing and not stagnate. We see multiple generations and how they differ from their forefathers. Budrys writes convincing, powerful characters that are worth reading about.

I did not like the detailed information about war strategy. It was just too mundane for me. However, Josh did like that so hopefully I provided everyone with enough information to decided whether this book is for them.



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Who? by Algis Budrys

It has been raining steadily here in east Texas for the past few days.  My friends are posting their belly-aching on Facebook.  I personally love the rain.  It is peaceful and the perfect time to feel cozy with a cup of coffee and a good book.  Perhaps it is a strange thing for a Texas (transplant) to say, but I don't much care for the heat.

Today's music is by a Japanese composer, Tōru Takemitsu: Les Yeux Clos II (Eyes Closed) performed by the pianist, Peter Serkin.

Who? by Algis Budrys

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is probably one of the best science fiction stories I've ever read. I know it's cliche to say, but I literally read this on the edge of my seat with a finger knuckle in my mouth. I'll briefly break down why I liked it so much, but first a synopsis.

Intelligence man Rogers and the Foreign Ministry man are waiting at the border of a Soviet Union check point. They are waiting to receive a scientist from the west who, while working on the classified K-88, was critically injured through an explosion. Somehow the Soviets got to him first and have had him for four months. The reason is because the Western Allies chose to build this lab near the Soviet Union.  Why they did so is revealed later in the story.

Rogers knows that the Soviets have had their man Azarin doing his utmost to extract information from the scientist, Lucas Martino. Knowing Azarin as he does, Rogers shudders at the thought.

Finally a limo on the Soviet side stops at the border. A man exits the vehicle and walks toward Rogers and the Foreign Minister. What they see freezes their blood. Martino is mostly made of metal.

His head is completely covered in metal, his eyes are artificial as are his ears. He speaks and eats through a grill where his mouth should be. His left arm is also artificial, made of metal. He has no heart or lungs. A machine inside does his breathing for him.

This sets in motion the problem that propels the plot through to the end. Is this Martino or is it a Soviet ringer that wants to return to the lab and find out about the K-88. The K-88 is some kind of nuclear device that would turn the Cold War in the West's favor.

Rogers is assigned to find out. How does one prove someone is who he is supposed to be? One can only prove if he's not by catching him in a mistake; but if he doesn't make a mistake, it still doesn't prove the metal man in front of him is Martino.

What makes this story successful is not simply a good plot concept but Budrys' ability to make all the characters human. Rogers is a tough intelligence man in his thirties who can view the (maybe) Martino with compassion but also pragmatism. We also learn about Martino through flashbacks of his life that eventually merge with the present, but don't think you're going to know if the metal man is the real Martino until the very end. And don't cheat! You find yourself caring about Rogers and the maybe Martino. You also get schooling on how Intelligence works in shadowing and tracing people.

What perhaps you don't get is the actual terror that was reigning in the Soviet Union. We in the West did not discover that until the archives were opened in the 1990s. If you want to read shocking accounts of what went on behind the Iron Curtain then read Orlando Figes, "The Whisperers" and Svetlana Alexievich's Second Hand Time. Those two books are non fiction accounts of individual lives that lived during the Soviet era.

Algis Budrys' parents came from Russia in the thirties and, while he was born in Russia, his family moved to America while he was young. Nevertheless, I think that his approach to the Cold War of the fifties, when this story was written, has some personal emotion involved which makes the story all the more compelling.

At just over two hundred pages I defy you to get up before you are finished.



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