The Infinity Box
Reviewed date: 2004 Sep 14
Rating: 3
76 pages
The Infinity Box is published in Tor Double No. 12, along with He Who Shapes by Roger Zelazny.
When a mentally unbalanced woman moves into Eddie Laslow's neighborhood he has no inkling of the changes she will effect in his life. As he learns more about Christine Rudeman and her late husband's experiments on her mind, he begins to experience firsthand the lure of total control. The more he understands her, the more he can control her. But is she also controlling him?
As Eddie progresses in his understanding of Christine's condition, his thoughts turn dark and sinister. The effect is chilling. I recommend this novella for the way it portrays the utter depravity of the human mind.
I nearly rated this a four out of five, but one thing held me back. Frederik Pohl's classic Demon in the Skull* offers a much deeper, more thorough, and more bone-chilling treatment of utter mind control and of human depravity. Viewed in the shadow of Pohl's book, Kate Wilhelm's The Infinity Box rates a three out of five.
* Also published as A Plague of Pythons.