Man of Many Minds

by E. Everett Evans, 1stworld Library (Editor)

Cadet George Hanlon stood stiffly at attention. But as the long, long minutes dragged on and on, he found his hands, his spine and his forehead cold with the sweat of fear. He tried manfully to keep his eyes fixed steadily on that emotionless face before him, but found it almost impossible to do so. Tension grew and grew and grew in the room until it seemed the very walls must bulge, or the windows burst to relieve the pressure. The cadet felt he could not stand another minute of it without screaming. Why didn't that monster say something? What kind of torture was this, anyway? And why was he here in the first place? He couldn't think of a single reg he had broken-yet why else would he be called before Admiral Rogers, the dread Commandant of Cadets?

Genres: Science Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Edward Everett Evans

Reviews

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining futuristic listening 🎶🔰

This is a free kindle e-book from Amazon.

He has a special skill of the mind. He is asked to join the special forces and meets his missing father. He is sent on assignments where he uses his skills.

I would recommend this novel and author to 👍 readers of fantasy space opera novels 👍🔰. 2023 😀😯😡😮

This is the last free book by this author (4)

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old space opera I loved as a kid. My old copy is taped up. Might have one more read in it. Luckily, it's now on Gutenberg for free here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19660

Basically, a space cadet makes a tough decision to work for a super secret organization & winds up saving the day on an alien planet through his unique powers. That would be considered a spoiler if it wasn't so obvious just from the genre. It's a typical Campbellian space opera, but one of the least offensive & a lot of fun.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Owned book that I re-read. Juvenile title, can see why it appealed when I was younger--space travel mixed with telepathy and heroism. Probably will not read again though....
Have been thinking about this book today and am changing both the review and my rating. Yes, still the appealing topics of telepathy and heroism are there but the telepathy allows the main character to only read surface thoughts in humans but with other animals/species he is able to control the actions of such and uses that ability to have them kill his adversaries. Also, the book postulates another race based on plant life that is interesting but how they are treated is first their intelligence is downplayed, then they are enslaved and killed (by admittedly the villians in the story), and after that is resolved their intelligence is acknowledged by pretty much in a paternalistic way. So, I don't think this is a message that young readers should be receiving from any book and especially not science fiction (even if this is admittedly an older book first published in 1959).

[La La · Rating 5 out of 5]

4½ stars on the blog.

I had a hard time deciding whether to give this book five stars 4.5 on my blog, or four stars 4.5 on my blog because the first forty percent read the same as a 1940s gangster story with a paranormal slant. The only thing Sci-Fi about it was it being set on another planet. The last sixty percent was extremely Science Fiction with a solid message about the ravages of Colonialism and slavery despite being written in 1954. I asked my son what he thought and he said if the beginning was SF or not, if it was good it should be five stars 4.5 on the blog.

As far as Science Fiction goes this was an easy read and I can see it being a gateway to Sci-Fi reading for some people. For me it was a wonderful palate cleanser after two disappointing Sci-Fi Month reads. I am happy I have the second book already onboard to read.

This was my annual vintage SF for Sci-Fi Month.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure if I like this Evans writer or not. He seems ok, and his writing is decent in this. But, apart from Masters of Space, he always seems to be the same, doesn't he? Never bothers with anything fancy or flashy. I could be wrong, but I kind of felt pretty much anyone could have pulled off his part in this journey. Well maybe not anyone. I mean the Lensman series might struggle with it. Anyway, I did enjoy this. It's almost entirely set in space--you know, a space opera from the nifty fifties, duh. It's just like an episode of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet but with more weapons and less humor. The story is pretty simple: a young man has the ability to read minds and they're just out to hunt down some strangers and interrogate them through telepathy, but there's some good stuff with the relationships between the commander and some of the forces which make it more than just a space opera. I came away kinda space-sick but thoroughly entertained. This is good stuff and well worth reading. And although I don't think Hansen deserves an award for it, he never annoyed me or made me want to throw my copy into the fire, so he can't have been that bad. The descriptions are great and it really sucks you into the whole outer space type deal. Check it out. And by the way, actually I can't remember reading much science fiction like this, but there has to have been some.

[Fred D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cadet George Hansen is in some military school in the far future and is selected to join an elite Secret Service organization. He also has extraordinary mental powers, among them the ability to talk to animals, and transfer parts of his mind into other animals. These powers come in handy throughout his adventures in the Secret Service.

I thought it was a really good book. It has a really strong hook at the beginning that really gets you sympathizing with the character. You see, the Secret Service is so secret, that no one is supposed to know he's a member of it except of course other members. So the suthorities fake his expulsion from the military academy to make it seem to everyone that he's not in the military any more. Once that's done, then he begins his training as a secret agent.

I really enjoyed the beginning of the book a lot, it definitely got me hooked. But The rest of the book I enjoyed somewhat less. Still pretty good, though. The end of the book made me think that more books starring this character were to follow, but I don't know if there were any. If not, there should have been. It's an interesting character, it would have been nice to read more of his adventures.

[J. Boo · Rating 2 out of 5]

1950s space opera. Cadet with secret mental powers [wish fulfillment alert!] is recruited for secret organization on account of his smarts, ethics and the aforesaid powers [wfa!], is re-united with father who turned out not to have abandoned the family after all [wfa!] and heads off on a secret mission. Wish fulfillment gets a little less blatant afterwards, fortunately. I have to give a chutzpah award for the technique by which Evans shoved in backstory - Our Hero is taking his history final exam and writes an essay.

I probably would've enjoyed this more when I was younger. As it is, there were a couple of "But That Isn't How It Works" moments.

2.5 stars. Was kind of on the edge; rounding down since I gave "Planet Mappers", which was much better, a full 3.

Available on Gutenberg.

[bluetyson]

Man Of Many Minds by E. Everett Evans (2000)

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very old school book - interesting concepts

[SciFiOne · Rating 4 out of 5]

1986 grade B-

Teen book