The Fury

By John Farris
For Christmas I got a whole pile of books by some new authors to try. In addition, I did get Stephen King’s new book (11-22-63), but I thought I should hold off on that one and give somebody new a try. I can’t wait to read it, but I must say I couldn’t have made a better choice on a book (series) to read.
This book revolves around Gillian Bellaver and Robin Sandza. These two teens are spiritual twins (meant to be siblings, until an umbilical strangling forced Robin to transfer to a new body) who possess a number of paranormal abilities. Gillian is the daughter of a wealthy family, living in New York City. Following an incident at a skating rink, Gillian soon becomes very ill. This illness seems to augment her psychic abilities, and is soon having episodes of precognition and astral travel. Robin also possesses similar abilities, expressed initially by his communication (and sedation) of a troubled child with Autism. Robin is soon pursued by a covert government agency known as MORG. He is ultimately captured, and imprisoned in an effort to harness his psi-abilities. At this point, Robin’s father (also a government agent) Peter begins searching for his son. We delve deeper into Gillian’s expanding powers, and the relationship between her and Robin. The book was filled with action, and I was dying to find out what would happen next. Ultimately, the ending was more succinct than I would prefer. But it was still satisfying, regardless. As an added bonus, the author revisited the characters since the late seventies and wrote three companion novels.
I enjoyed the author’s writing style, and felt that the strength of this novel was the fact that he didn’t overdo the paranormal “science.” By focusing more on the conflict of Peter, and Robin’s distress at the MORG agency, he kept the novel from becoming one of pseudoscience and pure fantasy. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series.
As a side note, this book was made into a movie in the Seventies with Kirk Douglas. While the movie was ok, it’s practically a completely different story from the book. There are enough parallels to recognize the source, but otherwise I’d take the book over the movie any day.
Rating: 4/5 Bunsen Burners
Up Next: The Fury and the Terror.