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Approaching Omega by Eric Brown
01/04/2005 . Source: Pauline Morgan 
pub: Telos. 117 page enlarged paperback. Price: £ 7.99 (UK), $ 8.95 (US), $11.95 (CAN). ISBN: 1-903889-98-7. Deluxe limited edition signed hardcover. Price: £30.00 (UK). ISBN: 1-903889-99-9. 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.telos.co.uk and www.ericbrown.co.uk
Small publishers such as Telos and PS Publishing need to be supported and encouraged. While the major publishers continue to consolidate and cut their list, depending on the established major authors to make their profits, it is these independent publishers that are able to encourage the new writers. They can produce beautifully produced, well-written volumes that any collector would be happy to have on their shelves. They are also an outlet for the slimmer volume. This one from Telos is an expanded version of a novella which was originally due for publication in the magazine 'Interzone'. It would have benefited from being even longer.
Within this short volume, there are a lot of traditional themes that will be recognised by older readers, but are likely to appear new to the less widely read. The story begins on a near-future Earth. It is polluted and overcrowded and riddled with war and disease. The one hope for mankind is to send a spaceship out to find a new world.
Latimer and his wife, Caroline, are among the chosen few to venture into the unknown. They do not have a destination. The ship will be visiting possible star systems at sub-light speed. The colonists travel in cryogenic sleep. Caroline is in one of the five pods that form part of the ships structure. Latimer is part of the command team who will be woken first if a suitable planet is found or in an emergency.
After a thousand years, they hit problems when the ship is badly damaged. At first, they think they have hit something as two of the sleeper pods have been torn away and a third is attached only by an umbilical of twisted metal. Fortunately, the sleepers seem to be okay, but the cause of the damage could have a more sinister cause. Next time they are revived, they find that the robots taking care of things have evolved and are cutting up the sleepers to make cyborgs. The command team of four have to resolve the situation so that they can continue with the original mission. This section allows for a lot of action between decks, gunfire and gore. Naturally, there will be casualties on all sides.
Brown is a spare writer and condenses a lot into a short space. This does not give him the space to develop the characters properly and he has missed opportunities to give them emotional depth. He is an excellent short story writer but this is too big an idea to be contained within this length.
Pauline Morgan
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