3 out of 4 stars
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The Inlooker is a dark humor science fiction story written by Terry Tumbler. The book, told in the third person perspective, was about Thomas Beckon, a man who had the ability to subdue another person’s soul and take control of his body.
After being unjustly dismissed from his job, Thomas started to exploit his ability and carried out justice against a couple of criminals then sought sexual gratification from beautiful women. In a moment described as similar to boredom, Thomas decided to utilize his ability to generate income by exacting cash from unsuspecting wealthy people and invested on a special item of clothing. It was in one of these covert stunts when Thomas clashed against an alien presence. After this strange encounter, Thomas accepted the existence of beings, from other planets, co-existing with humans.
He, then, started another venture which involved production of silver-colored, egg-shaped, anti-gravity vehicle he called Personal Official Transport (POT), eventually called potties. They were fuelled by silver liquid, the origin of which was not disclosed to the public. To overcome resistance against his potties, Thomas permanently took control of the Minister of Transportation’s body and ultimately got elected as Prime Minister.
The author masterfully wove a quite humorous tale based on serious national and even global issues including traffic jam, population explosion and even alien invasion. Moreover, Terry Tumbler soften the premise by presenting familial matters. Thomas, despite his financial success, still felt incomplete when he realized how he neglected his wife and daughters, the evidence of which was the abduction of the older daughter and her husband.
As dark humor goes, the book was at some points funny, sarcastic and offensive, what with acronyms like POT for personal official transport, ODD for On Demand for Democracy and even ARSES for alternative, randomly, self-modifying egress structures.
This was actually my first time to read a book with dark humor so I did not know what types of characters to expect. I can only say that Thomas was a man of contradictions. He hated criminals but justified robbing from wealthy people. He loved and cherished his wife but sought sexual adventures with other women. He had the best interest of mankind in mind but neglected his own daughters and even held a grudge against Sharon for not paying the 500 pounds she borrowed.
Generally, the book was well written. However, I found some unexplained issues, like how Thomas got in touch with the extra-terrestrial beings and how he managed to get hold of the silver liquid that fuelled the potties. Moreover, there was no backstory on how Sharon and David were abducted. In addition, I noticed some incorrect usage of words like mine instead of mind and who’s instead of whose. Finally, there were numerous repetitions pertaining to Thomas being in possession of Broadbent’s body. It was repeated about seven times in the entire book.
In view of the above, I give this book 3 out of 4 stars. It is interesting, amusing, and highly entertaining with a surprising subject mentioned in the end. I recommend it to those who enjoy science fiction and stories with dark humor and touch of paranormal.
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The Inlooker - Full Length
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