[.ca] Beyond Infinity (ISBN 0446611573)

disappointed by this fine author:
Gregory Benford has been, and remains, a terrific writer, as well as a real scientist, but this is not a good book. For a hard s.f. enthusiast, the language is fuzzy and verbose although the book has less than 300 pages. The technology (mostly biological) seems not to be well thought out, although perhaps, in the far distant future, it's so fabulous as to be beyond contemporary description. In any case, some of it seems to make little sense such as a forested O'Neill cylinder that somehow is an inter-dimensional portal. The idea that the villain, or someone, exists in more dimensions than our usual 3, or even 4 (perhaps with more than one time dimension), is not exploited in an interesting way. For those looking for psychology and motivation, the primary character, Cley, is moderately interesting, but her evolved raccoon companion is just enigmatic. The highly advanced descendants of current humans, the Supras, are mostly snooty and rather boring; considering how smart they are, they don't do much. Finally, once underway, the plot is purely linear with few digressions or new characters: the protagonist and her companion have an adventure with a beginning, middle, and end; that's not so bad, but for someone as talented and clever as Professor Benford, I had hoped for more.

Incomprehensible and boring:
I found it incomprehensible, chaotic and boring. Character development was non-existent. Description of scenery was unclear. The premise of people battling machines with clay overlords weighing in for reasons unclear, "you are not a high enough phylum to understand", in a region composed of somehow solidified space-time is just plain silly. \oI wont mention the magic genetic bullet installed in us by the "Ancient Ones" that saves the day...\c The one-two page chapter literary device does not work well without continuity. Very strange for a writer of Mr. Benford's caliber and capabilities, I expect better from him. Maybe it's me, I couldn't understand "Dalghren" either.

Good, but flawed:
My main complaint with this book is the complete lack of character description. We get told that Seeker is like a racoon, so I think of a racoon. Only 150 pages later, the author casually mentions 6 legs. o_0 I want to know what these people/creatures/species look like, beyond some generalties.

Challenging Task:
There is always a problem with stories set so far in the future that they have little or no connection to anything or anyone living today. _Beyond Infinity_ is takes place more than a billion years in Earths future, where so many races and have risen and died that nobody is close to even knowing the names of all of them even though the current race, the Supras" live more many centuries. The scale of time is such that the sun has gone around the galaxy four times, and the continents are no longer recognizable. Enter Cley, the heroine. She is an "Original" or one of the "Ur-Humans" which is close to our kind. Close as is desirable, since Supras in resurrecting our species added to the basic gene type telepathic abilities and the ability to live several centuries. It is so hard to latch on to her motivations that the author had to resort to more-extensive-than-necessary explorations of her sexual development. Her first affair is with a Supra, who dies in an attack that nearly kills Cley as well. It does kill off her entire tribe and she is the only one left. The rest of the story is about the journey Cley has in the battle against the thing that attacked. In this she is saved, then abetted, then led by a raccoon-type creature that turns out to be another higher intelligence. Through all this she is understandably but frustratingly passive, doing little other than surviving while events unfold around her. Through it all she has obscure and occasionally enlightening conversations with Supras and her raccoon friend, centered around Benford's well-founded ideas of astrophysics, biology, and sociology. Only if you are interested in these topics will you get anything out of this book. I give it four stars because I think Benford rises to much of the challenges of his topic, even though the resulting story will confuse the average reader and leave them unsatisfied. Favorite line: "Cley could not help but smile. 'I think I prefer my lust in smaller doses.'".

Beyond Belief:
I would like to know what the writer of this novel has done with the real Gregory Benford. I honestly can't credit that this book was written by the author of the Galactic Center series. This exercise was at best reminiscent of an early Andre Norton - heroine plus furry companion wanders through a jungle and some mild, uninvolving perils. I started skip reading - about 1 paragraph in 4 - at 70 or so pages into the book. I know I didn't miss anything in character or plot development and it let me get to the denouement (such as it was) a lot faster. Amazon insist on a minimum one star rating. This novel was so poor that even that rating is one star too many. Bad book - stay away.