Catchworld

by Chris Boyce

This is the author's First book, and First science fiction novel. This space opera was joint winner in the 1974 Gollancz / Sunday Times Science Fiction Award. "The starship Yukoku journeyed across the galaxies in search of the homicidal creatures that threatened the very existence of the human race. The members of its crew had committed bribery, murder, and worse to be assigned to this noble mission of vengeance. But the unsuspecting crew was about to discover that they too had been marked for death as soon as they had outlived their usefulness, that their role in this mission was to simply serve as slaves and human fodder to the Machine Intelligence in charge--unless they could find a way to fight back."

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

244 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 1977

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well this was one weird Pulp Sci-Fi fantasty journey! My biggest complaint was the lack of flow between the diverse ideas within. Overall a nice read, some strange tidbits left me with confusion and lead to several page re-reads, but on the whole pretty fluid. My biggest gripe with the whole book was that everything seemed so interesting, and yet I was left with an incredibly sub-par ending. Aside from not really knowing what exactly happened, this book went even so far as to add a CODA which provided very little help in clearing up the complex hodgepodge which amassed by the end of this novel.

All negatives aside, I can say that there were quite a few positives I didnt expect for a pulp soft-cover quick grab. Some of the ideas Boyce incorporates into the story of the crew traveling to Altair are as intriguing as any decent episode of Star Trek; weaving an unknown threat together with an antagonist in the spaceships own Machine Intelligence, the inescapable assimilation of the crew into the mind of the computer, and the lone human left on the ship to plunge into his own despair and insanity.

Unfortunately for this novel, the first half of this book is really where all these ideas shine. After reaching Altair III, we begin to lose track of what is actually going on, crew members exist solely inside the computers mind as a simulation program, we are introduced to strange gods and demons which somehow have a hand to play in all this, and last but not least, the elusive CROW. This "character" left me confused and lost. I was never truly able to piece together what the buck is actually going on with this Crow and the planet.

Anyways, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone unless you want a challenge in a quick read. If anyone leaves this book without scratching their heads, please contact me so we can discuss what the heck happened!!

[SciFiOne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Grade D