Mel Broward is currently a guest at the Greater Pittsburgh Criminal Retribution Center, a situation occurring when the Prosecution decides they don’t need his offer to turn States evidence to convict his boss. Then some aliens on Kolinti-pheet-riggador need a pro hacker and he’s their choice. If he succeeds in what they want, he finishes his sentence under house arrest, if not… Deciding the former is better than a prison where there’s a warden who’d like nothing better than to lock him in a cell and throw away the key, Broward accepts and is whisked away by a seven-foot, gray-faced alien named Neertreffa, a member of the Galactic Club. Arriving at the camp, he also learns something else; his companion is currently male but like many members of the Galactic Club, is a facultative opportunistic hermaphrodite, and at the suggestion of this human who’s been in prison for some time, Neertreffa becomes female. Now Broward’s bedmate as well as his new wardon, the alien gives him the facts: . Treff’s planet and T’Nayfo are at war and he and the alien are now on Ferolsutha, the main battleground, but it’s not the usual war. Instead, it’s one fought with press releases and comedians’ monologues. Broward’s task is to crack the computer of a Ferolsuthan guerilla unit.
A couple of hours in a Learning Tank and he’ll be good to go. When Broward wakes up, however, he finds his partner stuffing him into a protective suit because a rival sociologist named Murtka Siffree is bombarding the station with radiation. The only hope for their survival is to H-bomb their own camp and escape, using the suits for protection. It sounds like suicide to Broward but what does he know? As Treff sets the bomb, they begin a frantic scramble across an already devastated planet, to wait for rescue by the Galactic Club or death by Murtka, who is dogging their tracks.
What kind of parole is this? Now Broward is in the middle of a war that isn’t supposed to be a war, with no supplies, in a suit rapidly absorbing radiation. And then he and Treff get separated…
MY OPINION: Although I’ve sincerely enjoyed Mr. Levenson’s other stories (see last week’s review of his I Will), this one didn’t particularly appeal to me and I don’t know why! Though I tried, I can’t pinpoint the exact reason. It’s as well-written as the others. It certainly has an attention-getting subject, and the two characters are definitely intriguing—an opportunistic human in over his head in something he doesn’t understand in order to gain his freedom, and a gender-changing alien. Perhaps it’s the brevity of the story. Or the scarcity of characters. Or the description of the two protagonists: Broward is a little too opportunistic to be viewed sympathetically and Treff cries too much. Whatever the reason, though I began reading with the same expectation of enjoying the characters as I have in other Levenson novels, I just couldn’t get interested in these two.
Don’t let this stop you from reading Parole, however. One reader’s lack of interest may well be another’s delight. And I’ll look forward to the next one.
This novel was supplied by the author and no remuneration was involved in the writing of the review.
