Book Reviews

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Anthology #34

The Twyford Code, by Janice Hallett

Janice Hallett has delivered up another scintillating murder mystery, following on from The Appeal; although the front cover description of it as “… the Murder of the Century” is rather hyperbolic; or, perhaps, just tongue in cheek? There is a certain humour in these stories, so that can be forgiven. It has, to paraphrase Edmund Blackadder, more twists & turns “than a big, twisty, turny thing”, so a moderate level of concentration is required while reading, so as not to miss significant elements. This narrative is also not presented in normal sequential chapter prose format: it is nearly all a series of transcripts of audio files from an old [by current standards] iPhone4, belonging to the estranged son of the protagonist, Steven Smith, and in a prologue to the body of the book, they have been forwarded by an Inspector Waliso to a Professor Max Mansfield, with no other explanation than that “apart form any personal connection you may have to the subject, your expert opinion on their contents would be very much appreciated.” The subject is “a recently reported missing person”, and it transpires that he was trying, with some old school friends, with whom he bonded during Remedial English classes, to find out what happened to the teacher of that class, an empathetic young woman called Miss Isles, who seemed to have some connection with a book Steven found on a bus, and took into class, after which Miss Isles read them excerpts. The book was one of a series featuring a group of children called the Super Six, and it was written by a now discredited author called Edith Twyford. There appears to be a code embedded in the stories, perhaps leading to treasure, but nobody has yet been able to decipher it. The feature of the book under review which requires the most concentration is the phonetic interpretation of some of the words, the result of feeding the audio files through a fictitious AI voice recognition app. This is another very clever mystery story, and the unusual presentation should not be seen as an obstacle. The paperback I read was published in 2022 by VIPER, part of Serpent’s Tail, an imprint of Profile Books Ltd., London, ISBN 978-1-7881-6533–4.

The Martian Menace, by Eric Brown

This book is another in the ever-expanding canon of The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Its British “award-winning” author has written several science fiction novels, a mystery series, and reviews speculative fiction for The Guardian newspaper. This story builds on the original & well-known War of the Worlds, and in a nice little twist [or contrivance, depending on your point of view] includes a character called Herbert Wells, who works as an assistant to the Martian ambassador in London, in the Edwardian period. Ten years or so after the first Martian invasion had been defeated by a humble terrestrial virus, the invaders returned, but this time with assurances of peaceful intent, claiming that the previous belligerents had been a different faction of their species, and they wanted to help the human race in recompense, which they proceeded to do; ostensibly. However, it transpires that all is not as it seems, and on a visit to Mars, as both an honoured guest, but also in his capacity as a respected consulting detective, who has been engaged by the current Martian ambassador [the previous ambassador having been murdered two years previously] to investigate the disappearance of a Martian philosopher, the awful truth is revealed: the Martians, who do indeed have two factions — one peaceful, but the other, the ones currently on earth, covetous of earth’s resources — have concluded that a ‘softly, softly’ approach to conquest will succeed, where the previous one failed, and their scientists have perfected a vaccine against the fatal virus. Obviously, the story necessitates suspension of disbelief, but it is well written, in the Conan Doyle style, and the action plays out with enough tension & jeopardy to sustain the reader’s attention. Does Holmes succeed? Probably not a difficult question to answer. The paperback I read was published in 2020 by Titan Books, an division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd., London, ISBN 978-1-7890-9295-0.

Wivenhoe, by Samuel Fisher

Interestingly, given the events described, this novel is set in a real town, in north-east Essex, England, but it is set in an alternative [not “alternate”, as stated on the book’s rear cover] present; also, I wondered if there was any similarity between this story, and that in a novel with a name not very far different, Ivanhoe: it would appear not, so it is presumably simply a linguistic coincidence. For unexplained reasons, this part of England is experiencing what could be the beginning of a new ice age, because there has been snow & ice on the ground for around a year, and society has all but broken down; there, at least. Many people, primarily the vulnerable, have already left, and the national government is only just functioning, albeit at some remove; the remaining residents are supplied sporadically by visiting half-track vehicles, but otherwise, they are left to their own devices, which include breaking & entering surrounding empty properties for looting, and meeting occasionally in a village hall called the Nottage. The action plays out over twenty-four hours; so it is a relatively short book; and it describes the aftermath of a brutal murder, through the ruminations & observations of two characters, Joe and Helen. The murderer is Patrick, Joe’s brother, and Helen, who is deteriorating mentally & physically in some unspecified way, is their mother. Unfortunately, I found all the internal musing & recollections of previous and, inevitably, contributory events, somewhat tiresome; in other words, too little action was padded out with too much thinking: it felt to me rather like a couple of episodes of a soap opera I would be very unlikely to watch. The paperback I read was published in 2023 [2022] by Corsair, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, London, ISBN 978-1-4721-5642-6.

Quantum Radio, by A.G. Riddle

I found this book fascinating, because I always enjoy stories — not always science fiction or fantasy — which use the ‘what if’ premise as their basis; also, there is a mention in the terminating Author’s Note that this is the first of a series so, although they might be a few years in coming, I will keep a beady eye out for further stories. The aforementioned note specifies that “Quantum Radio is about people who want to change the future. They just have different ideas about what that future should look like. And, to a certain extent, different ideas about what to sacrifice in order to create that future.” It could, justifiably, be said that nearly every intelligent person has a similar goal in life, after the normal self-centred adolescence, but the difference here is the vehicle by which that goal can be achieved: which is quantum science, not currently available to more than a few scientists. The tantalising prospect, as with the fears about the still relatively recent commencement of the Large Hadron Collider project, is what opportunities this could bring forth. This is what was engaging Tyson Klein, a comparatively young scientist working at the LHC, when he made what he considered to be a world-changing discovery, concerning the consequences of the particle collisions that fantastic machine was built to facilitate. It transpires that three other people, two from widely different backgrounds, will be playing pivotal rôles in this story, and they become bonded as the narrative, which encompasses potentially apocalyptic destruction, unfolds. I could mention other, similar, fictional scenarios in literature and/or visual media, but they might reveal too much about this story, and I wouldn’t want to spoil the enjoyment of potential readers; suffice to say, if you enjoy fantasy with a reasonable factual grounding, you should enjoy this story, and its potential successors. The paperback I read was published in 2024 [2023] by Head of Zeus, part of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, London, ISBN 978-1-8032-8171-1.

Book Reviews

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Anthology #10

The Secret Lives of a Secret Agent, by Tim Crook

I very much wanted to enjoy reading this book, when I realised who the subject was, but by the time I’d finished it, I couldn’t feel disposed to give it a fully positive review. The subject was the inspiration for a recent television drama, called Mrs Wilson, and the main character was the subject’s third wife, Alison, and she was played by her own granddaughter, the versatile Ruth Wilson. Her grandfather went by various names, but his first given name and family name were Alexander Wilson. The author is careful to be even-handed about his assessment of the subject, given that it was written at the instigation of one of his sons, Mike Shannon, now deceased, but it is abundantly clear that Alex was a deceitful fantasist, who married four women, three bigamously, and fathered many children as a result; the latter is hardly surprising, given that he was Roman Catholic, but one wonders how his religious faith could accommodate the former. He did some work for the British Secret Intelligence Service, but he also elaborated on it excessively, and wore military uniforms to which he was not entitled. This is a fascinating story but, for me, this second edition is let down by repetition, some odd phraseology, and poor presentation: if those don’t deter you, it’s worth a read. The paperback I read was published in 2018 by Kultura Press, ISBN 978-1-9088-4206-0.

England’s Finest, by Christopher Fowler

This is the second collection of short stories by this author, twelve in all, featuring the “decrepit duo” of Bryant & May [although that does seem a little unfair in John May’s case] and most of them are around 23 pages long; one, however, has an uncharacteristically fumbled ending: in this case, clarity was sacrificed for the sake of brevity IMO, but one is significantly longer than the rest, at 54 pages, described by Fowler as “very much the centrepiece of the book”. Not all are set in the present, which is quite refreshing, and there is a synopsis of each story at the back, including background information; this is only one of the extra features, almost in the style of a probably soon to be defunct DVD [how times change!], including A Brief History of the Peculiar Crimes Unit*, Dramatis Personae, Private & Confidential Memo from Raymond Land, A Note from Mr Bryant’s biographer*, Author’s Notes on the cases, and Murder on My Mind: an Afterword. *which might or might not be true. The final extra item is very informative, because it includes details of the author’s background, and his rationale for working the way he does. Overall, I found this a very enjoyable addition to the B&M canon: easily absorbed, with plenty of variety, albeit centred on the real London, to keep the reader interested. The paperback I read was published in 2020 by Penguin/Bantam, London  [2019, Transworld Publishers, London],  ISBN 978-0-8575-0409-8.

Firewatching, by Russ Thomas

This is the first novel by this author; a second one, again with a 1-word, present continuous tense title [Nighthawking] should have been published in February 2021; and after a beginning in which I wondered in which direction the narrative was going, apart from one minor slip when he uses discomfort a couple of times as a verb, when he should use discomfit, it settled down into a good police procedural, which concentrates on the main characters as much as it does the action. The protagonist is Adam Tyler [Life on Mars, anyone? Although this is set in & around Sheffield, not Manchester, and present day], a Detective Sergeant who happens to be gay, and on this particular case, he allows himself to be compromised by having a liaison with a young man who turns out to be a suspect; to his amazement, he is allowed by his superior, a gruff Inspector, to stay on the case, and the reason for this is that the latter was a devoted colleague of Tyler’s now deceased father, also a police officer. There is plenty of submerged guilt & hidden resentments in evidence to the reader, following the discovery of a body walled up in the cellar of an ex-vicarage, and what are the two dotty old ladies, one of whom seems to be in the early stages of dementia, who live in an adjacent property, hiding? The tension is maintained until the end, with the unsuspected pyromaniac only being revealed when all seems lost for one of the characters. The paperback I read was published in 2020 by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd., London, ISBN 978-1-4711-8095-8.

The Angels of Venice, by Philip Gwynne Jones

This novel meanders as slowly and languidly as the Grand Canal in Venice, around which the action is set. It is the seventh in this series set there, and featuring the honorary British Consul, Nathan Sutherland, who is married to a local woman, and has been resident there for several years, as has the author. The plot starts with the death of an English woman during a real event, the catastrophic flood, or Acqua alta; high water; as it is known there, which occurred in November 2019. It is not within Sutherland’s specific remit to investigate the event but, of course, he does, albeit slowly and, for the most part, carefully. The woman was employed by a rich English philanthropist, but questions begin to be asked about his integrity, and that of his foundation, named after his father; also, the bookseller, in whose shop the woman spent a lot of time, and to whom she might have been closer than her apparently feckless English fiancé would like, seems increasingly suspect. When a potentially extremely valuable, original Dürer cartoon is thrown into the mix, the plot starts to crystallise for Sutherland. There are a few other interesting characters in the dramatis personae, including a young woman nicknamed Siouxsie Sioux by Sutherland, on account of her appearance: she is one of the so-called Mud Angels, who voluntarily assist the cleanup operation after the inundation. The partial map at the front helped with geography, and the glossary at the back helped with the local argot. Worth a read, and I will look out for other stories in this series. The paperback I read was published in 2023 [2022] by Constable, London, ISBN 978-1-4721-3431-8.

Book Review

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The Stone Circle, by Elly Griffiths

This is the eleventh book in the Ruth Galloway series; a series which was originally intended to encompass ten books so, taking a charitable approach, one has to assume that the series has been so successful that an extension was appropriate; I have no reason to decry this decision because, although I haven’t read the whole series [depending entirely upon those which are available from my local library], I have thoroughly enjoyed the ones I have read hitherto, and have come to look forward to reading more exploits of the regular characters who are mainly (although not always entirely) likeable. Elly Griffiths is interesting to me as an author, because she reverses the normal authorial convention: this is actually a nom de plume, presumably chosen [although see below] to appear to be quite British [or Welsh, to be specific] and consequently instantly acceptable to the majority of British readers, whereas her birth name is Domenica de Rosa [Italian for Sunday of the rose] which, although born in this country, she acquired from her Italian father. After writing four novels featuring Italy [write about what you know!] a holiday in Norfolk with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write the first of the Ruth Galloway series; her agent, who saw the potential in it but recognised that it was a crime novel, in contrast to the earlier ones, recommended that she needed a crime name appropriate to the genre, and hence she became Elly Griffiths!

This story does have certain overlaps with previous stories, but that isn’t to imply that it is merely a cynical rehash: quite the opposite, it demonstrates continuity and in some ways, there are advantages, because it can be seen how characters respond to new situations with the benefit of their experience from these earlier situations; and Ruth’s work does have a certain repetitive quality about it. Archaeology expert Ruth Galloway is investigating a burial pit in a henge on the Norfolk coast, close to another one she worked on previously, during which she came into contact with two of the series’s main characters: an endearing (but occasionally also irritating, in equal measure) man who goes by the name of Cathbad, although his birth name is Michael Malone, and he regards himself as a druid, but latterly he seems to have embraced a somewhat more conventional lifestyle with his current partner, a police Detective Sergeant called Judy Johnson; and the father of Ruth’s daughter, Kate, Harry Nelson, a Detective Chief Inspector and Judy’s boss. He is married with two adult daughters, and feels somewhat trapped in this marriage, notwithstanding that he also loves his wife, who is pregnant again at the beginning of the story, & daughters, and his work (somewhat conveniently, it has to be said) regularly brings him into contact with Ruth; he does willingly, and with no complaint from Ruth, visit Kate (whom he insists on calling Katie, much to Ruth’s annoyance), so this doesn’t greatly help Ruth romantically, although she does also enjoy her own space, and there is currently another male suitor in the equation, a visiting Historical Consultant from America, who has been brought in to work as a presenter on a television documentary which also features Ruth.

In the course of Ruth’s digging, the skeleton of a child is found nearby, and there is sufficient evidence that this skeleton is relatively recent, compared to the first remains found by Ruth, so Nelson’s team becomes involved. There is a real concern that the skeleton could be that of a 12-year old young girl, Margaret Lacey, who went missing thirty years ago, so it is important for the family that this can be confirmed, which it is, to give them closure, but also, ideally, to identify the perpetrator. There was a suspect at the time, a young man of obviously limited intellectual capabilities who lived with his mother, but whose alibi, from his mother, was unassailable, so he remained at liberty, albeit grudgingly by the contemporary investigating officers. All of the victim’s family are reinvestigated, and in the course of the story, the baby daughter (Ava) of one of the dead girl’s relatives, Star (Stella by birth) is abducted, almost immediately after another baby is abducted locally, but returned safely within a matter of days; the mother & missing baby are known to Nelson’s wife, Michelle, who is attending the same mother & baby classes, and she dismisses the notion that Star might have engineered this as a way of seeking attention. This is also a very emotive situation for Judy Johnson, whose own son, Michael, was abducted in a previous story (hence the aforementioned overlap), and that was the catalyst for Judy to acknowledge that she preferred Cathbad, Michael’s father, to her erstwhile husband, Darren.

To reveal any more of the plot would be to spoil it, but the original, somewhat unexpected, perpetrator is identified, although not before one of the characters is murdered, and this dénouement is not revealed until right at the end of the story. Otherwise, there is ample scope for continuance of the main characters’ lives, so as I have already said, I am very willing to read a further instalment, plus any previous, necessarily out-of-sequence unread ones I can obtain, and I can thoroughly recommend this series of stories. There are biographies for the main characters at the end of the book, which is a nice little addition, and some of the books [although not this version] also include a potted autobiography, hence the synopsised version above, which I found at the back of another story I still had in my possession. The hardback I read was published in in 2019, by Quercus Editions Ltd., London, ISBN 978 1 78648 729 2; there is also a paperback, an eBook, and an audio book version.

Book Review

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Termination Shock, by Neal Stephenson

If this book, and the previous one by the same author which I have read, Cryptonomicon,  [albeit a much later book in his canon] are representative, then they are all [13] very long indeed; this one runs to 697 [!] pages, and the font used for the text is small—possibly 12pt—but I can genuinely say that this was a book I really didn’t want to end. It will probably be classified as SciFi but, given that it has been written within the last couple of years, on recent evidence, I would describe it as prescient, because IMHO one doesn’t have to be a tree-hugging, panicking environmentalist to discern that the scenario presented here is all too plausible; even possible—I hope against hope it is not probable. It is the near future; although the exact year is not specified, but COVID-27 is mentioned [subsequent to COVID-23 and our by-now familiar COVID-19], so it could be in the region of ten years hence, at least, and the climate has significantly worsened. The explanation for the book’s title will follow some further background information.

There are several different strands to the narrative, starting in different locations, but the reason for that will soon become clear. I had to put my republican sentiments into suspended animation for the duration of this story but, thankfully, that wasn’t too difficult, despite one of the main characters being the fictitious queen of the Netherlands, Frederika Mathilda Louisa Saskia, although the Dutch ‘royal’ family is famously low-maintenance; Saskia, as she prefers to be known by those close to her, is also a likeable person [but that has no bearing on my principles, as in the British situation]. A Texan billionaire, T.R. Schmidt [aka McHooligan, the publicly marketed persona for his chain of truck stops] has invited a somewhat disparate group of prominent persons to a conference in Houston, to discuss the climate crisis, and Saskia is one of these; although her constitutional inability to act directly & unilaterally is explained in great detail [as is much else: one of the commendable aspects of Stephenson’s narratives]. Unfortunately, her incoming self-piloted jet aeroplane crashes on landing at Waco airport; Houston being unavailable as a result of the intense heat; but she, and her minimal entourage survive, albeit with a few non life-threatening injuries, to continue the journey, and during her rescue from the cause of the crash, feral swine [and, randomly, although not much more, an alligator], she encounters another main character in the story: Rufus [Red] Grant, a self-employed operator trading under the name FERAL SWINE MITIGATION SERVICES.

Another character, who initially also seems like a rather random inclusion, is a young Canadian man by the name of Deep, although he generally goes by the nickname of Laks, which is derived from the salmon he catches for a living; when he can’t do that in his native British Columbia, out of season, he works as a welder. Initially, these aspects of his character, in addition to his high level of fitness and toned physique, and the traditional Indian martial arts he enjoys practising because of his Indian heritage, don’t seem to connect with the rest of the narrative, but slowly & surely, through the literal, as well as emotional journey he undertakes, the author draws these loose strands together, and they later connect very satisfactorily.

Schmidt’s proposal, which is demonstrated after all the scrupulously polite & accommodating preliminaries, is to spread the sulphur which he has available in vast quantities into the upper atmosphere, providing a global reflective blanket to mitigate the greenhouse effect of the sun, which has been exacerbated by human-produced carbon dioxide. He is going to do this unilaterally and, it transpires, has already started doing it [the technical details are quite involved, so better absorbed from the narrative]; he hopes to also encourage other strategically placed nations to do the same, hence the conference, although the invitees are not necessarily the most geographically, or politically, obvious. Hence the jeopardy in the story: a scheme such as this has been proposed in similar forms previously, but a scientific consensus was never reached so, with a nod to his location, Schmidt decided that he must take the metaphorical bull by the horns and use his money for humanity’s benefit. Unfortunately, not all of humanity would be similarly benefited, and nations such as China & India, which were not invited, are significantly concerned, for political as well as geo-climatic reasons.

The title is the name of what is generally reckoned [using the climatic data currently available to the scientists] will happen if climate-mitigating measures, such as that proposed, and already put into action by Schmidt, are precipitately terminated: the climate would go into a sort of shock, from which it might never recover; or, at least, not in a way which would be conducive to long-term survival of the human race. For several different reasons, I cannot recommend this book highly enough: whether it would convince waverers, or hardline climate change sceptics, of the need for rapid & decisive climate mitigating action is debatable, but aside from the politics, it’s a damn good and well-written story—I would also recommend Cryptonomicon, if you have any interest at all in cryptography, but the history aspect of it is also illuminating, and written in a very approachable way. The [large!] paperback I read was published in 2022 [2021] by the Borough Press, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd., London, ISBN 978-0-0084-0440-6.

Book Review

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A Dance of Cranes, by Steve Burrows

This is a bit of a curate’s egg of a book; not least because the main character, DCI Domenic Jejeune, happens to be away from his usual ‘patch’ for most of the book, albeit for a specific reason closely connected with the plot; but also because it is presented as a “birder mystery”, which seems a somewhat abstruse sort of hobby for a senior police officer, but that is, no doubt, the result of my prejudice & ignorance of the subject — there’s no earthly reason why a Detective Chief Inspector of police shouldn’t be a birder [not a twitcher, apparently]. There are several different threads running concurrently, primarily because of the DCI’s absence from Norfolk, to locate his brother Damian, who has gone missing in one of Canada’s national parks in Ontario; the absence also serves the purpose of distancing himself from his erstwhile girlfriend, Lindy Hey, who he believes is still at risk from a crazed criminal who has already tried to kill her, although he hasn’t actually elucidated that to her, so she thinks he has dropped her for no good reason; that she is aware of, anyway.

The book is also, for me, a slightly irritating mix of British & American spellings & terminology, probably because the author is Canadian, I presume; although his bio at the front doesn’t specify this, only that he now lives in Ontario. One real howler that always sets my teeth on edge is the use of “hone in”, instead of “home in”, but either the editor missed it, or was [misguidedly] happy to accept it as correct. The sections of the book in Canada & the USA, which obviously have to be allowed time to develop, do risk slowing down the plot development; but they are connected, even though they aren’t germane to the action at ‘home’, other than for keeping Jejeune removed from the assumed protagonist of the story: this thread is left to Jejeune’s trusted subordinate, DS Danny Maik to undertake and, in a parallel thread, newly promoted Sergeant Lauren Salter has her own investigation to occupy her mind & time.

I can’t honestly say that this is the most enjoyable book I have read recently, but the story hangs together, even if it is slow to develop; sometimes, it’s good just to enjoy the ride, and ignoring thoughts of the destination, until it arrives! The ending is ambiguous, but whether this a device common to these books—leaving possibilities open for subsequent stories—I can’t confirm categorically, only having read this later episode; I hope this doesn’t deter you unduly. If detective stories with a high avian content float your boat, there are five previous novels by this author you might like to investigate, all with the, presumably, correct collective noun for a specific bird in the title. The paperback version I read of this book was published by Oneworld Publications, in arrangement with Dundurn Press Limited, in 2019, ISBN 978-1-78607-577-2.

Book Review

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The Andromeda Evolution, by Daniel H. Wilson

Aside from the merit of the story itself, it might possibly be a tad cynical of me to feel slightly misled by the cover of the paperback version of this story which I read, but I think I can claim some justification: the story on which this one is based, The Andromeda Strain, must be quite well known by many people, especially those aficionados of fantasy fiction, and the name of the original author, Michael Crichton, is prominent in large capitals occupying the upper half of the front cover, so at a quick glance, one could be forgiven for thinking that this book was also written by this estimable author; not so, because a line of much smaller capitals at the bottom of the cover reveals the name of the actual author of this story.

There are two very obvious reasons for this device: the first being that Michael Crichton died in 2008, and the second that it would have been impossible to produce any sort of sequel that drew on the background of the first, but not with reference to the original author, without the inevitable risk of litigation. As it is, Crichton’s widow, Sherri (but not, interestingly, Wilson) mentions in the acknowledgments that the book is a collaboration with Wilson: “a celebration of Michael’s universe and a way to introduce him to those discovering his worlds for the first time.” As it is, Daniel H. Wilson, “a Cherokee citizen”, is an established author, with a PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as master’s degrees in Artificial Intelligence & Robotics, so he knows well of what he writes. It is a sobering thought that The Andromeda Strain was written over fifty years ago, but one of the fundamental principles on which this story is based is that the intelligence, such as it is, at the root of the infection which has developed from the original, which was extraterrestrial in origin, has no concern for time, on the scale with which humanity is familiar, but is content to wait as long as necessary for the appropriate circumstances, conducive to its apparently sinister plan, to occur.

Given that I can’t remember if I have ever read the original story, I can’t say if it conforms to the same artifice by which this one is written: it is written partly as a real-time narrative, and partly as a post-event report, drawing on visual, audio & written evidence (some of which is reproduced graphically to accompany the text), so at the outset, it is safe to assume, at the very least, that the world was not destroyed, which is apparently a very real possibility as the story unfolds. A structural anomaly has appeared in the impenetrable Amazon jungle of Brasil, on an exactly equatorial position. The ultra-secret team which was set up, in the aftermath of the first close shave for humanity, to monitor the globe for possible repetitions, and which has been operating covertly in comfortable, if unexciting regularity ever since, swings into action. A team of highly qualified experts is assembled from a pre-approved shortlist by the commanding officer, Major Rand Stern, who works at an American Air Force base, running Project Eternal Vigilance; there is also an operative aboard the International Space Station (ISS). This is Dr Sophie Kline, for whom space is actually a conducive environment, notwithstanding that her legs are permanently bound together, because from the time she was a toddler, she has suffered from a degenerative muscle disease. To assist her earlier studies, and current duties, she has a “unique” brain-computer interface which links her “mentally to the ISS computer systems – an almost telepathic connection.”

The other members of the team are Dr Nidhi Vedala, 42, team leader; Harold Odhiambo, 68, lead field scientist; Peng Wu, 37, Major in the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) Air Force, field scientist; and a late replacement, James Stone, 58, a roboticist. The last member was a substitute for a field medic, and he was the choice of Major Stern; he also happens to be the son of the scientist who stopped the spread of the Andromeda Strain 50 years earlier, so the team leader suspects favouritism, reason unknown. The team sets out to find the anomaly, but they are entering virgin jungle populated by previously uncontacted tribes, so to protect them from the potential danger, they are accompanied by a tough Brasilian American United States Army Special Forces Sergeant and a dozen indigenous frontiersmen. Naturally, not everything goes to plan, but to tell you any more would spoil the plot, so I will have to draw a veil over the story at this point! The paperback version was published in 2020 by HarperCollinsPublishers ltd., London, ISBN 978-0-00817299-2, and I found it a very engaging read, with a satisfying, if only slightly incredible, ending.

Book Review

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World Engines – Destroyer, by Stephen Baxter

I am very happy to state ‘upfront’ that, except for the ending, I have enjoyed reading this book more than any other I have read, of any genre, for a long time; that might seem like a contradiction, but my enjoyment of the main body of the narrative was not diminished unduly by the short final section, which was something of a disappointment. I can’t reveal any details of the final section, naturally wanting to avoid spoilers, but I felt that, after such a comprehensive narrative, in which Baxter has allowed time for the folds in the story to be revealed & explored, the ending could have been longer and more detailed: it was as if he knew a sequel would have been a better way to wrap the story up, or even develop it some more, but in the end, he couldn’t be bothered, or he ran out of steam, so it was just a question of tying up all the loose ends as cleanly as possible. Enough of that for now, though, because you need to know what the story is about! Ahead of the characters & the plot, what I enjoyed about the story was the elements of alternate universes and time periods, rather than time travel per se, but also the fact that the fantasy was very much rooted in the real world that we know, instead of a fictitious universe full of alien races & technology that is unknown to us and, given our current level of knowledge, impossible.

The story starts hundreds of years into earth’s future, the year 2469, precisely, when earth has suffered the climate catastrophe that is now widely predicted. A man is woken from a cryogenic sleep, and it appears that he is a space shuttle pilot from the early days of the 21st century; so, our own time now, but subtly different in the state of space technology (and the political history that has allowed this to be created). He is conversing with a form of artificial intelligence (AI), and he has been woken earlier than he might otherwise have been, given that he suffered a devastating accident which left him very badly injured, because a message has been received from Phobos, one of the satellites of Mars. The main problem, apart from some significant differences in the sequence of events that led up to the sender’s distress call is that it is impossible, because the sender couldn’t be there in the first place, because she is Emma Stoney, the wife of the pilot, Colonel Reid Malenfant, and her ship was lost when it reached Phobos. In this timeline, Mars was already colonised by 2005, and there was “some kind of puzzle with Phobos”, but it was easier to send a dedicated mission from Earth than to have the Mars base colonists do it from the ground. Unfortunately, the problem with Phobos is inextricably connected with an event known by everybody by the name The Destroyer, which is predicted with some accuracy it would seem, by the AIs, to occur in the year 3397, resulting in the destruction of Earth and very possibly also much of our solar system.

Malenfant is sent back to Earth from the moon, where he had been kept in cold storage, and he is assigned a humanoid AI with medical specialities, to monitor & supervise his recovery, and he befriends a young woman who is also assigned to him as a sort of cultural advisor. The Earth of the twenty-fifth century has a well-established resource based economy (the long-term result of a very surprising innovation by one of the best-known 20th century American politicians: and not who you might think!), as money is no longer necessary, apart from occasional exceptional circumstances; the population doesn’t have to work for a living, because all necessities for a comfortable life are freely available: the fact that the population is much reduced as a result of the foregoing upheavals is a positive contributory factor here. Malenfant is curious as to why the populace seems to accept unquestioningly the impending fate of Earth, albeit in the relatively far distant future, but when he speaks to the Earthbound AI, he discovers that it is distinctly worried (displaying a surprising level of human empathy), so he sets out to find out more about the problem with Phobos, which seems to be the root of the danger. Using by then outdated space technology, but with which he is familiar from his own experience, he manages to get to Phobos, which is where the story becomes distinctly strange……

This is about as much as I can reveal without spoiling the plot, but if you enjoy space fantasy fiction and, especially, if you have read any of Stephen Baxter’s other books, either solo or with Terry Pratchett, I am as sure as I can be that you will enjoy this one. The paperback version I read was published in 2020 by Gollancz, London, ISBN 978-1-473-22319-6. This is a book to really luxuriate in, and revel in the way the plot develops quickly enough to retain your interest, but not so quickly as to leave you gasping for breath. As I said, the ending seemed tantalisingly short, but I don’t think it leaves the way open for a sequel: should that be the case and I am wrong, however, I would be eager to read it!

Book Review

Photo by Tyler Maddigan on Unsplash

Coffin Road, by Peter May

The scenario of a protagonist waking up, in a state of some jeopardy, either current or recent, with no knowledge of his or her identity or the chain of events which has precipitated the current situation, cannot be unique to this book, but it is a refreshing change; and, of course, the misdirection can be laid out right at the beginning, a fog (both literal & figurative) which the protagonist and, implicitly, the reader, has to penetrate to unravel the mystery of why he; in this case, a man; came to be washed up on a beach somewhere with total amnesia. The Coffin Road of the title is an ancient way which was taken across the Isle of Harris for burial rites, because the east side of the island was too rocky for burials, so the body had to be carried across to the western side, where the natural soil was more accommodating. The reason for this road being used as the name of the book is not immediately clear, but suffice to say that the road is significant to the story.

The man doesn’t discover his true name until well into the story so, up until that point, he only has the information he has gleaned from the people in his immediate vicinity to go on and, although they seem plausible enough on the surface, it takes a while to discover that some of them might be deceiving him, but why? Ostensibly, the man is writing a book about the mystery of the missing lighthouse keepers of Eilean Mòr (Gaelic for big island), who went missing without trace in December 1900, almost exactly one year after the light was first lit on the largest of the seven Flannan Isles; at the outset, he has no knowledge of how he came to be doing this, but when he reads a booklet about it in the cottage he is renting for the duration, he is instantly gripped by the story. He is aided & abetted, to some extent, by an attractive (of course!) young woman, apparently the wife of an academic taking a year out with her in this beautiful, but rugged, location; the unnamed man is also having an illicit liaison with this woman, and he sees no reason initially to question this, for a variety of reasons!

Unfortunately for the man, who is apparently a sailor of some expertise, there is a dead body at the location he is given to understand was the last place he visited before his accident, so to add to his current confusion, he also has the terrible foreboding that he might have been responsible for this murder. Into this mix, but separately at first, is thrown a teenage girl in Edinburgh, who is trying to discover the truth about her father’s suicide because, although all the information available to her points to this being the case, she can’t accept that he would abandon her, given that she knows how much he lover her; unfortunately, she is riven with guilt, because the last time they parted, she told him that she hated him.

Although this might seem like a pretty conventional thriller, before long the real message of the story becomes apparent: there is an environmental catastrophe on the horizon; getting closer by the day, in fact; and this book is the vehicle for this message, so I am very happy to share it. Of course, most of the educated world is aware of the issue, but the problem that needs to be addressed is the cavalier, money-driven attitude of the agrochemical industry, especially given the vast potential profits that can be made from the products of this industry: so how can this real threat be alleviated, if not removed completely? I know nothing about this author, but he has produced at least seventeen books, one of which is non-fiction, so he is clearly a well-established writer, and I will certainly keep a look out for his work in future. Coffin Road was published in 2016 by riverrun, an imprint of Quercus Editions Ltd., London, in paperback, ISBN 978-1-78429-313-0.