Review of “With No Strings Attached” (1963)
David Gordon (writer).
Read in 2025.
An inventor from Minnesota gradually resigns himself to market his work as a black box, in a suitcase with two electrodes, 14” apart.
This is a step up from “The Professional Approach” (1962) and more realistic—but less elegant—than “Toy Shop” (1962). It’s an entertaining interrogation of the relationship between plausibility, credibility, and realism, all interfacing with patent law, economics and the US military-industrial complex. It’s dressed up in a series of anecdotes told by and about mildly interesting characters in decent prose, without the spectacle and narcissism of more popular science fiction.
References here: Valis (1981).