| The Centauri Device | ||||||||
| M. John Harrison | ||||||||
| Orion Millennium, 205 pages | ||||||||
|
A review by Martin Lewis
Truck then spends the rest of the novel fleeing from one group straight into the hands of another, out of
the frying pan into the fire, until he is eventually united with the Device.
The Centauri Device forms part of a group of novels including Samuel Delany's Nova and
Barrington Bayley's The Zen Gun that prefigure the 'intelligent' space opera boom that started in
the 80s and has continued unabated. It has been contended that The Centauri Device is too much of a
parody to fit into this group but the book doesn't read like that. It fully embraces the tropes of space
opera -- space battle, exotic locales -- whilst retaining New Wave sensibilities. Perhaps the impression
of parody is given by the chatty, ironic tone of some of the narrative which is at times reminiscent of
other British authors like Douglas Adam and Iain M. Banks.
Despite this tone however, the book is unremittingly bleak in outlook. The galaxy is seedy and
depressing. Violence is casual and brutal. People are either users or are themselves used. Truck himself
is not exempt from these facts.
The only moments of overt parody are some lampooning of True Believers. Beyond this, there is
a weary contempt for ideology that underlies the whole
book. Near the end of the novel we are told of John Truck:
Harrison's prose is impressive, his imagination is fertile and his subversion of genre clichés is
admirable. However, there is little meat on the bones of the novel. There is no real plot just a descent
into despair. There is no real insight, only anger and bitterness. The redemptive conclusion is as
equivocal as the rest of the novel.
Coupled with this John Truck does not make a very endearing protagonist; he is entirely passive and is
at one point accurately described as having the morals of "a cretin or a small animal." Of course, this
is Harrison's intention but knowing this does not make it a more satisfying read.
It is quite possible this is a book that had to be written; as a slap in the face to the genre, as an
act of protest. In this, The Centauri Device arguably raised the bar for future SF but it raised
our expectations with it. This means that the modern reader is left with an empty polemic, artfully
crafted but still hollow.
Martin Lewis lives in South London; he is originally from Bradford, UK. He writes book reviews for The Telegraph And Argus. |
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