Frank Parric is the one human in a small town filled with androids. His job: monitor and record the day-to-day activities of the electronic inhabitants as they go about what they are programmed to believe are their human lives.

Why? Because the human population is beginning to dwindle and filling in the gaps with something that can look, sound, and act like a real person seems like a good idea.

Just as the next phase of this project is about the get underway, with a small team of journalists arriving to document how sweet and safe the artificial inhabitants of this make-believe town are, war breaks out. What’s worse is that a biological weapon has been used and a horrendous plague is now sweeping across the globe.

A plague that also effects the androids…

As I worked my way through the first half of The Shadow of Alpha I felt it answered a question I had never thought to ask: “What would Westworld (the original film, not the television series) be like if it had been written by Ray Bradbury and not Michael Crichton?”

Because The Shadow of Alpha was Charles L. Grant’s first published novel. For those who might not know, Grant was a pioneer in the literary sub-genres of dark fantasy and quiet horror. I think he even coined the latter term.

His affinity for the dark and the quiet, the moody and the unnerving, is clear from page one. Also clear is his immense talent at creating and maintaining suspense and crafting a dreamlike, yet palpable, aura of mystery and the uncanny.

There was just one problem, though. While Grant had an intriguing set-up and a promising mid-section, what he did not have was a satisfying ending, or even a third act.

The Shadow of Alpha just… stops. Which is too bad, because I wanted more. Much more.

I could only recommend this to Charles L. Grant completists.