What do you think?
Rate this book
Infinity Hold #1
Infinity Hold
By the award-winning author of Enemy Mine. Infinity Hold. The story of an idea and of a murderer who becomes the first police officer in a world of murderers. "For those interested in science fiction, Barry Longyear is required reading." —Philadephia Inquirer
288 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1989
4 people are currently reading
128 people want to read
About the author
Barry B. Longyear
120 books77 followersBarry Brookes Longyear was an American science fiction author who resided in New Sharon, Maine.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 2, 2021
Infinity Hold is a very well done novel about a prison planet that's transformed by Nicos Bando, a convict who was one of Longyear's best characters. It's a morality tale that blends parts of Clint Eastwood movies with Lord of the Flies and Australian mythos into showing the development of a functional society. Action packed -and- thought provoking.
July 19, 2024
While the concept of prison planet in the near/far future may not be a new and novel idea, Longyear definitely gives it a unique and thoughtful spin with Infinity Hold. As a means to end expensive incarceration for those thought to be incorrigible, several (fairly) newly colonized planets began dumping the 'worst' on the planet Tartaros, a fairly hellish desert world. Planet Earth finally decides to do likewise and Nicos Bando, along with the thousands of others at his 'hotel' are part of the first wave from Earth.
Infinity Hold takes a bit to get into, as Longyear creates his own prison argot for Nicos to narrate the tale, but I quickly got up to speed. The new arrivals had no idea whatsoever what Tartaros would be like; they were just taken there and dumped, along with some cloths, ration packs and water. As you could imagine, the thousands of newly 'free' prisoners did not agree on what to do next. Nicos ends up falling into a pack of a few thousand or so that decide to head to a distant (but green!) mountain range. After a day or so, the group realizes they are being pursued by some people with guns on strange animals and manage to set up an ambush. They kill most of them, but take about 50 or so prisoner, and what happens after this event is what makes this novel unique.
They do get some info from the new prisoners, but what to do with them? None of the cons wants to be a 'stain' (prison guard)! So, a debate ensues, and from that comes the first 'law'-- we will not take prisoners. You can join us, die, or walk away into the sands-- your choice. Slowly (well, actually quite quickly in real time), other arguments arise and the group hammers out some more rules; these rules become augmented with more rules after some trials (and trial and error!). But what kind of society will a bunch of hard-core cons make? What would be the logic and outcomes? That is what Longyear digs into here whole heartedly, all though the eyes of Nicos Bando, a killer himself with a rage problem, who also becomes the first cop on the 'tribe'!
Thoughtful book by Longyear for sure, and one that raises all kinds of questions about our own society, with its flawed judicial system that favors the rich and pads the pockets of lawyers (known as 'cockroaches' here). What is justice after all? Even though these big questions are at the heart of this one, the action and expert pacing pull the reader right along. 4 solid stars!!
Infinity Hold takes a bit to get into, as Longyear creates his own prison argot for Nicos to narrate the tale, but I quickly got up to speed. The new arrivals had no idea whatsoever what Tartaros would be like; they were just taken there and dumped, along with some cloths, ration packs and water. As you could imagine, the thousands of newly 'free' prisoners did not agree on what to do next. Nicos ends up falling into a pack of a few thousand or so that decide to head to a distant (but green!) mountain range. After a day or so, the group realizes they are being pursued by some people with guns on strange animals and manage to set up an ambush. They kill most of them, but take about 50 or so prisoner, and what happens after this event is what makes this novel unique.
They do get some info from the new prisoners, but what to do with them? None of the cons wants to be a 'stain' (prison guard)! So, a debate ensues, and from that comes the first 'law'-- we will not take prisoners. You can join us, die, or walk away into the sands-- your choice. Slowly (well, actually quite quickly in real time), other arguments arise and the group hammers out some more rules; these rules become augmented with more rules after some trials (and trial and error!). But what kind of society will a bunch of hard-core cons make? What would be the logic and outcomes? That is what Longyear digs into here whole heartedly, all though the eyes of Nicos Bando, a killer himself with a rage problem, who also becomes the first cop on the 'tribe'!
Thoughtful book by Longyear for sure, and one that raises all kinds of questions about our own society, with its flawed judicial system that favors the rich and pads the pockets of lawyers (known as 'cockroaches' here). What is justice after all? Even though these big questions are at the heart of this one, the action and expert pacing pull the reader right along. 4 solid stars!!
January 9, 2022
Thousands of convicts dumped in a hostile desert planet, instead of a fight of survival they're more focused in creating laws, have a police force and doing trials, all this on their first few days on the desert (the book covers the initial 7 days), it doesn't make much sense how hundreds of criminals will play along with that so smoothly.
Apart from this we've a book overwhelmed by prison jargon in every paragraph, a big cast of new characters showing up every chapter, with their real names + nicknames/aliases, it can be challenging sometimes to remember them all or understand of what they're talking about, maus, chilli peppers, angel cakes, etc
The story drags in some parts, with the trials in the middle of the desert, suddenly everyone is not hungry or thirsty anymore, the hundreds of convicts are more interested in having justice from a "court", it doesn't make much sense.
Also the "trick" at the end played by the Razai gang against the Hand gang was somehow lame, hard to believe on it.
On the plus side we've a strong start with a solid writing, as expected from someone who received Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards. 3 stars.
Apart from this we've a book overwhelmed by prison jargon in every paragraph, a big cast of new characters showing up every chapter, with their real names + nicknames/aliases, it can be challenging sometimes to remember them all or understand of what they're talking about, maus, chilli peppers, angel cakes, etc
The story drags in some parts, with the trials in the middle of the desert, suddenly everyone is not hungry or thirsty anymore, the hundreds of convicts are more interested in having justice from a "court", it doesn't make much sense.
Also the "trick" at the end played by the Razai gang against the Hand gang was somehow lame, hard to believe on it.
On the plus side we've a strong start with a solid writing, as expected from someone who received Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards. 3 stars.
January 16, 2011
I read this book many years ago and the story has stayed with me all this time.
In a future plagued by overcrowded prisons, those with life sentences are dumped on a prison planet already populated by those who had been dumped there previously.
Landing is lethal as the natives slaughter the newcomers and steal their meager supplies.
One group manages to cooperate and fend off the attack.
Thus a basic society is cobbled together by people who rebelled against society's rules enough to get imprisoned.
I found it fascinating to see how they manage to survive and develop their own laws and government. Wonderful use of science fiction to explore sociology.
In a future plagued by overcrowded prisons, those with life sentences are dumped on a prison planet already populated by those who had been dumped there previously.
Landing is lethal as the natives slaughter the newcomers and steal their meager supplies.
One group manages to cooperate and fend off the attack.
Thus a basic society is cobbled together by people who rebelled against society's rules enough to get imprisoned.
I found it fascinating to see how they manage to survive and develop their own laws and government. Wonderful use of science fiction to explore sociology.
January 8, 2015
The premise is that sometime in the near future when Humanity has reached the stars, the solution to overcrowded prisons should be to take all the prisoners and dump them on an inhospitable world.
Longyear’s aim, presumably, was to examine how the prisoners might react, survive, organise etc. once the ship had abandoned them on the planet Tartarus.
The novel is narrated by petty criminal Bando Nicos, an intelligent but misguided man who is forced to reassess his past and the choices he made in life once he is on the planet.
There he is forced by circumstance to help organise the prisoners and build a workable society.
The newly deposited prisoners are not the first to be transported there however and previous transportees have already formed themselves into large gangs, which is another obstacle that the new arrivals have to face.
However, a young man, Garoit, puts forward the notion that the prisoners should decide for themselves democratically how things should be run. As the group, heading across a desert to try and find a place to settle (knowing that they will need to face other gangs en route) face various crises, laws and rules of behaviour begin to evolve. Bando finds himself commissioned as the gang’s policeman and initiates several laws himself. Laws are recorded by his second in command and as they progress they are written out and passed around.
It’s an interesting concept and the novel is a decent read. Longyear creates prison jargon that one gets the hang of quite quickly and sketches out the backstories of some of the more colourful ‘sharks’ or prisoners.
It falls down on two counts. The first is that Longyear underestimates the tendency of large uncontrolled groups to behave recklessly. We are expected to believe that several thousand people, many of them dangerously violent, male and female, previously segregated, are dumped on a hostile world with little food, and that they (for the most part) decide to behave in a civilised way and follow their elected leaders to the promised land.
There’s no incidents of rape until two thirds of the way into the novel. One would suggest that men who had been confined for years on end suddenly finding themselves in the presence of thousands of women – and with no police or prison officers on the scene – would be a recipe for chaos and carnage. As it turns out in the case of the one rape that is reported the victim is a male prisoner, and to be fair the situation is handled well, without being sensationalised.
The second failing is the setting. The planet has a 27 hour day, deserts and some fertile areas. The plants are edible. the atmosphere and gravity is Earth normal. the alien environment obviously does not concern Longyear, but had he made more of the challenges faced by an alien world combined with the mindsets of several thousand hardened criminals suddenly released into a sort of freedom, then this would be a much better novel. Longyear. one suspects, feels that this idea can only be fully realised within the context of SF. In that I believe he is correct. there aren’t any large islands or inaccessible valleys on or in which to drop a large number of unwanted people. necessarily then, it would need to be another world.
Logistically, that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Would any government go to the expense of regularly carting thousands of prisoners across the galaxy, just to drop them off on a remote planet?
However, it’s an interesting morality tale, with themes of institutional corruption, redemption, the nature of law and even love.
Longyear’s aim, presumably, was to examine how the prisoners might react, survive, organise etc. once the ship had abandoned them on the planet Tartarus.
The novel is narrated by petty criminal Bando Nicos, an intelligent but misguided man who is forced to reassess his past and the choices he made in life once he is on the planet.
There he is forced by circumstance to help organise the prisoners and build a workable society.
The newly deposited prisoners are not the first to be transported there however and previous transportees have already formed themselves into large gangs, which is another obstacle that the new arrivals have to face.
However, a young man, Garoit, puts forward the notion that the prisoners should decide for themselves democratically how things should be run. As the group, heading across a desert to try and find a place to settle (knowing that they will need to face other gangs en route) face various crises, laws and rules of behaviour begin to evolve. Bando finds himself commissioned as the gang’s policeman and initiates several laws himself. Laws are recorded by his second in command and as they progress they are written out and passed around.
It’s an interesting concept and the novel is a decent read. Longyear creates prison jargon that one gets the hang of quite quickly and sketches out the backstories of some of the more colourful ‘sharks’ or prisoners.
It falls down on two counts. The first is that Longyear underestimates the tendency of large uncontrolled groups to behave recklessly. We are expected to believe that several thousand people, many of them dangerously violent, male and female, previously segregated, are dumped on a hostile world with little food, and that they (for the most part) decide to behave in a civilised way and follow their elected leaders to the promised land.
There’s no incidents of rape until two thirds of the way into the novel. One would suggest that men who had been confined for years on end suddenly finding themselves in the presence of thousands of women – and with no police or prison officers on the scene – would be a recipe for chaos and carnage. As it turns out in the case of the one rape that is reported the victim is a male prisoner, and to be fair the situation is handled well, without being sensationalised.
The second failing is the setting. The planet has a 27 hour day, deserts and some fertile areas. The plants are edible. the atmosphere and gravity is Earth normal. the alien environment obviously does not concern Longyear, but had he made more of the challenges faced by an alien world combined with the mindsets of several thousand hardened criminals suddenly released into a sort of freedom, then this would be a much better novel. Longyear. one suspects, feels that this idea can only be fully realised within the context of SF. In that I believe he is correct. there aren’t any large islands or inaccessible valleys on or in which to drop a large number of unwanted people. necessarily then, it would need to be another world.
Logistically, that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Would any government go to the expense of regularly carting thousands of prisoners across the galaxy, just to drop them off on a remote planet?
However, it’s an interesting morality tale, with themes of institutional corruption, redemption, the nature of law and even love.
June 10, 2009
I read this a long time ago, but the story has stayed with me. In the far future, the prisons have become overcrowded, so the culture has taken to sending large groups of prisoners to a habitable, though harsh planet and dumping them there with a limited supply of food and tools. Since the entire planet is inhabited by criminals, it is a case of survival of the fittest. In this case, it is the development of law that helps one group become more fit than some of the others. I think this would make a great movie.
July 12, 2021
Interesting plot with really likeable characters, maybe a bit too many, but still easy to remember. It's not a long book, although at some point to me it seemed to drag a bit, felt like nothing was really happening and the story covers not even 10 days. It got a nice kick in the end and made me enjoy it more than expected, I just wished there was more alien/weird world stuff.
Will check out the sequel for sure
Will check out the sequel for sure
April 1, 2020
This book is absolutely fantastic, I've read it probably 30 times! That description is godawful.
Bando Nicos was sentenced to Tartaros, a prison planet where people from multiple planets are dumped, no possibilty of parole, no leaving, ever. They call it Infinity Hold.
Here Bando and his fellow inmates have to learn to live, to be human, and even, the necessity of Law.
There. :)
Bando Nicos was sentenced to Tartaros, a prison planet where people from multiple planets are dumped, no possibilty of parole, no leaving, ever. They call it Infinity Hold.
Here Bando and his fellow inmates have to learn to live, to be human, and even, the necessity of Law.
There. :)
January 22, 2023
No where near as mind blowing as when I first read it years (decades!) ago but still a fascinating take on the possible intersection of prison culture and 12 step programs in a survival circumstance. Realistic? No. Thought provoking? Yes. Worth a read and then, at least in my personal experience, a re-read and a re-read and a re-read............
November 12, 2022
Interesting to note all of the things going on here. This is about the pulpiest of pulps that I read, and, as such, it contains the exact type of brevity, artificiality, and World building thinness one could expect from those books. At the same time, however, you can feel him both straining to transcend these constraints, while also acknowledging the inevitability of having to match them, such as we see with the clipped ending, if not the whole plot altogether. As for the former, there are those surprisingly large sections given over wholesale just to descriptions of the nascent law building and communal formation of the group. It is apparent that this is actually where his interests lie, and, as such, they are one of the more successful parts of the book, especially seeing the expanding law code of the group text shape. There is a bit of inherent ambiguity required to navigate between the brutal exigencies of life on this harsh planet and the merciful expectations of any sense of justice. He does not quite plumb the whole depths of these questions, but the fact that they’re there at all bespeaks the book’s success both within and over top of its narrower genre considerations. Story: future prison planet, many dropped off and have to make a life for themselves with not simply the dangers of the new planet, but one wholly occupied by criminals and without other authority.
October 7, 2010
In 2115 Bando Nicos is a twenty-seven year-old inmate of "The Crotch", the Union of Terran Republics' prison for incorrigibles in Greenville, Mississippi. Like many other prisons, The Crotch is shut down and the entire population deposited on the planet Tartaros, named for the lowest level of hell, the galaxy's dumping ground for the unwanted. Soon after they are abandoned in the sandy desert of Tartaros, the seventeen thousand-plus population is reduced to three thousand. The remaining "sharks" decide they must band together if they want to survive, and elect a leader who makes Bando the first police officer of the newly-christened Razai gang. With the help of pre-teen killers, homicidal maniacs, and political dissidents, Bando makes up the brutally simple Law of the Razai as they travel in search of a place of refuge. In between trials and fights for survival against the gangs already in residence, Bando and his compatriots must think about the meaning of justice, and Bando examines his own heart to see if he is worthy of the trust placed in him.
This edition contains all three books in the series: INFINITY HOLD, KILL ALL THE LAWYERS, and KEEP THE LAW, and features a lengthy introduction by the author (in which he hints that there may be more Tartaros books in the future).
This edition contains all three books in the series: INFINITY HOLD, KILL ALL THE LAWYERS, and KEEP THE LAW, and features a lengthy introduction by the author (in which he hints that there may be more Tartaros books in the future).
August 28, 2012
Fans of The Moon is a Harsh Mistressshould enjoy this. I really enjoyed all the characters, especially the progress of the narrator, Bando Nicos. Infinity Hold made me think a lot about my own views of our legal systems, including prison culture, and what my responsibilities are as a person.
I'm not saying I'm going to walk into a prison and make friends - but it's good to be knocked off my high horse and reminded that being behind bars changes a person's location, not their humanity.
I'm not saying I'm going to walk into a prison and make friends - but it's good to be knocked off my high horse and reminded that being behind bars changes a person's location, not their humanity.
October 22, 2012
I really enjoyed this book. In part because it's not what you think it's going to be when you first start reading it... how good can a book about prisoners dropped onto a planet to fend for themselves be? It's great to see the group come together and work on forming a functional society.
Turns out this is a book in a series and I really want to get the other two and read them as well.
Turns out this is a book in a series and I really want to get the other two and read them as well.
February 10, 2012
Story with an obvious socia message, almost to a distraction. But I really enjoyed it.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews