#92. OF MEN AND MONSTERS By William Tenn

Published : 1968
Pages : 235
Overall Mark : 8/10

Giant, technologically duperior aliens have conquered Earth. Humans live like mice, within the massive walls of the aliens' huge home, and scurry about under their feet, stealing from them. A complex social order has evolved, with women preserving knowledge and working as healers, and men serving as warriors and thieves.

For the aliens, people are just a nuisance, nothing more than vermin. Which, ironically, my just be humankind's strength and point the way forward...

WILLIAM TENN (1920-2010)
William Tenn was the pseudonym of Philip Klass. Although he was born in London, he spent most of his life in America, teaching writing and SF at Pennsylvania State College from 1966. He began writing after serving in the Second World War and published his first story, 'Alexander The Bait' in Astounding Science Fiction in 1946. Stories like 'Down Among The Dead Men', 'The Liberation Of Earth' and 'The Custodian' quickly established him as a fine, funny anf thoughtful satirist. In 1999 William Tenn was selected the Science Fiction Writers of America's Author Emeritus.

VERDICT
Clearly inspired by Mary Norton's The Borrowers, this story of narrow views and short sightedness is great fun to read. The idea of an entire sub-species of mankind living in the homes of giant aliens and evolving seperately from each other is a nice concept which is delivered perfectly by Tenn in this short yet idea-filled novel.