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The Grand Wheel
Paperback
176 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1, 1977
5 people are currently reading
112 people want to read
About the author
Barrington J. Bayley
72 books40 followersBarrington J. Bayley published work principally under his own name but also using the pseudonyms ofAlan Aumbry, Michael Barrington (with Michael Moorcock), John Diamond and P.F. Woods.
Bayley was born in Birmingham and educated in Newport, Shropshire. He worked in a number of jobs before joining the Royal Air Force in 1955; his first published story, "Combat's End", had seen print the year before in UK-only publication Vargo Statten Magazine.
During the 1960s, Bayley's short stories featured regularly in New Worlds magazine and later in its successor, the paperback anthologies of the same name. He became friends with New Worlds editor Michael Moorcock, who largely instigated science fiction's New Wave movement. Bayley himself was part of the movement.
Bayley's first book, Star Virus, was followed by more than a dozen other novels; his downbeat, gloomy approach to novel writing has been cited as influential on the works of M. John Harrison, Brian Stableford and Bruce Sterling.
Bayley was born in Birmingham and educated in Newport, Shropshire. He worked in a number of jobs before joining the Royal Air Force in 1955; his first published story, "Combat's End", had seen print the year before in UK-only publication Vargo Statten Magazine.
During the 1960s, Bayley's short stories featured regularly in New Worlds magazine and later in its successor, the paperback anthologies of the same name. He became friends with New Worlds editor Michael Moorcock, who largely instigated science fiction's New Wave movement. Bayley himself was part of the movement.
Bayley's first book, Star Virus, was followed by more than a dozen other novels; his downbeat, gloomy approach to novel writing has been cited as influential on the works of M. John Harrison, Brian Stableford and Bruce Sterling.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 23, 2009
I like this guy more and more. Especially reading the horrible reviews. More weird than bad. I might have to reevalate Brian Aldiss.
June 19, 2009
It's hard to say what the worst part of this book was. No, wait, it's not: the whole book was the worst part of this book. This is one of those rare books with something in it to offend -everyone-. Whether it was the "science" of "randomatics" (which was super-painful), the terrible, terrible characters, the awfulness of the characters' interactions with the one (yes one) female character, the... ugh. I don't even know.
Also: what is it with bad science fiction where they assume that the male:female ratio in the world is like 99:1? Really now. C'mon, guys, you're supposed to be good at the whole 'future' thing - keep it up and let's have like I dunno 90:10 male:female? Or dare I suggest 50:50 like I dunno the world is? Stupid stupid science fiction.
Also: what is it with bad science fiction where they assume that the male:female ratio in the world is like 99:1? Really now. C'mon, guys, you're supposed to be good at the whole 'future' thing - keep it up and let's have like I dunno 90:10 male:female? Or dare I suggest 50:50 like I dunno the world is? Stupid stupid science fiction.
April 17, 2008
I enjoyed this book. Bayley moves the story along quickly while maintaining some interesting ideas. The characters weren't realized beyond biographical information, and I wasn't involved in their fates so much as the outcome of the story. At times I felt like I was reading a Philip K. Dick book, probably due to Bayley's depiction of a galaxy-wide government that cracks down on anything that threatens its fastidious charter. The tidbits about random mathematics (or randomatics, a great term) reminded me of Asimov's psycho-history. All-in-all, this was a good science fiction story.
August 29, 2017
Loved it! Reminded me a little bit of Jack Vance books.
March 1, 2018
aggiornamento vecchio libro letto chissà quando
December 24, 2022
Surprisngly fun pulp sci-fi that actually has some cool concepts running through it's plot, also has a hint of noir to it too that really builds atmosphere and mystery.
November 11, 2025
I suggest reading something else. I only read it because Don Maitz's fun cover art caught my eye. I don't know what I expected, but somehow I didn't think it would be entirely about gaming/gambling. I find such things hopelessly dull (outside of 遊☆戯☆王). Randomness, tarot cards, and "luck" are prominent themes. It's slightly noir-esque.
The story follows Cheyne Scarne, who's been trying to get recruited into the organization known as the Grand Wheel so that he might act as a double agent for the government (the Legitimacy). The Legitimacy keeps him addicted to a certain drug, and he wants the antidote. He doesn't seem to be very motivated otherwise. Despite the Legitimacy, the Wheel is pretty much in control of things (they rule Earth and Luna). Gambling is everything (unless you're Legitimacy; they disapprove). The Wheel is attempting to harness "luck," while also scheming to elevate itself to the galactic level. The Legitimacy wants whatever they assume the Wheel has, so they send in Scarne as a spy.
There's also a subplot involving a war between the Legitimacy and the Hadranics (I have no idea who they are) in a region of space known as "the Cave" (because there are fewer stars, I guess). Archeologists there have unearthed a machine that affects "probability." The stars are going supernova left and right, so they keep this 16-year-old boy, Shane, around because he can sense when one is about to blow. As to why there are two characters with phonetically identical names in the same novel, I haven't a clue.
There's only one female character, Cadence. And her sole role is to please any males the Wheel assigns her to. She seemingly becomes attached to the main character and ends up risking her neck for him. But when they get in trouble, she's sent somewhere to be a sex slave for the rest of her life, while the "protagonist" gets off scot-free. At the very end of the book, he spends his time in bars with the delusion that she might walk through the door of one someday. When a woman who only resembles her eventually walks in, we get this: "She was not Cadence. But she would do." Meanwhile, the actual Cadence...
There's this gambling city called "Chasm." It is one, and people constantly fall to their deaths ("every few minutes, in fact"). There's even a scene where a mother and child are seen plummeting hand in hand. Scarne asks why they don't have safety nets, and in answer, the other guy just says, "This is Chasm." Of all the ridiculous things in the book, I think this takes the cake.
During the climax, Cheyne Scarne experiences (in quick succession) "a minor heart attack," cancer growing in his neck, and his left arm getting blown off by a meteorite, only to shrug it off... No big deal.
...
A very minor character named Müller acts like a redshirt; what happens to him is no surprise.
-
There's one character who's referred to as "the tall Negro" practically every time he's mentioned... He doesn't seem to have a name...
-
"Scarne wanted to know." (p. 161)
...
I wish I had counted all the times characters raised one or both eyebrows...
...
Vocabulary:
"himself": 80
"itself": 29
"yourself": 15 (+1 "yourselves")
"themselves": 10
"myself": 7
"oneself": 3
"ourselves": 2
"herself": 1
-
"glance": 35
"gaze": 23
"peer": 11
"stare": 9+
"glimpse": 7
"glare": 6
"leer": 1
"peep": 1
-
"rose" (verb): 20
"lay": 7+
"loom": 7
-
"here and there": 2
"now and then": 2
"to and fro": 1
-
"glow": 12 (+1 "aglow")
"glitter": 7
"glisten": 4
"glimmer": 3
"gleam": 1
"sparkle": 4+
"blaze": 4+
-
"haze": 7+
"dim": 5
"gloom": 3+
-
"vast": 9+
"dissolve": 8+
"silver": 6+
"wryly": 4+
"titanic": 3 (Two on p. 12!)
...
Typos/Grammatical Issues:
"There are people there want to talk to you." (... people there who want...)
-
"Immediately they had seated themselves it surged into motion..." ("Immediately as they," perhaps?)
-
"... Chariman..." (Chairman; this typo occurs at least twice.)
-
"While he spoke, the alien seemed to be tidying up the hut, as if were preparing to leave." (... as if he were...)
...
4/10
The story follows Cheyne Scarne, who's been trying to get recruited into the organization known as the Grand Wheel so that he might act as a double agent for the government (the Legitimacy). The Legitimacy keeps him addicted to a certain drug, and he wants the antidote. He doesn't seem to be very motivated otherwise. Despite the Legitimacy, the Wheel is pretty much in control of things (they rule Earth and Luna). Gambling is everything (unless you're Legitimacy; they disapprove). The Wheel is attempting to harness "luck," while also scheming to elevate itself to the galactic level. The Legitimacy wants whatever they assume the Wheel has, so they send in Scarne as a spy.
There's also a subplot involving a war between the Legitimacy and the Hadranics (I have no idea who they are) in a region of space known as "the Cave" (because there are fewer stars, I guess). Archeologists there have unearthed a machine that affects "probability." The stars are going supernova left and right, so they keep this 16-year-old boy, Shane, around because he can sense when one is about to blow. As to why there are two characters with phonetically identical names in the same novel, I haven't a clue.
There's only one female character, Cadence. And her sole role is to please any males the Wheel assigns her to. She seemingly becomes attached to the main character and ends up risking her neck for him. But when they get in trouble, she's sent somewhere to be a sex slave for the rest of her life, while the "protagonist" gets off scot-free. At the very end of the book, he spends his time in bars with the delusion that she might walk through the door of one someday. When a woman who only resembles her eventually walks in, we get this: "She was not Cadence. But she would do." Meanwhile, the actual Cadence...
There's this gambling city called "Chasm." It is one, and people constantly fall to their deaths ("every few minutes, in fact"). There's even a scene where a mother and child are seen plummeting hand in hand. Scarne asks why they don't have safety nets, and in answer, the other guy just says, "This is Chasm." Of all the ridiculous things in the book, I think this takes the cake.
During the climax, Cheyne Scarne experiences (in quick succession) "a minor heart attack," cancer growing in his neck, and his left arm getting blown off by a meteorite, only to shrug it off... No big deal.
...
A very minor character named Müller acts like a redshirt; what happens to him is no surprise.
-
There's one character who's referred to as "the tall Negro" practically every time he's mentioned... He doesn't seem to have a name...
-
"Scarne wanted to know." (p. 161)
...
I wish I had counted all the times characters raised one or both eyebrows...
...
Vocabulary:
"himself": 80
"itself": 29
"yourself": 15 (+1 "yourselves")
"themselves": 10
"myself": 7
"oneself": 3
"ourselves": 2
"herself": 1
-
"glance": 35
"gaze": 23
"peer": 11
"stare": 9+
"glimpse": 7
"glare": 6
"leer": 1
"peep": 1
-
"rose" (verb): 20
"lay": 7+
"loom": 7
-
"here and there": 2
"now and then": 2
"to and fro": 1
-
"glow": 12 (+1 "aglow")
"glitter": 7
"glisten": 4
"glimmer": 3
"gleam": 1
"sparkle": 4+
"blaze": 4+
-
"haze": 7+
"dim": 5
"gloom": 3+
-
"vast": 9+
"dissolve": 8+
"silver": 6+
"wryly": 4+
"titanic": 3 (Two on p. 12!)
...
Typos/Grammatical Issues:
"There are people there want to talk to you." (... people there who want...)
-
"Immediately they had seated themselves it surged into motion..." ("Immediately as they," perhaps?)
-
"... Chariman..." (Chairman; this typo occurs at least twice.)
-
"While he spoke, the alien seemed to be tidying up the hut, as if were preparing to leave." (... as if he were...)
...
4/10
December 8, 2011
I can't seem to stop my current excursion into not-quite-so-forgotten pulp sci-fi from the 60s and 70s. The writers are largely unknown to me (an embarrassing admission) but I know I'll feel otherwise in a few months time, when excellent scribes like Barrington J Bayley will seem like old friends! This slim slice of pulp was a fine surprise. The back cover blurb lured me; the mid-section left me briefly doubtful; but the final few chapters were marvellous, skilfully paying-off all the story's disparate elements in such an inventive way, that I emerged a brand new fan of Mr Bayley's work and keen to seek out more. I don't think I've ever before encountered a sci-fi story that so cleverly extrapolates the concept of mob run casinos into a 25th Century projection. "When Casinos Rule The Universe!": what a fun idea. And as we discover, they not only rule it, they CREATE it. If I didn't consider poker machines to be Satan's handmaidens I'd be embracing this startling Meaning of Life with both meteorite-severed arms. Among the elements I most enjoyed were: Scarne's forced addiction to the Legitimacy drug - how evil! (although perhaps we were a tad robbed of his cold turkey...?); the gentle shower of suicides at Chasm - what an image! - and I love that it didn't put anyone off their $9.99 pasta; the tanked up, flippered alien, Pendragon (actually, I could have done with more of him; he deserved to reappear, clutching his mic, at the end of the story); whiny jailbait Shane at the centre of an apparent pederasts' tiff (call the cops - what a pair of dirty pervs!). I also loved Dom. I was all ready to hate him, but by the time he and Scarne were at the Galactics' card table together I LOVED him. Even when he gave Scarne spontaneous tumours. What's a little pox dose between friends? Dom can join my Scrabble game any time he likes.
September 6, 2014
Half of humanity's planets are ruled by the Legitimacy, strong on order and stability. Half are under the sway of the Grand Wheel, a shady organisation devoted to gambling and a more free-wheelin' existence. Scarne is a trained 'randomatician' whose skills at last bring him to the notice of the Wheel. Recruited to their ranks, he finds himself embroiled in a forthcoming gamble with aliens in which the stake is the future of humankind.
Throw in a clairvoyant who can predict stars going nova, addictive poison, equations for manipulating luck, and a variety of exotic locations, and it all sounds rather promising. However, although the ideas are there, the telling is a little colourless. Characters are flat and emotion lacking. Bayley's too-similar names don't help the reader: Hakandra, Haskand, Hadranics; Shane, Cheyne, Scarne.
Nonetheless, there are memorable moments, such as the chasm city, and the preposterous but arresting climax. The novel's more philosophical notions, especially towards the end, are interesting enough to justify the tale.
Throw in a clairvoyant who can predict stars going nova, addictive poison, equations for manipulating luck, and a variety of exotic locations, and it all sounds rather promising. However, although the ideas are there, the telling is a little colourless. Characters are flat and emotion lacking. Bayley's too-similar names don't help the reader: Hakandra, Haskand, Hadranics; Shane, Cheyne, Scarne.
Nonetheless, there are memorable moments, such as the chasm city, and the preposterous but arresting climax. The novel's more philosophical notions, especially towards the end, are interesting enough to justify the tale.
August 24, 2007
Not much, pretty mediocre science fiction. There are some interesting ideas, and I picked up the book because of it's reference to game playing. But the style is relatively flat and the surprises are few.
July 2, 2009
Reeking in Bayley-itude, this is a terrible book, but almost so bad its good. Bad geeky bad science (randomatics, it was insulting), bad social theory, a galaxy run by casinos, terrible stock characters, doesnt quite keep up the badness at a consistant enough pace.
May 13, 2011
I really like this book. Had an interesting melancholy feel to it.
November 14, 2013
It kept my interest and was short. Seemed to end abruptly. A few things weren't followed through.
December 2, 2016
Not a bad story and the descriptions of what lies invisible beneath space-time itself are pretty convincing. Reminscent of 'The Player Of Games' by Iain Banks, might he have read it once upon a time?
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews