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I'm totally amazed that I've never heard of this book before. Written in 1920, it's a dystopia which prefigures many of the ideas in more well-known books such as Brave New World and 1984. I'd be very surprised if Huxley and Orwell hadn't read it. The book is set in the 2150s. In the past of this world, the era following the First World War was the Era of the League of Nations, a time when the democracies of the world faced off against the communist dictatorships. But then, in 1986, a resurgent… (more)

I'm totally amazed that I've never heard of this book before. Written in 1920, it's a dystopia which prefigures many of the ideas in more well-known books such as Brave New World and 1984. I'd be very surprised if Huxley and Orwell hadn't read it. The book is set in the 2150s. In the past of this world, the era following the First World War was the Era of the League of Nations, a time when the democracies of the world faced off against the communist dictatorships. But then, in 1986, a resurgent Germany attempted to conquer the world again, and World War Two broke out. This raged on for a long time, but the rest of the world pulled together, and Germany was reduced to a single city, Berlin, an underground city under a thick concrete cap, protected from invasion by an unbeatable ray weapon. This has been so for the last hundred years. The rest of the world is at peace under a World Government, but no-one knows what conditions are like in Berlin.

Our hero, a chemical engineer, manages to get into the underground city, where he is able to pose as a German scientist whom he resembles closely. Through his eyes, we see the "Dark Utopia" of German Imperial Socialism. It is a society which bears many resemblances to Nazi ideology as it came to be -- eugenics, the creation of race of German supermen, the reduction of women to the roles of mother or whore, the ambition to wipe out the "lesser" races of the world, rule by a dictator (in this case a descendant of the Hohenzollerns) supposedly as representative of the people, total war as a way to strengthen the race. Boy are brought up to hate their enemies and show no "weaker" emotions such as pity or love. (Indeed, there's a scene in a school where the boys are encouraged to express their hatred which is reminiscent of a scene in 1984). The viewpoint character works his way up through the ranks of the middle class technocrats, using his knowledge of chemistry from the outside world to amaze the German scientists. He is granted breeding rights (he is expect to choose one woman from three suitable mates chosen by the government), allowed to visit the Level of Free Women (basically a very large brothel), and is eventually elevated to the ranks of Royalty for his good works. Of course, during this time he is finding people who want to overthrow the status quo, and following an ending which owes more to pulp fiction than great literature, it all ends happily.

One thing that has occured to me is that if the traits of German society portrayed here could be extrapolated from the real Germany in 1920, would Germany have ended up with some form of Nazism even without Hitler? This book can't be called great literature, but it's an enjoyable and thought-provoking read and I'm surprised it's not better known in the annals of dystopian fiction

Review (cross-posted from www.mobileread.com)

A direct sequel to Starfish, in this one Webb opens up the world he began to create in the first novel. It's hard to say too much about the plot without giving away the ending of the first volume. Suffice to say it involves Lenie Clarke heading out into the wider world of late 21st century America.

And what a bleak vision it is. Think of all the current trends in society and technology, have them all go wrong, mix them all together, add a dash of pessimism,… (more)

Review (cross-posted from www.mobileread.com)

A direct sequel to Starfish, in this one Webb opens up the world he began to create in the first novel. It's hard to say too much about the plot without giving away the ending of the first volume. Suffice to say it involves Lenie Clarke heading out into the wider world of late 21st century America.

And what a bleak vision it is. Think of all the current trends in society and technology, have them all go wrong, mix them all together, add a dash of pessimism, and stir well. The Maelstrom of the title is the Internet, so riddled with viruses, worms and trojans (some of them reaching intelligence!) that it's been renamed. The shores of the ocean are fenced off, refugees are left on the beach, given shelter and heating and food laden down with enough tranquillisers to keep them docile. They are patrolled by security guards piloting remote armed flybots, who work from home via links through the Maelstrom. The world is an ecological disaster zone, its agricultural areas ridden with ineradicable pests accidentally brought in from other continents, its sea level rising, new drug-resistant diseases spreading from country to country.

And into the middle of this already crumbling world comes Lenie Clarke, on a mission of revenge, and unknown to herself, carrier of an organism from the deep sea which has the potential to wipe out all life on Earth. To the corporation who knows her secret, she's public enemy number one; to the public, who see her as a victim of the overbearing might of the corporate bullies, she's a folk hero; and to some strange evolving intelligence in the Maelstrom, she's someone who needs to be watched.

Maelstrom opens up the world begun in Starfish in more ways than one; there are more point of view characters, from Lenie herself to the corporate agents tasked with hunting her down, and the secretly rebellious security guard who, with the help of the Maelstrom intelligence, helps her out when she can. As a science fiction thriller, it's a page-turner. As a novel about the way the world could go if we don't pay attention, it's up there with John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar and The Sheep Look Up.

I found Maelstrom absolutely riveting; though I have to admit, I'm intending to read a few more cheery novels before I delve into Behemoth, the third in the trilogy.

Review (cross-posted from www.mobileread.com)

At the bottom of the Pacific Ocean lies the Channer Vent, a a hydrothermic vent around which monstrous deep-sea fish cluster in the eternal dark. It is here, in the late 21st century, that a major corporation chooses to build Beebe Station, to tap the power generated where two tectonic plates meet. But who would choose to work down there in the dark? Answer, nobody.

Which is why it the criminals, the mentally disturbed, the perverts and murderers, the… (more)

Review (cross-posted from www.mobileread.com)

At the bottom of the Pacific Ocean lies the Channer Vent, a a hydrothermic vent around which monstrous deep-sea fish cluster in the eternal dark. It is here, in the late 21st century, that a major corporation chooses to build Beebe Station, to tap the power generated where two tectonic plates meet. But who would choose to work down there in the dark? Answer, nobody.

Which is why it the criminals, the mentally disturbed, the perverts and murderers, the abusers and the victims of abuse, who are sent down there. Among them is Lenie Clarke, one screw-up among many. With one lung removed and replaced with technology to let her breathe underwater, her body adapted to cope with the extreme pressure, she is equipped with a special wetsuit and strange white contact lenses which allow her to see in the perpetual darkness and sent down to the depths to do her duty.

It's the ones who adapt who survive. And adapting means becoming one with the undersea world, where strangely mutated giant deep-sea fish prowl outside the shelter of the base. Soon, most of the people down there are wearing their white contact lenses all the time, refusing to take off their black wetsuits, spending most of their waking and sleeping hours outside the base. Safe behind their blank eyes, the misfits remain perpetual strangers to each other, away from the world above, where they never fitted. If they do their jobs for the power company, perhaps they'll be left alone to live their strange deep-sea lives. Or perhaps not.

It's a grim, believable world, made all the more authentic by Webb's obvious knowledge of a whole range of sciences and technologies. (There are several pages of references for those who want to follow up the science). Lenie Clarke comes across as a survivor; a perpetual victim, convinced of her own inadequacy, who slowly becomes the de facto leader of the bizarre misfits around her.