The Cobweb | |||||||||||||||
Stephen Bury | |||||||||||||||
Bantam Books, 448 pages | |||||||||||||||
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A review by Alex Anderson
It's those elements that flirt with Outer Limits-type speculation that we
wonder about here though, just as the satellite-blasting laser depicted
by Clancy raises questions: Is this kind of thing possible now? Has
science fact caught up with science fiction?
The Cobweb is one of those unusual experiences that's enjoyable
because it points out how close to the line between the
past and the future we really walk, especially with the ever-increasing speed of
technological advancement we're now seeing. In that
respect this book follows in the steps of Bury's last novel, Interface,
and the works of Robert Sawyer: Frameshift and The Terminal Experiment
in particular.
What sets these novels apart from those of Clancy and his crowd is that
they address the future of biotechnology and the scientific advancements
of medicine and genetics -- an area that has always been of interest in
mystery novels and became fair game for science fiction writers following
the success of The X-Files. Much has been written about future technology
when it comes to submarines, lasers and jet planes, but the world of the
chromosome hasn't been addressed in any serious way yet.
But is it science fiction? We do live in a world where picking your pet
sheep out of a crowd can be a challenge after all. The thought of cloning
farm animals would probably give even Phillip K. Dick's androids
nightmares.
This particular jaunt into "mainstream, commercial, technothriller-type
fiction" takes us back to the days leading up to the Gulf War, when Saddam
was our friend basically because he wasn't Iranian. And the plot
revolves around -- don't worry, I'm not giving away anything you won't get
from the marketing text on the dust jacket -- Iraqi scientists using
student visa's to get access to leading American educational institutions,
where they can work on biological weapons which they then plan to use on
us and our allies. Nasty. But then again, that is why we went to war with
them.
The main characters are Clyde Banks, a small town deputy sheriff who's
campaigning to replace his boss in an upcoming election (and who has a
pregnant wife in the National Guard destined to go guess where), and dowdy
CIA analyst Betsy Vandeventer. The small town the sheriff lives in also
happens to be home to Eastern Iowa University which, sitting square in
the American heartland as it does, specializes in agricultural science, a
veritable magnet for Iraqi biological weapons specialists.
As the calendar flips closer and closer to the war we know is coming,
things start to get squirly (read: people start to die). At the same time
Betsy has overturned a few things that are rather strange in Washington
D.C. Specifically she has twigged, however peripherally, to what's going
on. She raises unholy hell about it, pissing off those around her who
supported Saddam as an ally, and finds herself in the middle of a
political, bureaucratic mess of the kind only true Luddites relish. The
result: she gets cobwebbed. This means she gets separated from the
meaningful business of the day and tied up in committees, reports and
doing pointless research so she has no time to get into further trouble.
As a threat to those above her ,she is nullified.
Of course that leaves us in quite a state, doesn't it? The baddies are on
American soil, committing God-only-knows-what kind of freedom/God-hating
atrocities and the only person who has the foggiest inkling to what's
going on has been effectively neutralized.
For anyone who likes Clancy and spy-type thrillers The Cobweb is a
worthwhile investment. The characters are strong, the writing of high quality,
and the plot has few hiccups. It's not Stephenson's
best work, nor even Bury's, but it's worth recommending.
Alex Anderson is a long-time SF reader just pompous enough to believe other people may want to read the meanderings he scribbles down between fits of extreme lethargy he calls contemplation. |
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