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Snow White and the Giants
The summer of the giants. They weren’t really giants, of course. Just nice young people who’d decided to camp outside the village for the summer. Ordinary - except they were all over six feet tall, a bit too well dressed, and didn’t mix with anyone. No one thought much about them. Until the Night. And then it was too late.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
159 pages, paperback
First published January 1, 1967
About the author
J.T. McIntosh
141 books5 followersJ. T. McIntosh is a pseudonym used by Scottish writer and journalist James Murdoch MacGregor.
Living largely in Aberdeen, Scotland, MacGregor used the McIntosh pseudonym (along with its variants J. T. MacIntosh, and J. T. M'Intosh) as well as "H. J. Murdoch", "Gregory Francis" (with Frank H. Parnell), and "Stuart Winsor" (with Jeff Mason) for all his science fiction work, which was the majority of his output, though he did publish books under his own name. His first story, "The Curfew Tolls", appeared in Astounding Science Fiction during 1950, and his first novel, World Out of Mind, was published during 1953. He did not publish any work after 1980.
In 2010, following his death in 2008, the National Library of Scotland purchased his literary papers and correspondence.
Along with John Mather and Edith Dell, he is credited for the screenplay for the colour feature film Satellite in the Sky (1956).
Living largely in Aberdeen, Scotland, MacGregor used the McIntosh pseudonym (along with its variants J. T. MacIntosh, and J. T. M'Intosh) as well as "H. J. Murdoch", "Gregory Francis" (with Frank H. Parnell), and "Stuart Winsor" (with Jeff Mason) for all his science fiction work, which was the majority of his output, though he did publish books under his own name. His first story, "The Curfew Tolls", appeared in Astounding Science Fiction during 1950, and his first novel, World Out of Mind, was published during 1953. He did not publish any work after 1980.
In 2010, following his death in 2008, the National Library of Scotland purchased his literary papers and correspondence.
Along with John Mather and Edith Dell, he is credited for the screenplay for the colour feature film Satellite in the Sky (1956).
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 10, 2020
This is the second novel by McIntosh that I've read. This book develops like a Twilight Zone episode with an ordinary insurance salesman in a backward town living a seemingly rather ordinary life.
That is, until something out of the ordinary happens.
Val doesn't quite get who the giants are or where they came from or why Miranda wears a pink dress that seems to tantalizingly appear and disappear. He's in the dark just as the readers are. The story slowly develops and the clues slowly appear.
Without giving too much away, it's difficult to talk about specifics. Just accept that the mysterious people and particularly the mysterious girl will eventually make sense and you will be rooting for Val to succeed
before the end of the book.
That is, until something out of the ordinary happens.
Val doesn't quite get who the giants are or where they came from or why Miranda wears a pink dress that seems to tantalizingly appear and disappear. He's in the dark just as the readers are. The story slowly develops and the clues slowly appear.
Without giving too much away, it's difficult to talk about specifics. Just accept that the mysterious people and particularly the mysterious girl will eventually make sense and you will be rooting for Val to succeed
before the end of the book.
November 18, 2014
Snow White and the Giants was originally serialized in Worlds of If Science Fiction Magazine in 1966-'67 when it was edited by the wonderful Frederik Pohl. I noticed that this paperback edition does not have the "science fiction" genre stamp on the spine or anywhere, leading me to believe that Avon was afraid it wouldn't appeal to their traditional sf audience, or perhaps they were hoping that it would transcend the genre barrier. It's a very good time travel tale with all of the twists and turns one expects, but is also a good portrayal of a small, very traditional English town moving into a more modern, technological era with much different social conventions. McIntosh wrote some very good stories, and I'd place this one among his best.
April 14, 2023
I found this to be an incredibly frustrating book. Initially, I had a very hard time getting into it, because I didn’t quite see what the point of the story was. The beginning reminded me a bit of “The Midwich Cuckoos” by John Wyndham (1957), better known as “The Village of the Damned“. A sleepy little village in England where nothing much ever happens suddenly becomes the backdrop for a series of bizarre and unsettling events. Except the “events” are neither bizarre nor unsettling. A young woman is seen walking down the street wearing a skimpy dress that occasionally becomes invisible. Maybe this sort of thing went over well in 1966, but it just seems kind of stupid to me. Not much of a hook for a Twilight Zone style story. Later on at a pub, the protagonist, Val, sees the girl (whom he calls Snow White, because, you know, she looks like Snow White) with a bunch of young campers (because they’re dressed like they’re going camping). The weird and creepy thing about these youngsters is that their clothes are really clean, and their hair and teeth are perfect! Seriously… that’s it. The girl has a dress that occasionally becomes invisible, and the “giants” (who are not really giants) are dressed too nicely for campers. About a third into the story I was still wondering what the point of the whole thing was. The characters were absolutely unlikable, they had bizarre, motivations, or, if they were female, they were two dimensional cardboard cut outs, placed here and there like props on a stage.
The main character, Val Mathers, is quite a gem. He has a mentally handicapped sister (who neither speaks nor acts like she’s mentally handicapped), whom Val fantasizes about how nice his life would be if she just died. He’s got a wife, whom he no longer loves (no explanation why) and who he casually cheats on for no rhyme or reason, and with no other explanation than, hey, the chance was there, so I took it. Then there’s the part where he catches his cousin and best friend, Jota, attempting to rape his (Val’s) wife, and he just shrugs it off like “Hey, what are you gonna do? That’s Jota for you!”. If the author was trying to get you to care about any of these characters, he did a piss poor job at it.
Surprisingly, though, the author almost completely redeems himself in the second half of the book. It turns out that all of this random and chaotic jumble of characters and events in the first half of the book were neither random nor chaotic at all. Snow White and the Giants (the expression never stops sounding stupid) are revealed to be time travelers from a couple of centuries in the future, who have come to this specific time and place in an effort to save their world. We find out that every bit of information we were given in the first half of the novel has been carefully placed there for a very specific purpose. This doesn’t make me like either the characters nor the author any better, but I do have to admire his craftsmanship. The whole thing comes together, like clockwork, as if it was one of the better episodes of twilight zone (minus the Rod Serling charm).
In the end, I’m glad I read this thing, but I wouldn’t say recommend it as anything other than an anachronistic curiosity.
The main character, Val Mathers, is quite a gem. He has a mentally handicapped sister (who neither speaks nor acts like she’s mentally handicapped), whom Val fantasizes about how nice his life would be if she just died. He’s got a wife, whom he no longer loves (no explanation why) and who he casually cheats on for no rhyme or reason, and with no other explanation than, hey, the chance was there, so I took it. Then there’s the part where he catches his cousin and best friend, Jota, attempting to rape his (Val’s) wife, and he just shrugs it off like “Hey, what are you gonna do? That’s Jota for you!”. If the author was trying to get you to care about any of these characters, he did a piss poor job at it.
Surprisingly, though, the author almost completely redeems himself in the second half of the book. It turns out that all of this random and chaotic jumble of characters and events in the first half of the book were neither random nor chaotic at all. Snow White and the Giants (the expression never stops sounding stupid) are revealed to be time travelers from a couple of centuries in the future, who have come to this specific time and place in an effort to save their world. We find out that every bit of information we were given in the first half of the novel has been carefully placed there for a very specific purpose. This doesn’t make me like either the characters nor the author any better, but I do have to admire his craftsmanship. The whole thing comes together, like clockwork, as if it was one of the better episodes of twilight zone (minus the Rod Serling charm).
In the end, I’m glad I read this thing, but I wouldn’t say recommend it as anything other than an anachronistic curiosity.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 24, 2023
The strangers in the small English town of Shuteley stood out to Val. Led by a short, raven-haired beauty whom he dubbed ‘Snow White’, she led a group of much taller, too-perfect teens, who loomed like giants over her. When the leader, whose real name was Miranda, appeared to know Val and his family he is perturbed, and when one of the crew called Greg visits Val’s insurance firm and tries to insure the whole town against catastrophe in the next 24 hours, Val suspects sinister doings. Against the backdrop of a visit from a childhood acquaintance Jota, who had attempted to rape Val’s wife once, Val balances his fraying relationships against the nebulous threat the odd visitors present. When the disaster predicted by Greg eventuates the reason for the visitation seems akin to sightseeing from the future (echoing Kuttner’s Vintage Season) but the truth is much more profound, and likely to ruin Val’s reputation. The story is an oddity for J. T. McIntosh - detailed if flawed characters, motivations that appear unclear but ultimately aren’t, and an emphasis on emotive issues rather than technology. And Val’s reaction to Jota’s obvious ladykiller antics are all explained. Worth a look.
August 25, 2019
A novel serialized in four parts.
An insurance executive in Sheffield, England gets entangled with strange tall people who come out of nowhere and dress differently from the normal. All the strangers are taller and bigger than the people in the town except for the leader, who is a diminutive woman.
To give away more would be revealing spoilers. The story starts very well but loses its thrill towards the end. Still, a good time-pass.
An insurance executive in Sheffield, England gets entangled with strange tall people who come out of nowhere and dress differently from the normal. All the strangers are taller and bigger than the people in the town except for the leader, who is a diminutive woman.
To give away more would be revealing spoilers. The story starts very well but loses its thrill towards the end. Still, a good time-pass.
October 8, 2021
Found it to dull to read much
October 18, 2014
I'm still trying to figure out if I liked this book or not. It definitely is thought provoking. Val Mather is an insurance big wig in a sleepy old English town, when a strikingly beautiful woman and her retinue of nearly perfect men visit for reasons unknown. It's quickly revealed they are time travellers, and they've come from the 'present' to alter their world.
There's ALOT to take in here.. the book starts out with the main character as pretty throughly unlikeable, and his friend moreso, but as the story goes on it turns out he's a pretty good guy, they just lay on the 60s manly ideal a little too heavy. The time travel here REALLY makes my head hurt.. the people from the future have little reset buttons that let them go back a couple minutes if something bad happens, which they can use to stop bad things (even death) from happening, though they still remember it happened.
There's alot of talk about what would effect things alot, or a little, and changes happen during the story that effect the characters, though they know things changed somehow, shouldn't they not?
The ending was the best one I've read in quite a few books, both surprising and interesting, while leaving room for more (though I don't think that happened).
There's ALOT to take in here.. the book starts out with the main character as pretty throughly unlikeable, and his friend moreso, but as the story goes on it turns out he's a pretty good guy, they just lay on the 60s manly ideal a little too heavy. The time travel here REALLY makes my head hurt.. the people from the future have little reset buttons that let them go back a couple minutes if something bad happens, which they can use to stop bad things (even death) from happening, though they still remember it happened.
There's alot of talk about what would effect things alot, or a little, and changes happen during the story that effect the characters, though they know things changed somehow, shouldn't they not?
The ending was the best one I've read in quite a few books, both surprising and interesting, while leaving room for more (though I don't think that happened).
May 26, 2012
Un tuffo nella fantascienza degli anni '70!
Intrigante...
Intrigante...
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews