Call Him Nemesis

by Donald E. Westlake

This book was classic literature published initially more than two centuries ago and has been out of print for decades. We, have taken the initiative to preserve this title and bring it back to the shelf once again to preserve the legacy and promote such a timeless classic piece.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories

34 pages, Paperback

Published May 29, 2022

About the author

Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008) was one of the most prolific and talented authors of American crime fiction. He began his career in the late 1950's, churning out novels for pulp houses—often writing as many as four novels a year under various pseudonyms such as Richard Stark—but soon began publishing under his own name. His most well-known characters were John Dortmunder, an unlucky thief, and Parker, a ruthless criminal. His writing earned him three Edgar Awards: the 1968 Best Novel award for God Save the Mark; the 1990 Best Short Story award for "Too Many Crooks"; and the 1991 Best Motion Picture Screenplay award for The Grifters. In addition, Westlake also earned a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1993.

Westlake's cinematic prose and brisk dialogue made his novels attractive to Hollywood, and several motion pictures were made from his books, with stars such as Lee Marvin and Mel Gibson. Westlake wrote several screenplays himself, receiving an Academy Award nomination for his adaptation of The Grifters, Jim Thompson's noir classic.

Some of the pseudonyms he used include
•   Richard Stark
•   Timothy J. Culver
•   Tucker Coe
•   Curt Clark
•   J. Morgan Cunningham
•   Judson Jack Carmichael
•   D.E. Westlake
•   Donald I. Vestlejk
•   Don Westlake

Reviews

[Richard Derus]

Cute! Pretty standard journeyman fare, but cute nonetheless. Cops figure prominently; so does an unusual kid with a smart mouth and a clueless bumbling mama; and the ending is vintage Westlake, the existing power (maybe "powers" is a better term) structure upended without being destroyed. Maybe call it "subversion lite," like Westlake's Dortmunder books.

I don't know why Donald E. Westlake's brief, undistinguished career as a writer of SF swam back into my ken. This particular story is free on Project Gutenberg's treasure trove. It first appeared in If Science Fiction, a long-dead second-rank digest magazine whose entire run of 22 years (1952–1974) was...okay. Frederik Pohl and James Baen were among its editors, so one must suppose that the, um, variable quality of the magazine was budgetary in nature.

A kid whose comic-book addiction gives him superpowers uses them to punish wrongdoing. Pretty bland, eh? But that's because, as Westlake himself acknowledged, he was a mystery writer who accidentally wrote SF stories. (This took place in an exchange on the 1960s Internet, the Letters page of legendary-among-fans Xero fanzine.) It shows. It's not bad writing just...workmanlike. Undusted with genius's glitter. Perfectly fine.

Why would I say you should read it? Really, I wouldn't. If you have ~25min to while away and nothing on your ereader suits, Gutenberg it up. "Free" is a glorious thing when time hangs heavy and a morsel of fiction makes one's ears prick up.

[Timothy Morrison]

apparently this is about a boy who somehow got real superpowers

[Robert Fontenot]

It’s fine for what it is, but it feels like the author was working towards a word count. This does lack much of the verve that makes the best Westlake stories sing.

[Pat]

lots of fun.

I enjoyed this story. No harm. No horror. Just a clever concept. You have to be one who can accept the idea of a willing suspension of disbelief.

[Patrick]

One of Westlake’s earliest, quite short and slight. It feels padded (and dated). It starts as a crime novel but takes a science fiction turn. In more experienced hands, it could have been developed into something more, perhaps. Who is the scorpion? How is he fighting crime? Why does he seem to have the mind of a child who reads too many comic books? If you come across this, you can read it in an hour, but I wouldn’t work too hard to chase it down