Note: appeared as by K. M. O'Donnell
From the cover blurb:
Review:
Review by Guy Salvidge:
The Empty People is Malzberg’s (writing as K.M. O’Donnell) first SF novel. It is an interesting world-reduction exercise in which aliens come to earth, kill just about everyone, and make life tough for the rest. Main characters include the forty one year-old Della, the unnamed ‘Poet’, the man on the sidelines of the action (Rogers), and James Archer, whose brain has been invaded by some malignant force. Most of the book takes place in typical Malzbergian enclosures; the aliens (who are sometimes the Keepers and sometimes the X’Ching) are devoid of detail, and serve as a metaphor for entrapment per se. There are shades of Philip K Dick running through this book, like the Swiss doctor (who recalls Doctor Denkmal and his e-therapy in The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch), as well as phildickian ersatz realities in which bartenders can have their heads blown off only for them to grow back promptly. The aliens contrive a situation in which the Poet (who is/was James Archer) must chase Della, his own wife, through the depopulated streets of New York. It all ends in tears, however...
The Empty People is by no means Malzberg’s best novel but it
is of interest insofar as it is an early showing of the themes that were
to run through his work, namely dehumanization in the face of technology
and alienation from one’s self and those around. It is competently written
(although the style is not as distinctly Malzberg’s own as in later books);
however, there are some minor pacing problems (such as a noticeably flat
spot in the middle) and perhaps the book lacks real narrative energy. Nevertheless,
The Empty People is an entertaining book, and, although it is tinged
with despair, it contains many hilarious moments.