Like the first novel, Thomas M. Disch’s The Prisoner, it appears to take place some time after the events of the TV series.
The hero wakes up as usual in his London flat. Through the window he can see his beloved Lotus Seven S2 parked in the street. It’s just a normal day. Then he steps outside the front door and finds himself back in The Village. His London flat has been recreated in The Village.
And he meets the latest Number Two. A rather amiable Number Two. And rather indulgent. Number Six discovers that his car has even been brought to The Village. The narrow roads of The Village are designed for the little electric carts that are used there and can’t accommodate a proper car. But Number Two has arranged to have a miniature racing circuit built in The Village. And when Number Six takes it upon himself to extend the circuit he encounters no opposition.
Being a professional spy Number Six tends to be a pretty suspicious sort of fellow. He’s even suspicious of the cat that has now adopted him. The cat could be working for Number Two. It appears to be a real cat but you can never be sure.
Needless to say Number Six immediately comes up with an ingenious escape plan, involving the car. It will require an immense amount of work and planning but Number Six enjoys that sort of thing.
Number Six has reached certain conclusions. He is obviously in no danger, being considered far too important to be killed or damaged in any way. It’s also clear that he is being indulged, that Number Two’s objective is to provide Number Six with sufficient entertainment and stimulation to possibly reconcile himself to remaining in The Village. Number Two my have other agendas of his own as well. You can never be sure.
One interesting aspect to this novel is that it suggests an extra layer of complexity to Number Six’s character. He was not merely a British spy. He was an assassin. And Number Two suspects that Number Six has quite a bit of unresolved guilt as a result.
Any espionage story takes place in an atmosphere of deception and ambiguity. You cannot be sure of anyone’s loyalty. You have to assume that nothing is quite as it seems to be. This atmosphere was present to some degree in Danger Man, a series to which The Prisoner may or may not have been a sequel. The Prisoner however really ramps up the paranoia and the sense that nothing is even remotely what it seems to be. There is no way of knowing if anything at all in this series is reality in a straightforward way. You start to doubt whether anything is reality in any sense of the word.
And it’s the nature of a series such as this that even when the plot is resolved it just raises more questions and doubts. You might still be stuck in an endless loop of non-reality.
The authors of the first two Prisoner novels understood this and they weren’t trying to write conventional spy thrillers. They were trying to remain consistent with the slightly surreal and very enigmatic nature of the series. I think they both succeed pretty well. Disch is more ambitious and pushes the weirdness much further but McDaniel is very good at subtly getting across to the reader that Number Six understands that he cannot believe in anything at all.
Who is Number 2? is pretty entertaining. If you’re not familiar with the TV series you won’t have a clue what’s going on. But if you are a fan of the TV series it’s worth reading and it’s recommended.
David McDaniel also wrote Man from U.N.C.L.E. original novels including The Dagger Affair which is rather good.
I’ve also reviewed the first of The Prisoner novels, Thomas M. Disch’s The Prisoner (later reissued as I Am Not a Number!). And I’ve reviewed The Prisoner (1967-68) TV series. And the Danger Man series.
Anyone who is a fan of The Prisoner must of course watch the brilliant Danger Man episode Colony Three.
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