Teaser

The Spin is an artificial galaxy, created aeons ago by powers unknown. When one of their ancient world-shaping engines is uncovered, it triggers a cascade that threatens civilisations . . .

Review

I’ve never been much of a rereader, but finances and an obsessive desire to fill in the gaps in my spreadsheets have led me down the dark path of revisiting books I’ve already read once before. Some are old favourites, others I’m giving a second chance to, and some were simply very forgettable. Any book I reread for the foreseeable future will be one I last read prior to 2017, the year I started my spreadsheets. The significance of this is that I only pivoted hard into science fiction reading in 2019, so these rereads are of books that grabbed my attention as a casual reader. There won’t be many obscure old titles here, but there will be a few releases from the earlier twenty-first century that have, for one reason or another, fallen by the wayside. Coming back as a more dedicated SF reader, it’s fascinating to see what has been remembered, and what has been forgotten.

Andrew Bannister, I feel, has fallen between the cracks. He has only the three novels of the Spin series to his name, though a search online suggests he may be working on a new novel. This isn’t an uncommon state of affairs. Publishing can be a brutal business, and any author who isn’t an overnight success may well disappear from shelves once their initial contract is fulfilled. Creation Machine is a book I picked up amid the initial wave of hype, and liked enough to buy the sequels, but still predates my headlong plunge into SF fandom.

The first time I read Creation Machine, I of course noticed the blurb referring to it as Banksian science fiction. I was aware of Iain M. Banks in a vague sense, but I return to Bannister fresh off the back of visiting the Culture. Perhaps this is why the similarities are so stark. Just yesterday I was talking about the legacy of Iain M. Banks, and now here it is in full force. The Banksian influence is clear very early on, and expresses itself through both worldbuilding and tone. This is a story dripping in post-humanism, but at the same time there is no mention of Earth. The Spin is far removed from us in space and time alike, but the details are hazy. One character is a swarm of nanites, and humans mingle with nonhumans without any prejudice or distinction.

The there’s the tone. Creation Machine is rough around the edges in the way debut novels almost always are, but there’s a confidence to the presentation nonetheless. The plot might jump around between two seemingly disconnected halves, but Bannister has the tone of a man who knows the story he wants to tell. And that he wants to tell it in a funny way. That humour doesn’t always gel with me (I mean, really, a character shapeshifting into a sex toy within the first chapter?), but there’s a levity to the story that helps carry it along. Bannister is at his best when describing his setting with the raised eyebrow of an amused historian. And it is a great setting. With planets reshaped by arcane technologies and feudal empires existing alongside megacorporations.

Creation Machine is messy, that’s undeniable, but mess isn’t always a bad thing. There’s a palpable sense of glee to the book. An author letting his imagination run rampant. It owes a lot to Banks, and originality isn’t always the priority, but it packages everything into an exciting story. It’s a big, bold, and brassy space opera. Sometimes that’s enough.

Book Stats

• The Spin #1
• First Published 2016 by Bantam
• 327 Pages