Special Delivery is an alien invasion story with a few twists. The Knoug Empire is a vast galactic empire which is about to add Earth to its possessions, not because they want our planet but because they see it a vital step in their endless struggle with their galactic rivals, the Oholo. We will gradually come to realise that these are two very different empires based on very different philosophies.
The Knoug plan is to demoralise the people of Earth first, after which their invasion should be a simple matter. Their demoralisation plan will make use of the U.S. Postal Service. The Knoug intend to send out millions of packages. We find out very late in the story what those packages contain.
Parr is an advanceman for the invasion. He’s in charge of the mailing out of those packages. He quickly realises that he has a problem. The Oholo are mot supposed to know about the invasion but he becomes aware that there is an Oholo agent on Earth, and that agent is uncomfortably close by. Most of the book is taken up by an extended duel between parr and the Oholo agent.
What makes it interesting is that the duel takes place entirely in the minds of the two rival agents. Both the Knoug and the Oholo are telepaths and they practise advanced forms of mind control. What worries Parr is that the Oholo agent (whose name we later discover is Lauri) seems to have astonishingly powerful mental powers.
There’s another battle being waged, this one entirely inside Parr’s mind. He doesn’t know at first that this internal mental struggle is happening but gradually he becomes paranoid that he is guilty of something. He has no idea what it is but he senses that it is important. And he’s right. It’s very important indeed.
You could probably try to see a political subtext in this novel but that might be a mistake. I think it would definitely be a mistake to assume that this is another science fiction book with alien invaders used as a metaphor for communism. I don’t think it’s that simple. The story definitely is concerned with themes of power and ambition, and with paranoia and mistrust, and manufactured hatred. Parr hates the Oholo, but he isn’t sure exactly why. Of course they’re the enemy, so you have to hate them, but that’s about as far as his mental processes go on the subject. Until now. Now he’s not only troubled by guilt but by an obscure feeling that he’s been wrong about something.
There’s not much action in this story, at least not much of the kind of action you expect in an alien invasion story. No space battles. Some bloodshed, but very little.
The action all takes place within the minds of the rival agents but it’s an epic struggle. A struggle that must end with the destruction of one or both rivals. But they’re fairly evenly matched. It’s not just a matter of brute mental force. It’s a matter of devising a strategy that will end with the destruction of either Parr or Lauri.
The result of the telepathic/mind control duel between these two will determine whether the Knoug invasion succeeds or not.
It has to be said that these are aliens who are very human. But then that’s the point of the story. The author isn’t trying to create alien-like aliens. It’s an encounter between two different cultures that are both essentially different human cultures with fundamentally differing values. Neville has no real interest in anything scientific or technological. There’s no attempt to make anything in the story seem scientifically plausible. This is science fiction about cultural values rather than about spaceships or laser blasters.
It’s at least a moderately ambitious novel and it’s original enough to be interesting. I’m going to recommend it.
Armchair Fiction have paired this novel with Charles F. Meyers’ whimsical No Time for Toffee in one of their two-novel paperback editions.
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