Through the Reality Warp by Donald J. Pfeil

"A virtually unlimited power source.  The high command gave the project top priority some time ago, because they believed that only with this unlimited power could you--that is the revolution--be stopped."

Back in October, I found myself in Davenport, Iowa and visited The Book Rack, where I purchased a copy of Donald J. Pfeil's 1976 Ballantine paperback Through the Reality Warp because I liked the Boris Vallejo cover.  It doesn't appear that Through the Reality Warp set the world on fire--isfdb doesn't list any editions beyond this one--but let's see what it's all about anyway.

It is the spacefaring future!  Humanity has encountered many intelligent species, among them the lizard men of planet Quithia, and the slug-like Dervlians.  The Dervlians are emotionless social scientists who have earned the enmity of all other peoples by using humans and other intelligent races as guinea pigs in experiments on a planetary scale, killing them by the millions in their tireless quest for data. Nowadays the Dervlians realize we aren't mere animals and have learned to play nice with others, but many humans and Quithians still hold a grudge.   

Planet Quithia is currently wracked by war, as rival factions of lizard people fight for supremacy, and sexy human newscaster Natasha wants to do some reporting from the battlefield.  So she hires retired mercenary Billiard, who is working as owner/operator of a charter starship, to get her to Quithia.  When they arrive above Quithia, Billiard's computer spots a derelict ship orbiting the planet; aboard it is a dying mercenary.  Before this guy expires he explains to Billiard that he was on a mission to rescue some Dervlian slug-people who are stuck on the surface--because everybody hates the slugs, some lizards will doubtlessly take the opportunity presented by the confusion of the war to murder them, so they hired this merc to extract them.  As members of the same guild, Billiard and this guy share a bond, so Billiard decides to complete his mission, and he and Natasha land on the planet and shoot it out with some lizard people and save the slug people.  Natasha is right in there shooting, saving Billiard's life and the life of some slugs.

Back in space Billiard suddenly gets an emergency message from Mercenary Guild HQ on Earth.  Even though Billiard is retired, he is still obligated by his oath or whatever to answer special emergency summonses, such as this one, so he heads to Earth.  There he is met by various scientists and politicians, who explain to him the novel's main plot, which is like something out of an Edmond Hamilton space opera.  Another universe is sucking away our universe's energy through black holes, and this energy piracy must be stopped, for it puts the very existence of our universe and the alien universe in jeopardy--in a decade or two our entire universe could explode, destroying both universes!  According to the galaxy's best computer, the man with the highest chance of resolving this crisis is Billiard; all he has to do is cross into the other universe, find the machinery the people of the alien universe are using to create the artificial black holes, and destroy it.  Of course, this means he won't be coming home.   

So far, so good.  But then comes my first disappointment.  I had been expecting Natasha and the Dervlian slug people from the first chapter of the book to be accompanying Billiard on this mission, and was surprised to find that our hero was being sent through the black hole in a one-man ship.  Why did we even meet Natasha and the slugs and learn their back stories if they were to play no role in the main plot?  

Anyway, in the other universe the computer on Billiard's one-man vessel picks up native transmissions and compiles an elaborate database on the local space empire; then, over the course of a few months, it teaches Billiard how to speak the local language and familiarizes him with the local culture and politics so Billiard can infiltrate local society with ease.  I was disappointed when Pfeil threw away an opportunity to develop interesting relationships between his hero and Natasha and the slugs, people whose different life experiences and values could serve as a contrast to Billiard's own, and now I was disappointed that Pfeil threw away an opportunity to depict an alien universe that was truly alien and instead sent Billiard to a universe which shared with our own every significant physical, biological and political attribute.  The inhabitants of the local space empire, centered on planet Lori, whose scientists are responsible for the machine that is stealing energy from our universe, are humans exactly like Earth humans, so Billiard fits right in!  There is no reason for the menace in this novel to be based in another universe--it could just as well have been in another galaxy or just another star system--and Pfeil does nothing to generate fish-out-of-water tension, speculate about alternative political or social arrangements, or paint vivid pictures of strange new cultures.

The Lorian Empire is in the middle of a civil war, the current emperor beset by revolutionaries who seek to overthrow him.  (Pfeil and his characters always refer to this conflict as a "revolution," but there is no discussion of ideology, so it all just feels like a power struggle between two men who both want to be emperor.)  Billiard's abilities as a leader of men and his military skills (all of which apply just as well in this universe as back home) enable his rapid rise to head of the revolutionary space navy.  The middle section of Through the Reality Warp chronicles this rise.  Billiard trains the revolutionary navy personnel to a high state of expertise and also forges with them an unbreakable bond by leading them into many dangerous battles.  On one such raid his two-man craft is shot down over a jungle planet, and he and his comrade, a beautiful woman gunnery officer with whom he is having a love affair, cross wild terrain, overcoming many obstacles on their way to a settlement of non-human aliens.  I expected some interesting interactions with these aliens, but was again met with disappointment, as Billiard and the gunner never reach the alien settlement, instead being rescued in a deus ex machine scene by a squadron of revolutionary spacecraft.  I felt that Pfeil had again blown an opportunity to offer the reader something interesting, and that the trek through the jungle, like the rescue of the Dervlian slug people, was a pretty good adventure sequence that did nothing to advance the plot.

Pfeil fails to give personality to any of the individuals or demographic groups in this alien universe, and doesn't do much to develop Billiard as a character, either.  Our hero is an absolutely ruthless man, willing to do anything in pursuit of his mission of saving our universe.  After leading the revolutionary navy to victory in a decisive battle over the loyalist navy, he convinces the current emperor to surrender.  Then he murders the emperor, and frames the leader of the revolutionaries for the murder, giving him an excuse to publicly arrest his own commander and fill the job opening of emperor with himself.  

The final third of the book wraps up the story.  A few months after taking the throne, Billiard's intelligence apparatus discovers the location of the hidden laboratory that houses the device that is drawing energy out of our universe.  It is protected by a forcefield, but brutal interrogation of the head of the previous government's research program yields the key to the field.  Our universe, which is a four-foot sphere in this universe, is being held in the lab, so Billiard can't just blast the lab to smithereens from a space warship; instead he has to lead a combined arms attack on the fortified lab, first driving a tank and then leading an assault on foot, firing small arms and throwing grenades and so forth.  After the gory fight, in which Pfeil describes people's brains being blown out of their skulls and a man's severed head bouncing away, leaving a trail of blood, our hero secures our universe and hides it in an uncharted area of space.  The story then ends with Billiard determined to marry that gunner, bring good government to the Lorian Empire, and expand its reach to the entire galaxy.

Through the Reality Warp is mediocre.  While competent on a scene by scene basis, it lacks character, theme and atmosphere, and the plot is just an excuse to string together some action/adventure scenes.  Unable to challenge the reader intellectually, or elicit any emotion from the reader, we'll call this one merely acceptable.