Teaser

The invention of stable wormholes has changed life for everyone, not least those who once drove the bigships across the stars. Now, Enginemen are a dying breed, eager to remain relevant in a world that has left them behind . . .

Review

My knowledge of science fiction can be roughly split into two eras. The Golden Age of Asimov and his contemporaries, and things that have happened since about 2010. There’s a big stretch running from the nineteen-eighties through to the early twenty-first century that was until recently a gap in my library. The nineteen-nineties in particular are an era I mostly know about through television, with Star Trek, Stargate, and more being very influential to my childhood. It’s only now that I’m actively seeking out books written in this period, closing those holes in my collection, which has led me to Eric Brown.

I only became aware of Eric Brown when news broke last year of his death. I quickly discovered that, on the face of it at least, he wrote exactly my sort of science fiction. Stories on the harder end of the spectrum, filled with big ideas and wondrous things. perhaps his most famous work is Helix, which deals with an alien superstructure. I bought that book along with several other works of his. As I usually do, I am working through them in chronological order. Brown wrote a lot of books, most of them standalones, and I’m eager to see if he can live up to the image I’ve built n my mind.

Engineman, then. Only Brown’s second novel, but a very strong offering. It takes us to a point in the fairly near future, with Earth at the centre of an interstellar trade network. Once dominated by shipping companies, but now running on wormhole power. Those who once drove the ships, the Enginemen, are either dead, insane, or just about managing to eke out a life. It’s all fairly bleak, until a stranger arrives with a promise of one last job to bring about the good old days and maybe even save the world.

There is a certain element of getting the band together as the various Enginemen and Enginewomen are assembled into a team, but an action thriller this is not. It’s a very sombre novel, and is over two thirds of the way through before the actual job gets underway. This is not a complaint. The book is at its best when reflecting on the changing nature of society. Indeed, I was enjoying the decaying future Paris so much I was almost sad to leave it behind. Yet if there is one thing this book teaches us, it’s that it’s okay to let things go.

I’m going to get into some pretty spoilerific territory with this next bit, so feel free to skip this paragraph if you want to go in blind. Still here? Okay, good. This book opens with the idea that ghosts might exist within the wormholes, and by the end of the book we’re faced with a full-blown afterlife of sorts, with the promise of life being absorbed into the cosmos. It’s all very trippy, and not really my cup of tea. Though, cups of tea are not my cup of tea, so who am I to judge? Regardless, I can’t help but compare this version of eternal souls with that seen in my recent read The Night’s Dawn trilogy, by Peter F. Hamilton. That trilogy was published very soon after Engineman, and while I doubt there is any direct influence, I can’t help but feel Brown handled the notion much more interestingly than Hamilton. It’s funny how two authors can have similar ideas but take them in totally opposite directions.

Spoilers are over now. It’s safe to come back for my closing thoughts. This is a thoroughly engaging novel, and one that genuinely stands alone. Even so, I know for a fact I’ll be reading more Eric Brown in the very near future.

Book Stats

• A Standalone Novel
• Published in 1994 by Pan
• 373 Pages