To Hold Infinity by John Meaney
01/12/2002 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 

Pub: Bantam. 554 page paperback. Price: £ 5.99 (UK), $11.95 (AUS) and $17.95 (NZ). ISBN: 0-553-50588-2.

Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK.

Check out website: www.randomhouse.cm

If confessions were good for the soul then I'd be a Catholic. As I'm not and just plain honest, I'll confess here and now: The main reason I bought this book was because of the Jim Burns cover.

Having seen the reproduction on the cover and in 'Transluminal' plus Burns' tendency to base his painting on the book's content, I was curious to see who was the oriental lady with the tasselled belt. I've had this book several months now and just waiting for a gap in my review schedule to fit it in.

So, what have we got? The oriental lady on the cover is biologist Yoshiko Sunadomari. A renown practically a pensioner - but youngish due to her health treatment - aged mother and widow, who has left Earth to visit Fulgar to assist in the seeking of her kidnapped son, Tetsuo.

He, in turn, wins the trust of his kidnappers, the Shadow People, as they seek to find out that one of the Luculentus, people who've been cybernetically enhanced to communicate across computer networks, is taking over the system.

Yoshiko finds her involvement has to cover more than finding her son but also beating this menace as she examines this society.

For a first novel, Meaney has certainly taken the bull by the horns here. One could classify this book as 'CyberTech' mainly cos of the number of times computer jargon is incorporated as its users open up various surveillance modules littered throughout.

Towards the end of the book, the pace moves rather too fast. Having spent so long in building up to the final confrontation, it's almost as though author Meaney realising the novel has gone on for too long is eager to bring it to a finale. Indeed, the villain of the piece isn't even seen for a greater part of the book after being introduced.

Surely someone who is supposed to be having such an impact on everyone's lives would be doing a lot more than just manipulating the odd personality to suit his own ends. Not seeing much of his motivations over than a greed for power doesn't really help understand the character and makes him more cut-out than formidable.

Using the novice Yoshiko as the means to his downfall when there are undoubtedly more experienced Luculentus around doesn't help neither.

Undoubtedly, there is some hidden metaphor here and probably worth spending a week of your time reading but a lot more could have been done in raising this novel to a more classic proportion.

GF Willmetts