12 Tides of Time # 15

MAGI~E, FOR a moment, a differ- forms a subversive company - storytelling of the man behind them: Ient ulllverse .... possibly beginning only with himself Graeme Curry. Remember his name. "'A corridor stretches out ahead - to combat it at the most funda- You know, they considered mak- of me. dark and gloomy to my sight, mental level - belief. We are intro- ing it in black and white, even dis- gleaming metal and rusted architec- duced to what we consider, as does cussed it in a magazine interview. It ture. There is dirt beneath the clean he, the horrors of their culture. The would have worked far better in surfaces. I do not understand it here, truth of culture shock is brought monochrome. The dark grey TAR- perhaps there is some different way home to us by, perhaps, a robot or DIS could have been sprayed white. of doing things, some history that the perennially popular mad scien- The distinction between the black, forces this travesty (in my mind) on tist/politician, maybe even a com- male Earl, and the white, female Pa- their people. When in Rome ... but I bination of any, or all, of these. trol would have been more notable. can't accept that. Even here, they are Something dear and familiar to us is Fill would not have been quite so human. not cattle or sheep, to follow made poisonous in their world-view. ridiculous [well, I liked bim - Ed) the same patterns, have the same Maybe there is some sort of satire on and the true horror of this situation ideas. Even worker bees can fly to contemporary politics or politicians. would have been brought home to any colour flower without being Horror strikes and moral outrage us more clearly. A matter of distin- stung to death. This is worse than occur to us: even though we barely guishing between the clear-cut black real death, for it is death of the recognise their society. we presume and white rather than the various, imagination.' to judge it. We are meantto judge it. laughable, vibrant and unreal shades "The dark figure pauses in his With the help of other strange out- of luminous pink. The Kandy Man considerations. rests a thoughtful siders, the man fights at all levels should have followed the authors finger on the side of his chin, strokes and eventually manages, at least directions and been an R & D mad- the measure of rebellion, the music- temporarily, to suppress what he man in a white coat rather than a maker. in his pocket. He watches the considers a despicable individual or Bertie Basset - although the satiric scene ahead, staying to the shadows practice and bring about the con- attractions of having him as the that always exist, even in a world sciousness of the problem within so- R & D madman with a Bertie head where they force light." ciety itself. are unmistakable. Consider, for a moment, the plot Corruption bites deep at the It would have worked. it could of your everyday or garden cyber- heart of this sort of novel. Perhaps have worked - to a certain extent it punk/dark. flash s.f. novel. With a not fitting for a children's pro- struggled through some drawbacks. dash of black humour. William Gib- gramme, less for The science fiction used McCoy's flamboyant. music- son. for example, but we want children's programme. . hall style to the best advantage and something less fake-tech oriented Now, let us look at Graeme Cur- made it work. But is should have and a little more human. Bruce Stirl- ry's creation, . worked so much more memorably ing, maybe. Barry Longyear. If these This could have been. I believe, one - for the best reasons - than it did. names ring no bells, think of of the most striking moments of The novelisation is superb science Graeme Curry, a little known name contemporary science fiction in the fiction. It should. I insist, have oper- but one still registered in the annals programme's history. and anticipat- ated in conscious knowledge of its of Doctor Who. But more of him ing the main rush of interest in science fiction leanings, and then, as later. human-oriented (as opposed to ma- tells Earl in the book: The plot might go as follows. chine-obsessed) cyberpunk. On a "Come on, the dream's over. Man arrives in a different. high-tech par, perhaps, with something like Back to the nightmare." culture. People look different, they Logopolis [cough - Ed] or the under- In a different universe, we would think (or they are forced to think) rated Warriors' Gate. Before you have followed. different thoughts. He is different, an ask, no, I didn't think that the epi- outsider. A stranger in a strange sodes as they stood were particularly Corlnne Berg land. He questions the validity of worthy of praise. but I saw their po- their existence, condemns it, and tential greatness and the powerful