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The Mind Thing - Fredric Brown Book Review

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Review Summary
The Mind Thing is an alien who was unfortunately transported from its own planet to Earth as punishment for a crime that it committed on its own planet. The mind thing is nothing more than a brain in a turtle like shell, but it has the power to take over another mind (human or animal) while that person is asleep. However, it can only leave that mind upon the person or animal's death. It thus can only leave a human's mind by forcing the person to commit suicide. It wants to go home and needs a human to build it a "projector" to get it back home. It takes over many animal and human minds in order to accomplish its goal, but ultimately is stymied by a brilliant professor, who starts piecing together the unusual suicides and puts 2 and 2 together. His secretary, with whom he is not intimately involved, ultimately kills the alien.
speaker43, Resident Scholar


Detailed literary breakdown of The Mind Thing
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 20%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 20%




FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Mental/magical powers focus Yes
magical powers: - mind control (scifi)
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - scientist
Age: - 40's-50's
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence - Genius
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - An "It".
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - an above average amount
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters

Setting
Terrain - Forests
Takes place on Earth? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
scientific jargon? (SF only) - a moderate amount of scientific explanation
Sex in book? Yes
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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Learning Fear by B.A. Chepaitis
Hopscotch by Kevin J. Anderson
Phenomenon by Sameer Zuhad




Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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