Fiction Reviews
The Epilogue Event
(2024) S. G. Bell, The Book Guild Ltd, £9.99, pbk, 256pp, ISBN 978-1-916-66881-2
This is a frustrating read, not least because despite the surfeit of telling over showing, so many crucial elements are left unexplained. Set in 2010, the story opens with Dr Gordon Langley, Director of the ‘Outré Literary Agency’ being told that he has been ‘ruthlessly selected’ by some mysterious power to act as their ‘cynosure’ (‘a person of thing that is the centre of attention or admiration’). Ensnared by his own self-regard, Langley is then visited by Professor Mike Riordan (MBE) who has been instructed to bring certain developments in ‘General Artificial Intelligence’ to Langley’s attention. Following a trail of messages on the internet about crypto-currency, revolutionary trading platforms and internet speeds which ‘literally bent time’ (p. 9), Langley is told to prepare for something called ‘The Epilogue Event’.
This is to be initiated at ‘Oliver’s Smoky Den’ a kind of throw-back to a Bohemian poetry club, run by Dr Randall Munroe, who is also keen to be included in the burgeoning conspiracy. There Langley gives the equivalent of a nihilistic TED-talk, telling the audience ‘You are all somewhere on the spectrum’ (p. 20), by which he means they are all ‘glorious, raging, rampaging, hungering psychopaths’ (p. 20). Implausibly, this little speech not only holds the crowd spellbound but, of course, is recorded on assorted phones and goes viral. However, we’re never really told what the consequences of this are, nor who, or what, is the hidden power behind it all, although the appropriation of being ‘on the spectrum’ is a clue with further hints of an association with autism.
Two other sets of characters are then introduced to stand in stark contrast to these academics attempting to be alpha-males. Zoe, Zeff, Lex and Alice are a group of friends whose role seems to be only to exemplify the effects of Randall’s speeches. And so, we have Lex gratuitously using the ‘N-word’ to describe his black lover, Zeff (p.72) and Alice suddenly viciously turning on her flat-mate Zoe, forcing the latter to leave their shared flat and go to art school (could be worse, I suppose).
The second consists of Peter Finch, his friend and sometime lover Becky, and his stoner mate, Steve. An erstwhile poet at the OSD club, Peter turns out to be immune to Langley’s mesmerising charm and is able to escape the agitated mob by using the power to (literally) stop time in his immediate vicinity. By means of an early morning visitation, followed by a weird kind of therapy session with Steve, we learn that Peter has inherited this from his long-dead Portuguese mum, who tells him of the ‘unmaking’ to come. Peter’s ‘sorcery’ then attracts the attention of the powers-that-be behind Munroe and co., who calls Peter to the club and gives him an ultimatum, the terms of which are, again, left unsaid.
These two groups intersect when Becky intervenes to stop Alice, Lez and Zeff from dragging Zoe into the club and is herself kidnapped. Apparently realising that his power is not enough, Peter seeks help and is introduced by Steve to Petra, a drugs and people smuggler who is nevertheless ‘honourable’. She agrees to help because along with autistic people, Riordan’s mysterious science institute deep in the Norfolk countryside is also ‘harvesting’ the refugees that she hires out to local farmers. Together with a couple of Petra’s people as muscle, Peter sets out to rescue Becky and … well, I wish I could say that it’s all wrapped up satisfactorily but in fact things end on a distinctly flat note. A sample from the sequel, Baptised and Newly Born Book 2 of the 'AI Aftermath Series', is also included and perhaps things will be explained there but, frankly, based on what I’ve read so far, I shan’t be bothering.
Steven French
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