What do you think?
Rate this book
Amorphs Universe #4
Charisma
A secret research station near the Cornish fishing village of Falcombe has discovered the existence of an apparently infinite series of parallel worlds, each a slightly distorted reflection of our own. It has also developed a technique for investigating these worlds; but the only person who can possibly visit and explore a parallel world is the rare individual whose counterpart has lately died there and whose place he can therefore take - which in turn presages his own death on his version of Earth.
220 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1975
3 people are currently reading
153 people want to read
About the author
Michael G. Coney
120 books27 followersMichael Greatrex Coney was born in Birmingham, England and educated at King Edward's School.
He started a career as a chartered accountant and went on to become a management Consultant. Then he went into the catering business, managing an inn in south Devon with his wife, Daphne for three years and a hotel in the West Indies for another three. He worked for Financial Services in the B.C. Forest Service for seventeen years before retiring .
He Passed away 4 November 2005. peacefully of Cancer (Mesothelioma). He was married with three children and lived on Vancouver Island.
He started a career as a chartered accountant and went on to become a management Consultant. Then he went into the catering business, managing an inn in south Devon with his wife, Daphne for three years and a hotel in the West Indies for another three. He worked for Financial Services in the B.C. Forest Service for seventeen years before retiring .
He Passed away 4 November 2005. peacefully of Cancer (Mesothelioma). He was married with three children and lived on Vancouver Island.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
July 26, 2025
Charisma was published in Great Britain in 1975 but didn't appear in the U.S. until this obscure Dell edition with an unappealing and uncredited cover appeared at the end of 1979; I guess that DAW didn't care for it. It's something of a fix-up novel, as parts appeared in issues of F & SF in 1972 and '74. It's loosely set in his Amorph universe, though it stands on its own. It features an unlikable lead character, John Maine, who has an unreasonable obsession about a woman named Susanna whom he pursues into a variety of parallel worlds despite the fact that his pursuit always ends in death, despair, desperation, disappointment, and other such depressing D things. Apparently, the title was meant to be Chimera, and much speculation has been made about how it ended up as Charisma; the mystery will probably never be resolved. It's kind of dated but readable, though not among Coney's best.
August 22, 2025
Charisma promises a heady blend of parallel-universe intrigue, romantic obsession, and a slow-burn murder whodunnit—all the elements of an exciting SF novel. And with Michael G. Coney at the typewriter, I expected something rich, strange, and unforgettable. Instead, what I got was a plodding, uneven, and often frustrating story that feels shockingly beneath his usual excellence.
I couldn’t have picked a better setting to read this book. Like several of Coney’s works, Charisma takes place in an idyllic seaside town. I read it slowly during a beach trip, fully expecting to be swept away by Coney’s usual charm and evocative prose. And while the writing itself still has moments of beauty, the story is oddly dull—tacky in places, slow in pacing, and rough in execution.
The story follows a hotel manager who becomes infatuated after a chance encounter with a mysterious woman. It reminded me of “The Dandelion Girl” by Robert F. Young—an incredible short story, that I highly recommend!—and for a while, I was excited to see where this would lead. But the plot soon collapses under the weight of its own complexity, like a soap bubble. Pop.
Like other reviewers, I was put off by the protagonist’s behavior. He comes off less like a reflective adult and more like a frat boy with a one-track mind. At first, I gave Coney the benefit of the doubt—characters don’t have to be likable, and sometimes their flaws are intentional. And I’d be lying if I didn’t think other reviewers were perhaps overreacting when they called the protagonist sexist. Then I hit page 200, where our main character says to the woman he supposedly loves, and I quote: “Susanna, you wonderful thing, I want to r*pe you.”
I think worse yet, the love interest acts like this is a complement.
What?
The whole book feels like it was written by someone entirely different from the Michael G. Coney I love and adore. Compared to Hello Summer, Goodbye (Rax), Mirror Image, The Jaws That Bite, The Claws That Catch, and Neptune’s Cauldron, Charisma lacks all the intelligence, romanticism, and emotional depth that usually define his work. Instead, it comes across as crude—both in plot and tone.
The plot stumbles throughout, the pacing is uneven, and the structure reads like a rushed first draft. The only thing it didn’t lack for was the prose. In some ways, this book reminded me of the weaker works of Bob Shaw or Michael Moorcock. Both have, in my opinion, ambitious ideas trapped in clumsy execution.
By the end of it, Charisma felt like a case of wasted potential. What could have been an eerie, haunting meditation on identity and longing is instead a clunky, uncomfortable mess. It’s not just disappointing. It’s disheartening to see an author of Coney’s caliber miss the mark this badly.
I couldn’t have picked a better setting to read this book. Like several of Coney’s works, Charisma takes place in an idyllic seaside town. I read it slowly during a beach trip, fully expecting to be swept away by Coney’s usual charm and evocative prose. And while the writing itself still has moments of beauty, the story is oddly dull—tacky in places, slow in pacing, and rough in execution.
The story follows a hotel manager who becomes infatuated after a chance encounter with a mysterious woman. It reminded me of “The Dandelion Girl” by Robert F. Young—an incredible short story, that I highly recommend!—and for a while, I was excited to see where this would lead. But the plot soon collapses under the weight of its own complexity, like a soap bubble. Pop.
Like other reviewers, I was put off by the protagonist’s behavior. He comes off less like a reflective adult and more like a frat boy with a one-track mind. At first, I gave Coney the benefit of the doubt—characters don’t have to be likable, and sometimes their flaws are intentional. And I’d be lying if I didn’t think other reviewers were perhaps overreacting when they called the protagonist sexist. Then I hit page 200, where our main character says to the woman he supposedly loves, and I quote: “Susanna, you wonderful thing, I want to r*pe you.”
I think worse yet, the love interest acts like this is a complement.
What?
The whole book feels like it was written by someone entirely different from the Michael G. Coney I love and adore. Compared to Hello Summer, Goodbye (Rax), Mirror Image, The Jaws That Bite, The Claws That Catch, and Neptune’s Cauldron, Charisma lacks all the intelligence, romanticism, and emotional depth that usually define his work. Instead, it comes across as crude—both in plot and tone.
The plot stumbles throughout, the pacing is uneven, and the structure reads like a rushed first draft. The only thing it didn’t lack for was the prose. In some ways, this book reminded me of the weaker works of Bob Shaw or Michael Moorcock. Both have, in my opinion, ambitious ideas trapped in clumsy execution.
By the end of it, Charisma felt like a case of wasted potential. What could have been an eerie, haunting meditation on identity and longing is instead a clunky, uncomfortable mess. It’s not just disappointing. It’s disheartening to see an author of Coney’s caliber miss the mark this badly.
January 23, 2020
There are some wonderful concepts in this book that never quite come off because of sloppy thinking, fuzzy writing, and poorly considered characterizing.
First, the great concepts. The story takes place in some near-future remote part of coastal England in which the protagonist, John Maine, hotelier and boating enthusiast, comes to an isolated scientific station which transports people to parallel worlds, worlds similar to our own, but where a few changes have happened which ultimately cause a speed-up or slow-down in the timeline, making the nearly parallel worlds ahead of us or lagging us by a few days. One final catch: there can only be one of a person in the parallel world, so in order to travel there one's doppelganger must be dead or have left that world.
Interesting concept, even if not entirely logical or coherent. One can play around with it and Coney does. He gives us a neat murder mystery in this world using these concepts.
Unfortunately, it never quite works. It's not just one murder; it's several. And the motivation for them isn't at all clear. There's a love interest that's more sleazy than interesting, a supposed-to-be witty repartee piece of dialogue about raping the love interest that only disgusts, pervy gropes instead of trying to get out of danger, and other similar characterization misjudgments. Clearly this author hasn't worked out some of life's lessons yet.
In keeping with one of the most popular recent trends in what is passing for literary criticism, many reviewers call this author's writing misogynistic, or sexist, a distinction without a difference for them. They think the definition of either term means writing an action a typical woman would disapprove. But that displays the reviewers' ignorance more than it says anything about the author. I find no textual evidence this author holds women in contempt.
Finally, there's the issue of the title itself. What a riot! It comes from the last page: "I should have known from the first that she was not real; nothing so perfect can be real. She was a charisma, a quick vision of life and beauty and love that fluttered through my existence and then died, late last year, an autumn mayfly." Of course, the word the author means to use is chimera. How this escapes a sole author's notice is understandable, but an editor's, an editorial staff's, and a publishing company's? Incredible!
Ever since my youth and reading about DC Comics Earth 1 and Earth 2 Justice League / Justice Society crossovers, Zelazny's Amber series, H. Beam Piper's Paratime series, I have had a soft spot for interdimensional parallel world travel. I hoped Coney had made a significant contribution here, but was ultimately disappointed in this poorly thought out effort.
First, the great concepts. The story takes place in some near-future remote part of coastal England in which the protagonist, John Maine, hotelier and boating enthusiast, comes to an isolated scientific station which transports people to parallel worlds, worlds similar to our own, but where a few changes have happened which ultimately cause a speed-up or slow-down in the timeline, making the nearly parallel worlds ahead of us or lagging us by a few days. One final catch: there can only be one of a person in the parallel world, so in order to travel there one's doppelganger must be dead or have left that world.
Interesting concept, even if not entirely logical or coherent. One can play around with it and Coney does. He gives us a neat murder mystery in this world using these concepts.
Unfortunately, it never quite works. It's not just one murder; it's several. And the motivation for them isn't at all clear. There's a love interest that's more sleazy than interesting, a supposed-to-be witty repartee piece of dialogue about raping the love interest that only disgusts, pervy gropes instead of trying to get out of danger, and other similar characterization misjudgments. Clearly this author hasn't worked out some of life's lessons yet.
In keeping with one of the most popular recent trends in what is passing for literary criticism, many reviewers call this author's writing misogynistic, or sexist, a distinction without a difference for them. They think the definition of either term means writing an action a typical woman would disapprove. But that displays the reviewers' ignorance more than it says anything about the author. I find no textual evidence this author holds women in contempt.
Finally, there's the issue of the title itself. What a riot! It comes from the last page: "I should have known from the first that she was not real; nothing so perfect can be real. She was a charisma, a quick vision of life and beauty and love that fluttered through my existence and then died, late last year, an autumn mayfly." Of course, the word the author means to use is chimera. How this escapes a sole author's notice is understandable, but an editor's, an editorial staff's, and a publishing company's? Incredible!
Ever since my youth and reading about DC Comics Earth 1 and Earth 2 Justice League / Justice Society crossovers, Zelazny's Amber series, H. Beam Piper's Paratime series, I have had a soft spot for interdimensional parallel world travel. I hoped Coney had made a significant contribution here, but was ultimately disappointed in this poorly thought out effort.
September 8, 2024
Coney draws up a highly unlikeable protagonist in John Maine and throws him in a setting that combines yacht dealings, murder mystery, and parallel worlds. While scoping out a wild area near his potential future yacht trade and current hotel workplace, he sees a beautiful blonde hanging out in a specific part of the woods. He is not only instantly attracted to her but also madly and obsessively in love, which drives the remainder of this book. Her name is Susanna and she works at a nearby research center. She is also dead, at least in a parallel world due in part of the center’s experiments. You follow erratic John’s mad frenzy across these worlds, with the help of a scientist who he hates, as he tries to avoid death himself, avoid detectives who are attempting to pin a murder on him, and navigate the sci-fi landscape out loud so the reader could remind himself, “oh yes, that happened in world 2 not negative world 6!” It’s amazing how this guy always seems on the run yet somehow manages to spend every free moment art a bar downing whiskey and ginger ale. He has several love interests, mostly for a purpose in aiding his alibis. By the end, you are dying to know which of his lady friends he ends up with, who really killed everyone, what happened to his fishing pistol, and who may have never existed in the first place.
A fine mess; I think I’ll keep away from reading about boats for a while - and keep the world count to one.
A fine mess; I think I’ll keep away from reading about boats for a while - and keep the world count to one.
September 2, 2019
A sexist science fiction story that was written in the 70s. As another reviewer commented, I think the author meant "Chimera," instead of Charisma.
This author never thought that women would like to not be treated like sex objects in the future, I guess. This takes place in a town on the coast of England, near Cornwall, where a scientist in a science institute had discovered a way to access parallel worlds. The protagonist is a hotel manager who sells house yachts on the side. He treats every woman like they exist for his personal pleasure or displeasure, depending on their looks. The protagonist instantly falls in love with a "girl" (as the author calls young women who are good-looking) from a parallel Earth. She, naturally, instantly falls in love with him, too, on her meeting up with him when she visits his Earth. They immediately consummate their friendship before she is killed by lightning on her way back to her world. The rest of the book is spent with him chasing the live version of her on different worlds.
This is the second book I've read by this author and they've both been sexist, so I'm starting to get disappointed.
This author never thought that women would like to not be treated like sex objects in the future, I guess. This takes place in a town on the coast of England, near Cornwall, where a scientist in a science institute had discovered a way to access parallel worlds. The protagonist is a hotel manager who sells house yachts on the side. He treats every woman like they exist for his personal pleasure or displeasure, depending on their looks. The protagonist instantly falls in love with a "girl" (as the author calls young women who are good-looking) from a parallel Earth. She, naturally, instantly falls in love with him, too, on her meeting up with him when she visits his Earth. They immediately consummate their friendship before she is killed by lightning on her way back to her world. The rest of the book is spent with him chasing the live version of her on different worlds.
This is the second book I've read by this author and they've both been sexist, so I'm starting to get disappointed.
August 19, 2012
Pretty fun read and an interesting take on parallel worlds. There were only a couple things that bothered me. One was the dialogue and interaction between Maine and Susanna. It always felt forced to the point of it resembling b-rate soap operas. The other was how Maine seemed to act like he saw Marianne for the first time, every time he saw her in a different world. Other than those little hiccups, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Might read more of Michael Coney's novels sometime.
November 9, 2015
I really enjoyed Charisma, even if it is showing its age a little. This book reminded me very much of Christopher Priest's early works, with very well-developed characters and an unpredictable journey through parallel worlds/times. Maybe not as adventurous as it could have been, but a fun and thoroughly engaging read nonetheless.
December 15, 2025
A murder mystery / love story taking place in parallel universes.
The good: the best parts of the book are where Coney implements his personal experiences as a hotel manager. The background of hotels, boats and cafe's was actually really well done.
I also liked the melancholic ending.
The bad: The science part. We don't get any background about the how's and why's of the research station. It's completely absent. Our main character, John Maine, just has to be at a certain place at a certain time and he's transported to a parallel universe. That's it.
Also, this mythic love story Coney was going for falls flat. John and Susanna fall in love instantly. Why? Certainly not because of the wooden dialogue between them. So it was meant to be, I guess? I don't know man. That just seems like lazy writing to me.
Also, John comes across as a rather self-indulgent sexist pig that every woman seems to fall for. For instance: the first thing he does after he saves Susanna from drowning is squeeze the still unconscious woman's boob. Seriously, John?
Because some of the elements of this book are autobiographical, it seems to me that Coney is projecting his personal fantasies here.
Overall, the book entertained me, but it wasn't exactly a masterpiece. If I'd want to read a good story about parallel universes, I'd rather re-read Blake Crouch's Dark Matter.
2.5 stars.
The good: the best parts of the book are where Coney implements his personal experiences as a hotel manager. The background of hotels, boats and cafe's was actually really well done.
I also liked the melancholic ending.
The bad: The science part. We don't get any background about the how's and why's of the research station. It's completely absent. Our main character, John Maine, just has to be at a certain place at a certain time and he's transported to a parallel universe. That's it.
Also, this mythic love story Coney was going for falls flat. John and Susanna fall in love instantly. Why? Certainly not because of the wooden dialogue between them. So it was meant to be, I guess? I don't know man. That just seems like lazy writing to me.
Also, John comes across as a rather self-indulgent sexist pig that every woman seems to fall for. For instance: the first thing he does after he saves Susanna from drowning is squeeze the still unconscious woman's boob. Seriously, John?
Because some of the elements of this book are autobiographical, it seems to me that Coney is projecting his personal fantasies here.
Overall, the book entertained me, but it wasn't exactly a masterpiece. If I'd want to read a good story about parallel universes, I'd rather re-read Blake Crouch's Dark Matter.
2.5 stars.
October 2, 2025
John Maine manages the hotel of Wal Mellors - an obnoxious but successful businessman - in the small port of Falcombe, not far from a secret research station in Cornwall that is experimenting with parallel worlds. Meeting and falling for a beautiful girl, Susanna, he is entangled with the experiment when she dies in this world and he finds that she may still be alive in other worlds. In the hope of finding her he enlists in the experiment only to find that in a different world his houseboat has been burned and a body (suspected to be Mellors) is found on board - only it isn't - it's his own! Piling mess upon mess, back in this world Mellors is found dead and Maine is again prime suspect! Part mystery, part detective story, all exciting SF, Michael Coney has crafted an unexpected gem of a tale (except for some unfortunate romantic scenes)!
September 3, 2018
This trans-dimensional love story and whodunnit is skilfully and naturally written, but it doesn't seem particularly interesting until about page 30 — then it really sucks you in.
The reason for the title is explained on the last page. Ironically, I think the author has the wrong word: I believe he means Chimera.
The reason for the title is explained on the last page. Ironically, I think the author has the wrong word: I believe he means Chimera.
May 26, 2011
"First of all, I told myself, I must get rid of the persistent sensation that none of this is really happening"
WARNING THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!
Charisma by Micheal G. Coney. "Reality what a concept" is the title of a Robin Williams comedy album, but it is also something that is vital to alternate reality science fiction. This story is a combination alternate reality, multiple Earths story and a plain old fashioned murder mystery with a small seaport town setting. The main character of the story John Maine, I forget what his primary job was, except that he was a hired hand at a Hotel of a boating club, and had a side job of being in charge of the Hotel Owner's boat fleet (If I remember correctly). He falls in love with a girl named Susanna.
Plot number 2, or is it plot 5? Boy, well man in this, meets girl falls in love with girl loses girl finds girl again, maybe loses girl again, but finds her by the end standard plot. There is a science fiction twist though. The girl in this case is involved with a scientific organization that is conducting experiments that lead to the discovery of parallel worlds.
Our hero, or rather the primary character meets a beautful girl who he eventually learns is named Susanna and she works at a research station that has a few secrets. The main secret is that they have discovered a means to travel to parallel Earths, what they eventually learn is that the timelines of these Earths are converging and will possibly destroy them all. John Maine falls in love with Susanne, the catch is that she is really from one of these parallel Earths, and the Susanne from John's primary Earth is dead. He soon learns that many people he has been in contact with are dead, and even he is dead on one and possibly more of these Earths.
John's love for Susanne drives him deeper into exploring these parallel Earths, and also the fact that on his primary Earth he is a suspect in the murder of a respected man in the seaport town the story takes place in. Long story short he is not actually the murderer, however due to his mucking about in all these alternate worlds, and the fact that these worlds are converging, he is constantly incriminating himself.
By stories end the loose ends are tied up, and some of the events that John experienced didn't happen, a few of them canceled themselves out. The story doesn't have a typical feel of science fiction other than the traveling between the parallel worlds. If feels more like a romance story set in a seaport town, that makes me think of Maine, or maybe it is the character's name that makes me think of that area.
I stumbled across this book quite by accident really. I had actually ordered another book by the same author from an Ebay seller, and the seller accidentally sent this one. I was intrigued by the synopsis of this book and rather than send it back, I decided to keep it. The seller only charged me the cost of the book not the extra postage, and sent the book I originally ordered. The book I had ordered was actually a book I had read before, but wanted a better, cleaner copy of. That book was Cat Karina a book writen by the same author a few year latter than Charisma. Some day I should reread Cat Karina, or at least try to drum up a review of it.
WARNING THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!
Charisma by Micheal G. Coney. "Reality what a concept" is the title of a Robin Williams comedy album, but it is also something that is vital to alternate reality science fiction. This story is a combination alternate reality, multiple Earths story and a plain old fashioned murder mystery with a small seaport town setting. The main character of the story John Maine, I forget what his primary job was, except that he was a hired hand at a Hotel of a boating club, and had a side job of being in charge of the Hotel Owner's boat fleet (If I remember correctly). He falls in love with a girl named Susanna.
Plot number 2, or is it plot 5? Boy, well man in this, meets girl falls in love with girl loses girl finds girl again, maybe loses girl again, but finds her by the end standard plot. There is a science fiction twist though. The girl in this case is involved with a scientific organization that is conducting experiments that lead to the discovery of parallel worlds.
Our hero, or rather the primary character meets a beautful girl who he eventually learns is named Susanna and she works at a research station that has a few secrets. The main secret is that they have discovered a means to travel to parallel Earths, what they eventually learn is that the timelines of these Earths are converging and will possibly destroy them all. John Maine falls in love with Susanne, the catch is that she is really from one of these parallel Earths, and the Susanne from John's primary Earth is dead. He soon learns that many people he has been in contact with are dead, and even he is dead on one and possibly more of these Earths.
John's love for Susanne drives him deeper into exploring these parallel Earths, and also the fact that on his primary Earth he is a suspect in the murder of a respected man in the seaport town the story takes place in. Long story short he is not actually the murderer, however due to his mucking about in all these alternate worlds, and the fact that these worlds are converging, he is constantly incriminating himself.
By stories end the loose ends are tied up, and some of the events that John experienced didn't happen, a few of them canceled themselves out. The story doesn't have a typical feel of science fiction other than the traveling between the parallel worlds. If feels more like a romance story set in a seaport town, that makes me think of Maine, or maybe it is the character's name that makes me think of that area.
I stumbled across this book quite by accident really. I had actually ordered another book by the same author from an Ebay seller, and the seller accidentally sent this one. I was intrigued by the synopsis of this book and rather than send it back, I decided to keep it. The seller only charged me the cost of the book not the extra postage, and sent the book I originally ordered. The book I had ordered was actually a book I had read before, but wanted a better, cleaner copy of. That book was Cat Karina a book writen by the same author a few year latter than Charisma. Some day I should reread Cat Karina, or at least try to drum up a review of it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 8, 2016
Das Buch war flüssig zu lesen und bis zuletzt auch durchaus spannend, aber mir gefielen einige Dinge nicht so sehr. Da wäre zum einen das SciFi-Element mit den Parallelwelten. Das wird nicht allzu sehr erläutert, bzw. was dazu erklärt wird, leuchtete mir nicht unbedingt ein. So neigen die Parallelwelten dazu, Ereignisse zu wiederholen (vor allem Todesfälle) und
Das schien mir nicht besonders schlüssig, und warum der Wissenschaftler dieses herausgefunden haben sollte, wurde auch nicht erklärt.
Der Hauptplot um den Mord bzw. die Ermittlungen war da schon interessanter. Wie sich die Schlinge um Maine immer enger zieht und ihn dies sogar in den Parallelwelten verfolgt, war sehr spannend.
Allerdings ist unser Ich-Erzähler Maine auch ein nicht wirklich sympathischer Zeitgenosse, der sehr egoistisch vorgeht.
Dass (mindestens) zwei Susannas sterben, kümmert ihn scheinbar nicht allzu sehr, und auch die hilfreiche Krankenschwester Marianne nutzt er aus. Da spricht er einerseits von entbehrlichen Doppelgängern, die ihn nicht kümmern, um dann später eine Susanna zu vernaschen.
Fazit: Wer hauptsächlich wegen der SciFi-Elemente an Bord geht, der dürfte eher enttäuscht werden.
Das schien mir nicht besonders schlüssig, und warum der Wissenschaftler dieses herausgefunden haben sollte, wurde auch nicht erklärt.
Der Hauptplot um den Mord bzw. die Ermittlungen war da schon interessanter. Wie sich die Schlinge um Maine immer enger zieht und ihn dies sogar in den Parallelwelten verfolgt, war sehr spannend.
Allerdings ist unser Ich-Erzähler Maine auch ein nicht wirklich sympathischer Zeitgenosse, der sehr egoistisch vorgeht.
Dass (mindestens) zwei Susannas sterben, kümmert ihn scheinbar nicht allzu sehr, und auch die hilfreiche Krankenschwester Marianne nutzt er aus. Da spricht er einerseits von entbehrlichen Doppelgängern, die ihn nicht kümmern, um dann später eine Susanna zu vernaschen.
Fazit: Wer hauptsächlich wegen der SciFi-Elemente an Bord geht, der dürfte eher enttäuscht werden.
December 31, 2022
The backside of my paperback promised a story about parallel universes, which is a topic that I like quite a bit.
My enthusiasm faded when after 30 pages there was still nothing about this topic. Instead I got a lot of talk about yachts and hotels and a naive protagonist who does not recognize that he gets ripped off by his boss, though it is painfully obvious to the reader.
And there's a lot of drinking. In this novel people are constantly drinking. One might speculate that the late Mr. Coney might have had an unhealthy interest in alcohol himself.
Anyway, after page 30 the parallel-universe-stuff finally started. A beautiful woman appears, it´s love at first sight! Then the laws of the parallel universe are laid out. And they are kind of stupid and unbelievable. My disappointment rises. I read on to page 64 and still I was not enjoying myself. So... another book that I quit before the end. Sigh...
My enthusiasm faded when after 30 pages there was still nothing about this topic. Instead I got a lot of talk about yachts and hotels and a naive protagonist who does not recognize that he gets ripped off by his boss, though it is painfully obvious to the reader.
And there's a lot of drinking. In this novel people are constantly drinking. One might speculate that the late Mr. Coney might have had an unhealthy interest in alcohol himself.
Anyway, after page 30 the parallel-universe-stuff finally started. A beautiful woman appears, it´s love at first sight! Then the laws of the parallel universe are laid out. And they are kind of stupid and unbelievable. My disappointment rises. I read on to page 64 and still I was not enjoying myself. So... another book that I quit before the end. Sigh...
July 2, 2008
I love Michael Coney. I was working in the used book department at the best bookstore in the world and ran across his book Syzygy, thought the cover looked cool, and bought it without even cracking it open. In general, I think that his writing is on par with Phil Dick. Excellent speculative SF, well thought out, and brilliantly executed. Read him!
January 5, 2010
I first read this quite a number of years ago.
It was a favourite and still has some charm.
It was a favourite and still has some charm.
November 8, 2014
1987 grade C+
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews