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A Man Obsessed & The Last Planet
Ace Double D-96, printed with "The Last Planet" by Andre Norton
HE HUNTED HORROR THROUGH A MANIAC WORLD!
Jeffrey Meyer had a killing on his mind. It meant nothing to him that his towering Twenty-first Century world was going mad. He shouldered aside the rising tide of narcotics-mania, the gambling fever, the insatiable lust for the irrational. Jeff had his own all-consuming obsession—Paul Conroe must die!
After a five-year frenzied chase, Jeff had his victim cornered; he'd driven him into the last hideaway of the world's most desperate men—the sealed vaults of the human-vivisectionists. And Jeff knew that to reach his final horrible objective, he must offer himself also as a guinea pig for the secret experiments of the world's most feared physicians!
Alan E. Nourse's new novel A MAN OBSESSED has the impact of Orwell's 1984 and the imaginative vigor of Huxley's Brave New World.
HE HUNTED HORROR THROUGH A MANIAC WORLD!
Jeffrey Meyer had a killing on his mind. It meant nothing to him that his towering Twenty-first Century world was going mad. He shouldered aside the rising tide of narcotics-mania, the gambling fever, the insatiable lust for the irrational. Jeff had his own all-consuming obsession—Paul Conroe must die!
After a five-year frenzied chase, Jeff had his victim cornered; he'd driven him into the last hideaway of the world's most desperate men—the sealed vaults of the human-vivisectionists. And Jeff knew that to reach his final horrible objective, he must offer himself also as a guinea pig for the secret experiments of the world's most feared physicians!
Alan E. Nourse's new novel A MAN OBSESSED has the impact of Orwell's 1984 and the imaginative vigor of Huxley's Brave New World.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
Paperback
First published January 1, 1953
57 people want to read
About the author
Alan E. Nourse
257 books41 followersAlan Edward Nourse was an American science fiction (SF) author and physician. He also wrote under the name Dr. X
He wrote both juvenile and adult science fiction, as well as nonfiction works about medicine and science.
Alan Nourse was born to Benjamin and Grace (Ogg) Nourse. He attended high school in Long Island, New York. He served in the U.S. Navy after World War II. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1951 from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. He married Ann Morton on June 11, 1952 in Lynden, New Jersey. He received a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree in 1955 from the University of Pennsylvania. He served his one year internship at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, Washington. He practiced medicine in North Bend, Washington from 1958 to 1963 and also pursued his writing career.
He had helped pay for his medical education by writing science fiction for magazines. After retiring from medicine, he continued writing. His regular column in Good Housekeeping magazine earned him the nickname "Family Doctor".
He was a friend of fellow author Avram Davidson. Robert A. Heinlein dedicated his 1964 novel Farnham's Freehold to Nourse. Heinlein in part dedicated his 1982 novel Friday to Nourse's wife Ann.
His novel The Bladerunner lent its name to the Blade Runner movie, but no other aspects of its plot or characters, which were taken from Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? In the late 1970s an attempt to adapt The Bladerunner for the screen was made, with Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs commissioned to write a story treatment; no film was ever developed but the story treatment was later published as the novella, Blade Runner (a movie).
His novel Star Surgeon has been recorded as a public domain audio book at LibriVox
His pen names included "Al Edwards" and "Doctor X".
He died in Thorp, Washington.
He wrote both juvenile and adult science fiction, as well as nonfiction works about medicine and science.
Alan Nourse was born to Benjamin and Grace (Ogg) Nourse. He attended high school in Long Island, New York. He served in the U.S. Navy after World War II. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1951 from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. He married Ann Morton on June 11, 1952 in Lynden, New Jersey. He received a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree in 1955 from the University of Pennsylvania. He served his one year internship at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, Washington. He practiced medicine in North Bend, Washington from 1958 to 1963 and also pursued his writing career.
He had helped pay for his medical education by writing science fiction for magazines. After retiring from medicine, he continued writing. His regular column in Good Housekeeping magazine earned him the nickname "Family Doctor".
He was a friend of fellow author Avram Davidson. Robert A. Heinlein dedicated his 1964 novel Farnham's Freehold to Nourse. Heinlein in part dedicated his 1982 novel Friday to Nourse's wife Ann.
His novel The Bladerunner lent its name to the Blade Runner movie, but no other aspects of its plot or characters, which were taken from Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? In the late 1970s an attempt to adapt The Bladerunner for the screen was made, with Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs commissioned to write a story treatment; no film was ever developed but the story treatment was later published as the novella, Blade Runner (a movie).
His novel Star Surgeon has been recorded as a public domain audio book at LibriVox
His pen names included "Al Edwards" and "Doctor X".
He died in Thorp, Washington.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 25, 2022
Our man obsessed, Jeff, hated all the frivolities of society around him. But the thing he hated most was Paul Conroe. So he had fixed to kill the man and was ever in hot pursuit. Blinkered and fettered by his fixation he follows his bounty into a madhouse that it is said nobody ever comes out of - A place where the patients are subjected to morbid experimentation.
"He ran across the room and struck the solid brick wall full face. He hit with a sickening thud, pounded at the wall with his fists, screaming out again and again. And then he collapsed to the floor, his nose broken, his face bleeding, his fingers raw with the nails broken."
You're wondering at this point... why wouldn't Jeff leave his prey to the terrible fate that is sure to become him inside that madhouse? Well, that would not a story make. Oh. And Jeff is convinced that Conroe would find a way to escape the place. So Jeff runs on in and finds himself a patient in no time at all. He bunks up with a woman who wields a knife and makes it clear that she won't take any of his shit, but she's a strange character who becomes more of a sad, helpless case as the story progresses. Some of the language that Jeff used towards her later in the story is regrettable.
Interestingly, Conroe is barely glimpsed for much of the story but does play an important part in the ending. The ending is, well, not surprising but still interesting. The main theme in this story is (obviously) obsession and how it affects a person's choices, but it also touched on a few other psychological ideas, many of which are less connected to reality than readers might have believed in the 1950s.
This is my second by Nourse and I thought the writing in this was much less thoughtful than in 'Star Surgeon'. One character is almost always referred to as the "Nasty Frenchman". A line near the start of the book - "Hysteric laughs of feminine noise" - also felt very dated.
I guess you could still plonk this in a pile of medical scifi stories because of the premise but I'd be more inclined to label it medical horror.
This is another one that I listened to in the Librivox app and the narration by Mark Nelson was very good.
"He ran across the room and struck the solid brick wall full face. He hit with a sickening thud, pounded at the wall with his fists, screaming out again and again. And then he collapsed to the floor, his nose broken, his face bleeding, his fingers raw with the nails broken."
You're wondering at this point... why wouldn't Jeff leave his prey to the terrible fate that is sure to become him inside that madhouse? Well, that would not a story make. Oh. And Jeff is convinced that Conroe would find a way to escape the place. So Jeff runs on in and finds himself a patient in no time at all. He bunks up with a woman who wields a knife and makes it clear that she won't take any of his shit, but she's a strange character who becomes more of a sad, helpless case as the story progresses. Some of the language that Jeff used towards her later in the story is regrettable.
Interestingly, Conroe is barely glimpsed for much of the story but does play an important part in the ending. The ending is, well, not surprising but still interesting. The main theme in this story is (obviously) obsession and how it affects a person's choices, but it also touched on a few other psychological ideas, many of which are less connected to reality than readers might have believed in the 1950s.
This is my second by Nourse and I thought the writing in this was much less thoughtful than in 'Star Surgeon'. One character is almost always referred to as the "Nasty Frenchman". A line near the start of the book - "Hysteric laughs of feminine noise" - also felt very dated.
I guess you could still plonk this in a pile of medical scifi stories because of the premise but I'd be more inclined to label it medical horror.
This is another one that I listened to in the Librivox app and the narration by Mark Nelson was very good.
May 15, 2021
A Sci-fi novel from 1955. The audiobook was rather short, just almost 5 hours. Eh this went over my head. I'm not sure quite what I was listening to. Might done better of i had read it or I'm just not enough well read in the Sci-fi genre as I've thought. It was alright but thought the actions and the plot was rather meh, didn't really get any bigger meaning to the story.
June 11, 2016
'HE HUNTED HORROR THROUGH A MANIAC WORLD!
Jeffrey Meyer had a killing on his mind. It meant nothing to him that his towering Twenty-first Century world was going mad. He shouldered aside the rising tide of narcotics-mania, the gambling fever, the insatiable lust for the irrational. Jeff had his own all-consuming obsession—Paul Conroe must die!
After a five-year frenzied chase, Jeff had his victim cornered; he'd driven him into the last hideaway of the world's most desperate men—the sealed vaults of the human-vivisectionists. And Jeff knew that to reach his final horrible objective, he must offer himself also as a guinea pig for the secret experiments of the world's most feared physicians!
Alan E. Nourse's new novel A MAN OBSESSED has the impact of Orwell's 1984 and the imaginative vigor of Huxley's Brave New World. '
Blurb from the 1955 D-96 Ace Doubles Paperback edition.
Jeff thinks he has set the perfect trap for Conroe, the man who murdered his father, in a bar where his mistress is performing. When Conroe arrives the mistress, in the midst of an erotic display, has a spotlight thrown on Jeff. Conroe sees him and escapes. Jeff's hired team cordoning off the area can find no trace of him. The only place he could have gone to would be a feared vivisection institute.
Jeff, desperate to track him down, signs himself into the institute, where big money can be earned by those willing to subject themselves to fiendish and dangerous medical experiments.
Some way into the narrative, Jeff discovers that both he and his room-mate at the institute, Blackie (who bears a suspicious resemblance to the dancer in the bar) possess psi-powers, which leads him on another journey to discover the truth about himself, his father and his death.
This is an odd, very noir-ish, piece set in a world where incidents of mental instability are increasing.
The phemomena of ESP seems hurriedly introduced and is awkwardly handled.
There are also some obvious plot holes, such as the fact that Blackie never reveals that she was, in fact, the dancer in the bar, but the denouement is both interesting and unexpected.
Nothing really out of the ordinary though.
Jeffrey Meyer had a killing on his mind. It meant nothing to him that his towering Twenty-first Century world was going mad. He shouldered aside the rising tide of narcotics-mania, the gambling fever, the insatiable lust for the irrational. Jeff had his own all-consuming obsession—Paul Conroe must die!
After a five-year frenzied chase, Jeff had his victim cornered; he'd driven him into the last hideaway of the world's most desperate men—the sealed vaults of the human-vivisectionists. And Jeff knew that to reach his final horrible objective, he must offer himself also as a guinea pig for the secret experiments of the world's most feared physicians!
Alan E. Nourse's new novel A MAN OBSESSED has the impact of Orwell's 1984 and the imaginative vigor of Huxley's Brave New World. '
Blurb from the 1955 D-96 Ace Doubles Paperback edition.
Jeff thinks he has set the perfect trap for Conroe, the man who murdered his father, in a bar where his mistress is performing. When Conroe arrives the mistress, in the midst of an erotic display, has a spotlight thrown on Jeff. Conroe sees him and escapes. Jeff's hired team cordoning off the area can find no trace of him. The only place he could have gone to would be a feared vivisection institute.
Jeff, desperate to track him down, signs himself into the institute, where big money can be earned by those willing to subject themselves to fiendish and dangerous medical experiments.
Some way into the narrative, Jeff discovers that both he and his room-mate at the institute, Blackie (who bears a suspicious resemblance to the dancer in the bar) possess psi-powers, which leads him on another journey to discover the truth about himself, his father and his death.
This is an odd, very noir-ish, piece set in a world where incidents of mental instability are increasing.
The phemomena of ESP seems hurriedly introduced and is awkwardly handled.
There are also some obvious plot holes, such as the fact that Blackie never reveals that she was, in fact, the dancer in the bar, but the denouement is both interesting and unexpected.
Nothing really out of the ordinary though.
December 3, 2012
I gave this (annoying) Ace double 4 stars, not so much as the stories are that good, but seeing this book brought back memories (good) of my youth (50/50). Norton's story is more appealing. I find the heavy handed anti-gov rhetoric of Nourse over the top.
July 8, 2022
The novel features a mystery with a stinger that is written in a style similar to a traditional thriller, though the premise is thoroughly positioned in science fiction. The institute is creepy and never quite loses the edge which keeps a reader on their toes.
January 28, 2025
Double sided old school book. Nothing more than a fun read. Found in a sick vintage shop. The nostalgia of it gave it an extra star
April 9, 2015
The following is only about 'A Man Obsessed' which I believe is expanded in The Mercy Men.
'A Man Obsessed' is true to the title, with a man obsessively hunting down another man, who (the hunted) we eventually learn killed his (the hunter's) father. When the hunted man apparently escapes into an experimental psychiatric institute, the crazed hunter follows--convincing himself he's just there for the hunt, and not for the treatment.
I thought this book was barbarically violent, with the title character attacking a waitress, shooting up a bar, slapping his roommate when she wouldn't answer questions fast enough, and then throwing himself mercilessly into a wall during his own questioning (among other events). I wonder if the first draft of this novel was a western? The protagonist's roommate, the story's one woman (also love interest) was called 'Blackie' diminutively by the him for her hair color, which everyone else then used (presumably she had a name of her own, but we'll never know).
I didn't think the book was good until the last 15 (of 130) pages... and really I didn't even like everything at the end (which was largely a mix of dream-sequence and 'hidden character narrates the reasoning behind the heretofore disconnected plot points'). But I'll give it a bonus star for having some interesting concepts to deal with: ESP, what society would do upon X-men like mutant arrival, the potential pleasures of lobotomy (!!). Again I don't agree with the author's conclusions, but I'm happy to mentally debate those ideas.
I read this in a day--it's one half of a two-in-one Ace Double, but I got it torn down the middle, and don't have Andre Norton's The Last Planet. Would not recommend (unless you like westerns and ESP), though I might search out this author's highest rated sci fi in the future.
'A Man Obsessed' is true to the title, with a man obsessively hunting down another man, who (the hunted) we eventually learn killed his (the hunter's) father. When the hunted man apparently escapes into an experimental psychiatric institute, the crazed hunter follows--convincing himself he's just there for the hunt, and not for the treatment.
I thought this book was barbarically violent, with the title character attacking a waitress, shooting up a bar, slapping his roommate when she wouldn't answer questions fast enough, and then throwing himself mercilessly into a wall during his own questioning (among other events). I wonder if the first draft of this novel was a western? The protagonist's roommate, the story's one woman (also love interest) was called 'Blackie' diminutively by the him for her hair color, which everyone else then used (presumably she had a name of her own, but we'll never know).
I didn't think the book was good until the last 15 (of 130) pages... and really I didn't even like everything at the end (which was largely a mix of dream-sequence and 'hidden character narrates the reasoning behind the heretofore disconnected plot points'). But I'll give it a bonus star for having some interesting concepts to deal with: ESP, what society would do upon X-men like mutant arrival, the potential pleasures of lobotomy (!!). Again I don't agree with the author's conclusions, but I'm happy to mentally debate those ideas.
I read this in a day--it's one half of a two-in-one Ace Double, but I got it torn down the middle, and don't have Andre Norton's The Last Planet. Would not recommend (unless you like westerns and ESP), though I might search out this author's highest rated sci fi in the future.
Want to read
February 21, 2017Michael has Last Planet M-151 re-issue.
August 28, 2023
I listened to this as part of the 10th Science Fiction Megapack. it was an entertaining interesting read 2023
January 26, 2025
This book was so weird. Would def not read it again
May 22, 2015
Science-Fiction
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews