The Transposed Man

by Dwight V. Swain

The Society of Mechanists considered themselves the inevitable rulers of the universe. But though Operator Forty-four had given up his body and his name to serve the Mek cause, within him existed the seed of memory.

Genres: Science Fiction

100 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Dwight Vreeland Swain's first published story was "Henry Horn's Super Solvent", which appeared in Fantastic Adventures in 1941. He contributed stories in the science fiction, mystery, Western, and action adventure genres to a variety of pulp magazines.

He joined the staff in the extremely successful Professional Writing Program at the University of Oklahoma training writers of commercial fiction and film. He pioneered scripting documentaries and educational/instructional films using dramatic techniques rather than the previously common talking heads. In the 1960s, he scripted a motion picture, Stark Fear, starring Beverly Garland and Keith Toby. He later wrote non-fiction books about writing, including Techniques of the Selling Writer, Film Scriptwriting, Creating Characters, and Scripting for Video and Audiovisual Media, and was much in demand as a speaker at writers' conferences throughout the US and Mexico.

Reviews

[Patrick]

You know what they say: those who can't do, teach. Swain made more of an impact with books on writing than his fiction; The Transposed Man is about the only book of his you can still find today. The yeoman prose, uninteresting characters, and dull plot are more suited to a first year student than a respected professor. Since it dates from more than 50 years ago a lot of it is dated as well. At this point it's a curiosity for fans of Swain's nonfiction and little more.

That is all.