Fallback

by Peter Niesewand

Aging computer genius Martin Ross and Defense Intelligence agent David Cane join forces to thwart a threat to American security and, when Ross is diagnosed as terminally ill, the Agency offers to transplant his brain to a healthy body

Genres: Fiction, Espionage, Thriller

402 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Peter Joseph Niesewand (30 June 1944 – 4 February 1983), journalist and novelist, was born in South Africa but grew up in Rhodesia where he ran a news bureau, filing for the BBC, United Press, AFP, and many newspapers, notably the Guardian. On 20 February 1973 he was arrested and spent 73 days in solitary confinement for his criticism of conditions under Ian Smith's government and his coverage of the guerrilla war. His sentence of two years hard labour for revealing official secrets was commuted on appeal after an international outcry. He was deported on release from prison, leaving behind his wife of three years, Nonie, and young son Oliver. He emigrated to the United Kingdom to complete his only non-fiction book, In Camera: Secret Justice in Rhodesia, and was named 1973 International Journalist of the Year, an award he won again in 1976 for his coverage of the Lebanese civil war, again for the Guardian. As their Asia correspondent he also covered the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan from on the ground, experiences that inform his last novel, Scimitar. He subsequently returned to London to become their deputy news editor until his untimely death of a heart attack at the age of 38.

(Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so ridiculous, but OMG I LOVE IT. I first read it when I was in high school, not long after it was released, when I was in the middle of my political thriller phase and right smack in the middle of the Cold War. I just finished re-reading it and it has definitely stood up to the test of time. This book should not be as fun to read as it is, given the utterly ridiculous turn of events about halfway through, but somehow Niesewand made it work. I not only believed it could happen, I came to realize it was the ONLY WAY it could happen, and as someone who usually has a great deal of difficulty suspending disbelief, that is really saying something.

Four stars instead of five because this most current re-read brought one flaw of the book out that I glossed over completely when I read it in my teens and 20s. Ross and his wife are in their mid- to late 50s. I'm now in my early 50s. It was disheartening and annoying the way Niesewand kept referring to them as "elderly" or talked about how their bodies were "getting ready to die." These are not old people, for crying out loud! Ross's issue with mortality is not due to his age!

But other than that, I still love this book to bits.

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started out as a really exciting spy story. A CIA agent and a computer expert are training for a dangerous mission inside Russia during the Reagan era. When the computer expert gets cancer, His brain is transplanted Into the body of the agent. There was too much time devoted to all the details of the brain transplant. It was hard to read and not interesting except maybe to a medical doctor. Finally, the story of mission is restarted and the story becomes exciting again

[Stephen Hickman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't want to be too hard on a book written 32 years ago at the height of the cold war.
This is a cold war thriller that is a bit pitchy in its construction and almost stutters to a stop half way when the entire set-up of the unfolding espionage is stopped due to a terminal illness. We then restart with the idea that the author wanted to develop all along which is the science of the body/brain transplant that allows our main protagonist Martin Ross, a 59 year old IT guru, to play secret agent.

There are parts of this that work well. The Russian agent Levin and the female agent Jeannie Buchanan, but the pace is arrested by characters that over analyse and muse, and what seems astonishingly complicated and unlikely 'Bond" like set-ups. The US agent, David Crane also has talents in bed and a charisma that beguiles Ross and makes him appear a little wet at times. There is stuff a good editor would have scrapped, but I suspect I am seeing things 32 years after the event, things that we take for granted now that may have been novel then.

A 1980's Lee Child novel, perhaps?

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book 23 years ago when I was in high school and I loved it. I've always wanted to re-visit this book and recently, my wife gave me a copy as a birthday gift.

I enjoyed it just as much - maybe even more - this time around. Computer technology is important in the story but the fact that the information is very dated hasn't kept the book from aging well. I will no doubt read this book again in the future, it's one of my all-time favorites.

[Stacie Murphy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Threw it across the room when I got to That Part. Wasn’t set up as that kind of book, so I wasn’t ready for the sheer implausibility and couldn’t suspend my disbelief enough to go with it. Infuriating.

[Bob Box · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 1983. Suspenseful spy novel.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I keep telling all my friends about this book but 1) its very difficult to get as its out of print; and 2) its not available as an ebook. One of the best cold war novels of its era. Its like a more realistic James Bondesque spy novel. Thrilling to the last page, dowdy old professor gets a brain transplant into a young agents body. Could you make it up? Peter Niesewand did. A great writer sadly no longer with us.

I did not read this book on my amazon kindle, I read it on paper.

[Nicole Diamond · Rating 3 out of 5]

If it has one star I liked it a lot
If it has two stars I liked it a lot and would recommend it
If it has three stars I really really liked it a lot
If it has four stars I insist you read it
If it has five stars it was life changing

[Karunakaran N. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this 25 years back.... goes to the limits of advanced medical research and was incredible. It was frightening, even horrifying and compulsive reading. To revisit it after so many years the feel did not change... Very futuristic....

[Jeff Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all time favorite reads

[Fred · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down. I was 18 and read this 30 years ago. Would be a great movie!

[Martin Paul]

Ahead of its time in the eighties.