Light – M. John Harrison
World’s most boring space opera.
A story in three threads, one of which is set in the past with the people working on the breakthrough that allows humans interstellar flight and hence to be able to get to the strange bit of the book, the K-tract. This is the most interesting part.
The other two parts – the reprobate character basically just giggles at saying fuck a bit and runs across a procession fo women with all the personality and use of blowup dolls.
The K-ship captain character is a cipher until the end.
One virtue is that it is short.
If it is supposed to be slightly arty, it mostly fails, some of it coming off as second rate Eric Idle, even.
One poor, and boring book.
2 out of 5
Tags: 2.0, arthur c clarke, z new, z years best
