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JACK_OF_EAGLES

                                             November 24, 2012
                                             December 30, 2012


  "Jack of Eagles" by James Blish:                        QUINCUNX
  a science fiction novel I've always
  liked, though it's certainly not one            BLISH
  of Blish's best known.                                  CITIES_IN_FLIGHT

  This is one of the many examples
  that lie in the rather wide gray
  area between Science Fiction and
  Fantasy.  This story is by no         RAYMONDS_FOLLY
  means "hard SF": it's all about
  secret societies with psionic
  super-powers.  But on the other
  hand, it tries hard to depict
  it's version of psionics as being
  grounded in physical laws,            I would've guessed this was
  ammenable to scientific reasoning     edited by Campbell, but apparently
  and experiment.                       it was an Ace novel, expanded from
                                        a 1949 story in Thrilling Wonder
  "Science Fiction" stories often
  feature magic in disguise,                 http://www.troynovant.com/Franson/Blish/Jack-of-Eagles.html
  dressed up in a silver jump-suit
  to make it seem futuristic.
  This is not (or is not supposed
  to be) a story like that.

  Throughout the novel there's an interesting
  attitude toward technology on display that
  can be summed up with the Make magazine
  slogan of "If you can't open it, you don't
  own it."  A gadget isn't something with a                                   
  single function, it's a collection of parts     One of the heroes gets a    
  that can be made to do different things *if*    hold of an oscilloscope,         
  you're a fully functional, intelligent human    while getting ready to pull      
  being and not a cave man dressed up in a        another serious all-nighter.     
  blue suit.                                      His reputation for               
                                                  cannibalizing equipment is       
      In one of the better scenes:                such that someone comments       
      our hero has been imprisioned               that he'll have it frying        
      and forced to swallow a                     eggs by morning.                 
      psychic jamming device to                                                   
      prevent him from using his powers.
                                                                             
      He forcibly vomits it up, and instead of just                          
      throwing it away, he scrapes off the solder
      sealing the case shut, pries it apart, and
      finds it has a number of adjustable set
      screws.  He realizes it's actually a psychic
      amplifier that was intentionally de-tuned to
      act as a suppressor.  He begins envisioning
      physical equations that might apply to what
      the device actually does, and makes guesses
      about what parameters the set screws are
      intended to adjust... and the gadget that was
      supposed to keep him restrained actually makes
      him more powerful, and allows him to escape.




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