Although the dystopian futurist world that author Robert Bloch sets his science-fiction thriller Sneak Preview in has become a dated cliche, his social and political commentary, and satire, has aged quite well; despite his central theme having already been played out countless times before, in far better (and worse, to be fair) science-fiction novels, short stories, and films from the decade that preceded his novel's publication in 1971.
In his unauthorized autobiography, Once Around the Bloch, Robert Bloch stated outright that he had no real aptitude for science-fiction, a genre that he loved, and that his true strength as a writer was in telling tales of supernatural horror and, most famously, psychological suspense. He could also concoct a mean pun and had a genuine talent for humor. Every yarn he spun had at least one good zinger in it. The zinger in Sneak Preview
is an utterly unrelated to the plot digression (one of several) entitled, Flashback: Down Memory Lane. It tells the tale of a poor traveler named Kenner and his delay plagued attempt to return home after a trip to Rio. It is a masterful bit of writing that anyone who has ever traveled can relate to.
Lane is the last of eight "Flashbacks" that Bloch uses to pad out the first one hundred or so pages of Sneak Preview, which is only one hundred and ninety-two pages long. Only one of them qualifies as science-fiction, and none of them have any connection whatsoever with the primary story they elongate.
The Good Old Days, the first of the bunch, is more joke than story, while the second, Our Glorious Past, is a gruesome horror story about an unfortunate soldier's most inglorious of fates. A Touch of Nostalgia, the third, is yet another horror story, about a funeral director that comes up with an enterprising idea of how to better profit from the new business being generated from a current, and escalating, war. Remember When, the fourth, is a hilarious, and biting, dig at the neurotic foibles of human nature, something that Bloch excelled at, thus making it essential reading for any aficionado of Robert Bloch. Old Home Week, the tale of a doomed astronaut, is the only "flashback" tale that truly qualifies as a science-fiction story. That Old Time Religion, the penultimate flashback, contains the strongest thematic link with the short novel that it is padding to full novel length. The tale of a spinster's life long attempt to connect with the confusing, distant, and hostile world around her, the story is Bloch at his most existential. The brutal force of the ironic climax is like a fatal sucker punch to the gut.
But what of the short novel these stories are padding out?
Sneak Preview's primary story is that of Graham, a Space Opera "Talent" (an individual tasked with giving the post-apocalyptic and brainwashed masses safe and non-challenging escapist entertainment) whose creative imagination has awakened an urge to rebel against the status quo. When he attempts to break out of his assigned Space Opera box, Graham is whisked away by the Psychos, the psycho-analyst elite that "program" (i.e. control) the peaceful thought processes of the populace. (It is also an unfortunate name choice, as the term Psycho constantly reminded me of Bloch's far superior novel of the same name
.)
Graham's rebellious adventure against the Psychos offers Bloch plenty of opportunities to both skewer and comment upon the cliches of the Space Opera - which he does, with obvious relish - while indulging in them at the same time. The end result is a wildly uneven, albeit enjoyable on its own flawed terms, futurist dystopian thriller with a generous dollop of black humor.
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