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Beyond Infinity by Gregory Benford
01/04/2004 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Orbit/Times Warner. 449 page paperback. Price: £ 9.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-84149-188-8. 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.OrbitBooks.co.uk
This is a rather odd book, resulting from author Gregory Benford's co-authoring of two books, 'Against The Fall Of The Night' and 'Beyond The Fall Of The Night', with Arthur C. Clarke which I have to confess to not reading yet.
Some billion years in the future, where there is a diversity of humans, there is a lot of experimental tribes resurrecting old human types by the Supras, the most advanced humans. The female Cley is the result of all this work although with her enhancements, I'd hardly call her human even if her official designation is ur-human.
She has a small on-board computer, one of her fingers can be turned into a selected of tools and has latent telepathy. Another group is determined to kill her but only decimate the tribe who was bringing her up. An advance design racoon called Seeker After Pattern becomes her companion and protector as they evade the Supras who want to use Cley to solve a problem of reality.
This results in a race across the world and eventually off planet as a space-going species rescues her. If anything, this book is a demonstration of Clarke's Law: If anything is too advanced, it will look like magic. Indeed it does. Everything from bio-engineering to moving the planets into closer orbit to the sun are passed off as matter-of-fact as though they should be expected.
That far into the future, why should anything not be expected and even the moving of planets doesn't seem that much of a surprise. The opening sequence of the book also seems somewhat distant as Benford himself appears to be finding himself while writing in this reality. It's also problematic of Willmetts' Law: If you're that far into the future, how do you bring things to a level that the 21st century reader can understand.
The time of a billion years into the future is immaterial. It could be a 100 centuries for all the difference it makes. Neither Cley or Seeker really interact with anyone other than themselves to really see what is going on. We know the enemy, some of the time, but they ain't us. The story overall seems far too experimental in some respects and undeveloped in others.
The setting is an interesting backdrop but doesn't seem to be exploited enough to appreciate this reality, although I suspect a lot of this is due to lack of interaction. Only seeing Cley and Seeker's point of view doesn't really present much for the Supras actions other than portraying them as the 'bad guys'.
That's not to say it isn't an interesting read if not an odd curio demonstration of Clarke's Law, but I suspect this will be more an acquired taste reading.
GF Willmetts 
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