HENCE <i> by Brad Leithauser (Penguin: $8.95)</i>

An odd, dense novel about the conflict between man and machine, as embodied in a chess match between a sophisticated computer and an ingenuous teen-age champion. As a satire, “Hence” strikes deftly at the false, anthropomorphizing touches that software designers add to programs in their efforts to “humanize” machines; it’s considerably less successful as a novel.

The narrative often reads as if Leithauser is being paid by the word. Timothy Briggs, the unprepossessing prodigy, seems more thick-witted than innocent, and lacks the single-minded dedication of a real chess master. Unresolved subplots litter the pages like pawns that never reached the eighth row, and the “colorful” supporting characters only impede the flow of the story.