Double Threat by F. Paul Wilson
Daley has a problem. Her 26-year life so far has been unconventional, to say the least, but now she's got this voice in her head. It claims to be a separate entity that's going to be sharing her body from now on. At first she thinks she's gone schizophrenic, then considers the possibility that maybe she really has been invaded - but by what? Medical tests turn up nothing, yet the voice persists... and won't stop talking!
When she finally accepts the reality that she has a symbiont, she discovers that together they can cure people of the incurable.
Maybe hosting a symbiont isn't such a bad thing.
She retreats to a remote town in the southwest desert to hone her healing skills. But there she runs afoul of the Pendry clan, leaders of an obscure cult that worships the Visitors who inhabited the area millions of years ago. They plan to bring them back but believe Daley is the prophesied "Duad" who will undo all the cult's efforts. She must be eliminated.
You know things are bad when the voice in your head is the only one you can trust.
Wilson has created a couple of great characters. Daley and Pard, the name she gives to the symbiont, effortlessly play off of each other. While Daley gives Pard a body, he gives her a fresh outlook on her life. Not to mention that of the people they’re able to cure of various diseases.
There are some hints that maybe this is yet another arm of the “Secret History of the World” world. To start with, it’s an update of Wilson’s novel Healer, though the original book is part of his “LaNague Federation series.” But there’s something going on in this book that’s based on Nikola Tesla’s work, so that ties the story to Wardenclyffe. Checking Wilson’s website, it appears that this book is in “Year Zero” of the “Secret History.”
The book end with a cliffhanger, without any mention of this being the first book in a series. Wilson doesn’t make a habit of leaving things up in the air, so I’m hopeful. But he does lose a star because of it. Not cool. Not cool at all.
Mount TBR 2022 Book Links
Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.
1. The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
2. The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig
3. The Autumn Throne (Eleanor of Aquitaine #3) by Elizabeth Chadwick
4. Grant's Final Victory: Ulysses S. Grant's Heroic Last Year by Charles Bracelen Flood
5. Doctor Sleep (The Shining #2) by Stephen King
6. The High House by Jessie Greengrass
7. Leadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin
8. Nightmare Country by Marlys Millhiser
9. The End of the Ocean by Maja Lunde, Diane Oatley (translator)
10. 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King
11. The Bear (The Grizzly King: A Romance of the Wild) by James Oliver Curwood
12. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
13. The Wrong End of Time by John Brunner
14. The Hidden Child by Louise Fein
15. The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel
16. The Virtues of War by Stephen Pressfield
17. Our Oldest Companions: The Story of the First Dogs by Pat Shipman
18. The Man in the Moss by Phil Rickman
19. The Redemption of Wolf 302 by Rick McIntyre
20. John of Gloucester by Wendy Miall
21. Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism by Laura E. Gómez
22. The Cold Calling (The Cold Calling #1) by Phil Rickman
23. The Keep (Adversary Cycle #1) by F. Paul Wilson
24. Pines (Wayward Pines #1) by Blake Crouch
25. The Speed of Souls: A Novel for Dog Lovers by Nick Pirog
26. The Yorkists: The History of a Dynasty by Anne Crawford
27. With Face Aflame by A.E. Walnofer
28. The Gypsy Morph by Terry Brooks
29. Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton
30. Wardenclyffe (The Secret History of the World) by F. Paul Wilson
31. Goblin by Josh Malerman
32. The Queen Who Never Was by Maureen Peters
33. The Ministry of Truth: A Biography of George Orwell's 1984 by Dorian Lynskey
34. Richard III’s Books by Anne F. Sutton & Livia Visser-Fuchs
35. Gwendy's Final Task (The Button Box #3) by Stephen King, Richard Chizmar
36. Malorie (Bird Box #2) by Josh Malerman
37. Where We Come From by Oscar Cásares
38. The Unconquered Sun by Ralph Dulin
39. The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman
40. The God Eaters by Jesse Hajicek
41. The X Factor by Andre Norton
42. The Last Wild Horses (Climate Quartet #3) by Maja Lunde, Diane Oatley (Translator)
43. The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner
44. Double Threat by F. Paul Wilson
