InfinitiesEdited by Peter Crowther
Gollancz, hardback, 368 pages, £12.99
Review by Mike Don (2002)
The loose thematic link in this collection of four novellas reprinted from PS Publishing’s novella series might be described as ‘the enigmatic alien’. Without further ado:
A Writer’s Life (Eric Brown) has a plot which, in other hands, could have been a Lovecraftian creepshow. In fact, I rather think it was. Brown’s gentler approach has produced something closer to the classic English ghost story, its climactic revelation capable of interpretation as SF, fantasy or even horror. Somehow seems an intensely personal tale, possibly because the author-narrator lives, like Brown himself, in the Yorkshire hills.
Ken MacLeod’s The Human Front is in its way equally personal, setting reflecting the author’s Scottish background. A startling alternate history approach (Britain convulsed by revolutionary socialist insurrection) which successfully incorporates Roswell and sundry weird UFO-nut theories into a time travel/parallel timelines resolution.
Diamond Dogs is a standalone in Alastair Reynolds’ established future history. It may be the most conventional story of the four, both in SF and in literary terms: a group of adventurers are recruited to explore an enigmatic – and lethal – alien artifact. An idea used in one way or another many times before.
Finally, there’s Adam Roberts’ Park Polar. Given the ‘theme’ of Infinities and the opening scenes here (mystery violent deaths at isolated Arctic research station) you might expect a variation on The Thing. The crafty twist here is that there is no alien, the tale becoming a tense corporate intrigue/psychological thriller. And a further twist is that it’s far removed from the style of Roberts’ published novels.