(1998/2000) Linda Nagata, Gollancz, hrdbk, £16.99, 359pp,ISBN 0-57506-902-3
Dull and plodding book, full of characters their mothers wouldn’t care about, charting the flight of the starship Null Boundary and its nano-engineered crew. Humanity has been all but wiped out by the Chenzeem, an enigmatic race involved in a 30 million year old war, and the Null Boundary is on the run, though heading towards what appears to be the heart of enemy territory. Will the crew ever discover what they are really up against and, more importantly, why? And, if they do, will anybody care? I didn’t. While its certainly true that Nagata is not short on exotic ideas, she fails miserably to make the reader care about even one of her characters and, quite honestly, I was hoping every one of the whining losers would be killed (somewhere around page 10!), thus saving me the trouble of reading the rest of the anti-climactic tale. While I applaud Gollancz’s output generally, I have to say stay away from this one -- it’s a stinker of the first degree.
Tony Chester
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