The Power Twins by Ken Follett, 1976, 1990.

Fritz (real name Richard) and Helen Price are twins, and their mother runs a seaside guesthouse. Their younger cousin Jonathan, called Tubs (a nickname that annoys him), comes to visit during the summer, although the twins find him annoying. It isn’t really Tubs’s fault; it’s just that he’s three years younger than they are, and they find him childish. Then, one day, Tubs tells them that Uncle Grigorian is coming to visit.

Fritz and Helen say that they’ve never heard of Uncle Grigorian before, and they ask their mother about him. She says that Uncle Grigorian hasn’t come to see them since the twins’ father died in a car crash, and Uncle Grigorian came to the funeral. The twins’ father originally came from Poland as “more or less an orphan”, and his family was split apart during “the war.” Even he wasn’t sure exactly how many brothers he had, and he never heard from the rest of his family after he arrived in Britain.

(The implication is that he was probably one of the children brought to Britain by the Kindertransport, which transported refugee children from Nazi Germany and Germany-occupied territories, including Poland, to Britain between 1938 and 1940 and placed them with foster families or in temporary homes. The Kindertransport prioritized particularly vulnerable children, especially Jewish children whose parents were already in concentration camps or who were homeless, living in poverty, or were already orphans. The hope was that many of these children would be reunited with their parents after the war, but many of them never saw their families again and continued living with their foster families because their parents were likely killed during the Holocaust. The father in this story was likely very young at this time or even an infant and so didn’t understand his family’s full situation, didn’t have many memories of them, and never learned their ultimate fate. None of this is stated explicitly in the story, but it fits with the father’s apparent age, the time period, and Poland during “the war.”)

Uncle Grigorian was living in Germany at the time the father died about 10 years earlier, but he said that he happened to be on a business trip in England at the time the father died and saw the notice in the newspaper, so he came to pay his respects and check on the family. Now, Uncle Grigorian has bought a farm in Wales, and since he will be living in Britain, he would like to spend more time with the children and get to know them better. Although Tubs is related to the twins on their mother’s side rather than their fathers and isn’t a blood relation to Uncle Grigorian, Uncle Grigorian invites all three children to visit him on his farm. The children’s mother admits that the guesthouse is very busy at this time of year, and a family has shown up with more children than they originally said they would bring, so it would be helpful if the children went on a visit, and the children are excited about seeing the farm.

At first, this seems like just a fun farm visit. Uncle Grigorian is indulgent with the children, letting them eat as many chocolate cookies as they want, teaching the boys how to drive a tractor, and letting Helen play with the lambs. A man named Mr. Rhys manages the farm, and Mrs. Rhys is his cook and housekeeper, making them all a big, traditional, full English breakfast. Things get complicated when Tubs asks Uncle Grigorian what he does while Mr. Rhys manages the farm.

Uncle Grigorian shows the children his office in the farmhouse. At first, it just seems like an ordinary office. Then, Uncle Grigorian opens the filing cabinet, which contains dials and switches instead of files. The room changes so the ceiling and walls become transparent, and the children have a view of Earth from space. Tubs says that it looks like they’re on the moon. Fritz thinks that it’s just a trick with projectors, but Uncle Grigorian says that Tubs is actually correct, and they are on the moon. At first, Fritz doesn’t believe him, so Uncle Grigorian changes their location again, taking them to Trafalgar Square in London. Since they’re on Earth now, he invites Fritz to step outside and check their location. He does, and to his astonishment, they really are in Trafalgar Square. He buys a newspaper, and it has the current date on it.

Uncle Grigorian explains to the astonished children that the office actually contains his spaceship, which is about the same size as the room itself. He can travel through space easily, but traveling around Earth is more tricky because he can’t risk colliding with other objects. He has to know the exact coordinates for where to land, so it’s best for him to go to rooms that he has already rented as office space, where he will know the exact coordinates and knows that the room will be the right size for the spaceship.

At this point, Fritz begins to suspect that Uncle Grigorian, whose oddly-positioned thumbs were already a source of curiosity for them, might not actually be human. Tubs had earlier joked about those thumbs meaning that he’s from outer space, and once again, Tubs is more right than anyone else suspected. Uncle Grigorian admits to the children that they’re not actually related at all. Uncle Grigorian is a kind of sociologist from a planet called Klipst, and he’s also a kind of secret agent for the Galactic Empire. He studies societies on different planets and keeps an eye on planets that are just starting to discover space travel. He latched onto the children’s family as a cover for his identity and activities, specifically because their father had been a war orphan who didn’t know much about his family or what happened to them. Most people would be suspicious about an unknown relative suddenly turning up, but with their family, it would be entirely plausible for them to have an uncle they knew nothing about. He says that Earth is getting close to discovering hyperdrive travel, and when it does, the Galactic Empire will need to decide whether or not to admit Earth to the community of planets.

The reason why Uncle Grigorian is telling them all of this is that he needs the children’s help. There is a dispute that needs to be settled between planets, and he asks the children to be arbiters in the dispute. The planets involved specifically want the arbiters to come from outside the Empire, and they don’t want politicians, who would probably be motivated by biases and self-interest. They have decided that they want child arbiters to hear the dispute because children have a great sense of fairness, and adults are often hardened to the unfairness of life in general. Children would be completely unbiased in this situation and not have a jaded point of view. Uncle Grigorian tells the children that it’s up to them whether they would be willing to accept this mission or not. Tubs is eager to accept and go to outer space, but the twins are more hesitant. They’re not sure if they know enough or would be able to be arbiters in an intergalactic dispute. Uncle Grigorian tells them that, if they accept the mission, he will give them something that will change that, and they decide to accept.

Uncle Grigorian says that he will give them “the Powers”, which is a special mental weapon that’s only been recently developed. It works a little different for everyone, but it enhances people’s mental abilities. Anything that a person has as talent will be enhanced so they become a natural expert in it. To gain these powers, the children have to sleep for the night in Uncle Grigorian’s spaceship while wearing special earpieces.

In the morning, he checks on them and asks them if they notice anything different about themselves. Helen can tell right away that Fritz isn’t telling the truth when he says no because she has acquired the ability to read people’s emotions and body-language like an expert. Uncle Grigorian calls her a Reader because of her ability to read people. Further, Helen can tell that the reason why he denied noticing anything was because he wanted to hear what the others would say first. Fritz admits that this is true. He says that what he has noticed is that he went to sleep trying to figure out how the ship can travel such long distances so quickly, and when he woke up, the answers just came to him. Uncle Grigorian calls him a Synthesist, someone who can put together pieces of information quickly, seeing how things relate to each other and how they work.

At first, Tubs can’t figure out if anything about him has changed or not, but Uncle Grigorian tries giving him a small, round, fuzzy creature called a Petball. (Sort of like one of the Tribbles from Star Trek.) Tubs loves it immediately. It also seems to like him, and Tubs gives it the name Glob. Uncle Gregorian says that his attachment to the creature is a sign that he’s a Maverick. Petballs are strange creatures, and they don’t like everyone, but they do like Mavericks. Maverick Powers are difficult to understand because people who have them have an odd way of saying or doing unusual things that turn out to be the right decision or reaching conclusions that turn out to be unexpectedly correct. It’s hard to say exactly when or how Tubs will use his Power, other than getting along well with Glob, but Uncle Gregorian says that it will be there at the right time for him to use it.

Tubs’s Power begins to show after they arrive at Palassan, the capital of the Galactic Empire. A strange girl comes up to them soon after their arrival and tries to offer a flower to Helen. Without him being able to explain exactly why, Tubs automatically reaches out and knocks the flower to the ground. When it hits the ground, it breaks, and they realize that is it really an electronic device that was supposed to transmit a subliminal message to Helen. Someone is already trying to influence the children as arbiters in the dispute. Soon after that, Fritz begins to notice how closely they’re being guarded, but are the guards there for their safety or because they’re now prisoners?

When the kids begin hearing about the dispute, they are told that a new planet has been discovered in a place where there has not been any planet before. It is not near any star, and there doesn’t seem to be any explanation of how it got there. An expedition to the planet discovered that what looks like “clouds” is actually some kind of vegetation that emits light, and there are worm-like creatures living on the surface. The problem is that these large Worms spin a substance called Unilon, which is very valuable. Since the Worm World was discovered, people have flocked to the planet to harvest it for selling. Some of them have captured Worms and forced them to spin continually until they die. The League of Life says that it is concerned about the welfare of these creatures, and the Unilon Harvesters Association says that it’s concerned about jobs. With her Power, Helen can tell that neither side in this dispute is telling the truth. Fritz does some research and uncovers some ulterior motives and hidden sides to both sides of the dispute. He decides that finding a solution means going to the Worm World itself, but learning the secrets of the mysterious world will put them all in danger.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction and Spoilers

I thought that the premise of this story was interesting, a mysterious “uncle” who is actually an alien in disguise who gives the kids a mission in space and special powers. The secret of the Worm World is also intriguing. It turns out (spoiler) that the world itself is alive, and they have to find a way to communicate with it. It’s a plot that sounds a little like some of the early Star Trek episodes or maybe inspired by them.

Most of the emphasis of the story is on the twins, even though there are three kids involved. Tubs helps in the story, but I was expecting that he would be more central to the solution of the problem or that the solution would be more of a cooperative effort than it was. I was a little disappointed at how quickly the story ended.

One thing I’d like to point out that, even with their enhanced “Powers”, the kids aren’t perfect at them. Fritz puts information together pretty easily, but he still has to do research and observe things directly to get the information he needs. Even when he has it, he doesn’t necessarily understand its full significance right away. His comment about how it looks like they’re being held prisoner rather than being simply guarded for their protection turns out to be more accurate than I thought it might be at first, but he doesn’t seem to have fully realized the reason why or who they can’t trust. Even Helen, with her ability to read people’s emotions and body-language doesn’t realize at first that their guard isn’t trustworthy. She could tell that he was uneasy, but she attributed his uneasiness to the wrong reason.

Actually, I think the part about Helen not being perfect at reading people is a good callback to the argument between the children about Tubs’ nickname at the beginning of the story. Helen argues that Tubs shouldn’t mind his nickname because Fritz never complains about his, but Helen hasn’t accurately read even her own twin’s feelings about his nickname. The truth is that Fritz doesn’t like his nickname any more than Tubs likes his, but the book says that he’s old enough to have figured out that, if he makes a fuss about not liking it, people will use it even more. I know that people can be like that, but being even older than Fritz is, I’m old to have figured out that this rule only holds true as long as the people involved decide it does. This isn’t something everyone does naturally or all the time; it’s a thing that some people do habitually because they’re pushy and like provoking reactions from people. When they get a negative reaction from someone, they just push harder to get more reactions rather than realize that they’re getting on that person’s nerves and cutting it out. What I’m saying is that Fritz seems to have correctly realized that Helen is that type of pushy person, which is why he doesn’t complain to her about how much he hates his nickname, while Helen has totally missed both Fritz’s real feelings and the fact that he’s figured her out. We’re supposed to accept that Helen already had a natural ability to read people even before getting her enhanced “Powers”, but the whole nickname incident had me rolling my eyes about Helen’s ability to read even her own family members and wishing that she would get a clue.

I expected that the characters would eventually revisit this situation with Tubs’ nickname before the end of the book and that Tubs would do something to help the situation that would earn his cousins’ respect. However, neither of those things happened. Fritz is the one who mainly solves the problem, and he does so rather quickly toward the end of the book. I was surprised at how quickly the book ended. Because the kids all keep their powers and Tubs is able to keep Glob at the end of the story, I wondered if maybe the book was originally intended to be the first in a series, with further adventures and more character development in later books, but if that was the case, I can’t seem to find anything about it.

I found the issue of language in the story interesting. People in the Galactic Empire speak a common language that Uncle Gregorian describes as being sort of like Esperanto, no matter what planet they come from. The treatment that gave the children their powers also gave them the ability to speak and understand this language, even when they’re not fully aware that they’re doing it. I liked the idea of a common language that’s a kind of conglomerate of other languages with Esperanto as the inspiration. Because the characters aren’t fully aware of that they’re hearing or speaking this language, we don’t have any hints of what it would be like, but I just thought the concept was interesting.