Hub - Issue 9 by Barry J House / Lee Harris

Author:Barry J House / Lee Harris
Format: epub

Reviews

Helix and Soon I Will Be Invincible reviewed by Lee Harris

HELIX By Eric Brown

Published by Solaris (4 June ’07)

RRP: £6.99

In our first electronic-only issue of Hub (issue 3, 20th April) we published a new tale by Eric. In our introduction we described him as “the incomparable Eric Brown”. We’re about to confess a slight fib.

Helix is an unashamed adventure story – SF so light it needs weighting to keep it from floating away. While the characters don’t always convince, there is much to be enjoyed, here.

After mankind has destroyed the Earth’s ecosystem through constant warring and the ravaging of the land, a colony ship – the Lovelock – is launched with the intention of starting mankind afresh on a new world. When the ship crash-lands on an inhospitable planet, the crew discover that the world they are on is part of a helix – a vast, spiral construct of planets, wound around a single sun. The entire construction is exactly that – a construction. The location (and, indeed, continued existence) of the original Builders is unknown, and the reason for the build is also shrouded in mystery.

The crew meet a number of races – some deadly, some placid, some more complex – and plan a way to find a suitable world on which to revive their passengers, stored in cryogenic suspension.

Comparison with Niven’s Ringworld books is inevitable. Brown treads similar ground: vast planetary construct? Check. Alien allies and enemies? Check. Obligatory sex scene? Check. Mystery surrounding the artifact’s origin? Check. Two-dimensional characterisation? Ah. That’s a different matter. Niven’s book was bold, innovative, and a fascinating read. His characterisations, however, were two-dimensional and ill-considered. The protagonists in Helix are simply portrayed, but they have layers. At first glance it seems that Brown has fallen into the same trap as Niven, and made his world more interesting than his main characters, but as the book progresses we discover more about what makes these people do what they do, and we uncover some interesting revelations.

The same cannot be said of the antagonists, unfortunately, who have been roughly sketched, though this is not enough of a problem to stop me from recommending this book for anyone looking for a holiday read.

This is far from Brown’s best work, but as an uncomplicated boys-own-adventure in space, you could do far worse. An enjoyable romp.

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