Today I read The Ultimate Catalyst, by Eric Temple Bell. The author eased me slowly into the setting, not explaining the setting in detail at the beginning, as most authors seem to do, somewhat distracting the flow of their writing; instead, he slowly revealed information as events progressed in a completely natural manner. Though this led to some confusion at first about exactly what was going on, the characters’ circumstances were quickly explained, even if their motives weren’t immediately evident. I found the idea presented in the story of changing magnesium to iron or vice versa quite intriguing, and I thought that incorporating the small chemical differences between chlorophyll and hemoglobin was extremely interesting, especially since Bell was a mathematician who published his stories under the pseudonym of John Taine. Despite his background, though, he wrote skillfully, and the conflict between Beetle and Kadir was introduced cleverly, so that I understood Beetle’s motives, but not what he was going to do. Though the author revealed early on that Beetle considered Kadir a “dictating brute” and wanted to “handle Kadir”, I had no idea how feeding him “greenbeefos”, a source of the meat and iron Kadir desperately needed, was supposed to help until he revealed his plot. I enjoyed reading the story immensely and recommend it to anyone who likes science fiction or is just looking for an interesting short story. I would rate it 9.7/10.
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