Operator B (Cemetery Dance Novella Series, No. 7) - Hardcover

Edward Lee

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1881475735 ISBN 13: 9781881475736

Publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications, 1999

Synopsis

Science fiction, Lee-style. This critically acclaimed novella involves a U.S. Air Force test pilot recruited for a very special mission: to fly an operational recovered UFO. Any test pilot s dream, right? Wrong. Special disfiguring surgery is required for anyone human who wants to fly the craft. This expertly plotted novella proves to detractors that Lee can write in many arenas, not just horror, and doesn t have to rely on the gross-out to keep readers enthralled. (Lee has implied that he may one day expand this project to novel-length, just as he hopes to expand his hard sci-fi TRIAGE novella 2202.) OPERATOR B made the Preliminary Ballot for 1999 HWA Stoker Award for Best Novella. Little known fact: the working outline for this novella was a screenplay, which is also the case for his well-reviewed conspiracy/UFO novel THE STICKMEN.

About this title

About the Author:

Edward Lee has had twenty books published in the horror and suspense field, including MESSENGER and INFERNAL ANGEL. His short stories have appeared in over a dozen mass-market anthologies, including THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES OF 2000, Pocket s HOT BLOOD series, and the award-winning 999. He lives on Florida s St. Pete Beach.

From Publishers Weekly:

In a departure from his roots as a horror novelist, Lee (The Ushers) presents a near-future UFO thriller novella that begins with the apparent suicide of one Willard Farrington, a test pilot with surgically altered three-fingered hands. The story then cuts to how Col. Jack Wentz, second only to Farrington as a test pilot, is inveigled away from his family (with whom he is about to be reconciled upon retirement from the Air Force) and sent off to a secret underground test facility in NevadaAPapoose Lake, Area S-4. There he finds that his mission is to fly an OEV (Operational Extraterrestrial Vehicle, or in plain English, a flying saucer in working condition) to Mars, to prevent a Russo-Japanese probe from bringing back a lethal virus. Wentz accepts his duty: his hands are altered and he learns to fly the OEV, but when he reaches Mars (along with Col. Jill Ashton), he is stunned by a new series of lethal discoveries. The action never stops, but the brevity of the narrative makes every scene feel rushed; even the exotic hardware that plays a central role in the story is sketchily described. The only exception is a subplot involving Wentz's wife and son, in which the author skillfully covers the high emotional price covert operations exact on the families left behind. That plot thread isn't broad enough to lend the whole novel emotional substance, however; though not without merit, Lee's latest won't full satisfy SF or thriller fans.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1881475735
• ISBN 13: 9781881475736
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 148
• Illustrator: Erik Wilson