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Plague of Pythons

Frederik Pohl

374 ratings
Plague of Pythons | Frederik Pohl

Plague of Pythons

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In a post-apocalyptic world where every government in the world has been overrun by its own military machinery, only to see that military machinery self-destruct, people are randomly being affected by a plague that seemingly takes over their brains and forces them to commit heinous crimes. Chandler is one of these unfortunate victims, the perpetrator of rape and murder. He is driven out of his community as a Hoaxer (someone who feigns being a victim of the plague), branded on his forehead with the letter H. But he is not feigning. In his travels, he finds the source of the plague, and it's not what people think. It's up to him to deal with it, and he does. But to what end?
nd the door was opened at once. Evidently someone had been right inside, listening.

A man stared at him. "Stranger, what do you want?" He was short, plump, with an extremely thick and unkempt beard. It did not appear to have been grown for its own sake, for where the facial hair could not be coaxed to grow his skin had the gross pits of old acne.

Chandler said glibly: "Good morning. I'm working my way east. I need something to eat and I'm willing to work for it."

The man withdrew, leaving the upper half of the Dutch door open. As it looked in on only a vestibule it did not tell Chandler much. There was one curious thing—a lath and cardboard sign, shaped like an arc of a rainbow, lettered:

WELCOME TO ORPHALESE



He puzzled over it and dismissed it. The entrance room, apart from the sign, had a knickknack shelf of Japanese carved ivory and an old-fashioned umbrella rack, but that added nothing to his knowledge. He had already guessed that the owners of this home were well off. Also it had been recently painted; so they were not demoralized, as so much of the world had been demoralized, by the coming of the possessors. Even the elaborate sculpturing of its hedges had been maintained.

The man came back and with him was a girl of fifteen or so. She was tall, slim and rather homely, with a large jaw and an oval face. "Guy, he's not much to look at," she said to the pockmarked man. "Meggie, shall I let him in?" he asked. "Guy, you might as well," she shrugged, staring at Chandler with interest but not sympathy.

"Stranger, come along," said the man named Guy, and led him through a short hall into an enormous living room, a room two stories high with a ten-foot fireplace.

Chandler's first thought was that he had stumbled in

Craig 02/28/2021
This is one of Pohl's underrated short novels from the mid-1960s. It's a mind-control book along the lines of of Eric Frank Russell's Sinister Barrier or Robert A. Heinlein's The Puppet Masters, with the main difference being that the monsters are people. It's a simple morality story (absolute power
Sean 09/29/2013
When I heard that Frederik Pohl, one of the Grand Old Masters of science fiction, had died earlier this month, I rummaged through my collection of vintage paperbacks looking for something of his I hadn't read. I came up with this short 1965 novel.

Someone or something is taking over people's minds an
zjakkelien 07/06/2013
A plague of pythons takes place in the near future, in a world where possession is normal. Huh? Possession? Yes, really. Nobody really knows who is doing the possessing or why. All that is known is that it started from one day to the next, people were getting possessed and performed unspeakable acts
Clark 02/10/2011
Great little SF gem. Spooky and definitely not for the squeamish. It would have been all but impossible to adapt for film when it was published in the early 60's but in today's ultra violent video culture it would be quite the cinematic wild ride. Great premise; well realized. Give it a read.
Manny 05/15/2009
An underrated book. The premise is that a device has been invented which allows the user to assume control of other people's bodies at will: electronically mediated possession, in effect. Pohl explores the consequences unflinchingly.

There are a couple of extremely memorable and disturbing sequences

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