Omnivore (Of Man And Manta #1) Book

In 1968, when Omnivore was first published, Piers Anthony was a celebrated science fiction writer. His 1967 novel, Chthon, was nominated for the Hugo for Best Novel, as was his 1969 novel, Macroscope. Neither won (Chthon lost to Zelazny's Lord of Light and Macroscope lost to LeGuin's masterpiece The Left Hand of Darkness- which also beat out Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5. Novels from 1968 that were nominated for the Hugo included Delany's Nova, Lafferty's Past Master, and the winner, Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar). Amidst this plethora of riches, Omnivore stands out for two reasons: the novel's unique construction and its biological theme.

Anthony grabs the reader's attention from the first page, introducing as the novel's protagonist a detective who has had his memory wiped clean. In this way, society ensures that the investigator cannot bring any preconceptions to the investigation. For the reader, this mechanism allows one to learn along with the protagonist the nature of the alleged crime being investigated, the personalities of the parties to the crime, and the ultimate resolution of the case. This unique twist saves the novel from being a predictable detective story. It takes a while for the nature of the crime to be revealed, but along the way Anthony builds a fascinating alien biology based on fungus and gently educates the reader on the importance of fungi to the entire ecology of the Earth. It is this biological element that I found the most fascinating part of the book. Not enough of science fiction focuses on the biological sciences, despite the fact that the Earth is much more likely to face biological catastrophe than an asteroid collision.