The Bright Spot

by Robert Sydney

Dashiell Hammett meets speculative fiction in this engaging tale of two thespians who become stars in a conspiracy beyond their control.…

When struggling actors Nick and Luella meet, it’s love at act one. But the show may close earlier than they think when they find that an easy gig re-creating the past for elderly James Dumfries is really a phony time-travel scam concocted to separate an old man from his money.

It turns out that Dumfries is no ordinary senior citizen. He is the creator of workware, a technology that has changed the world by enabling workers to manage the most tiresome tasks without complaint, training… or memory. What machines had once done, man can do again—at the high price of his humanity.

But that was never Dumfries’s intention—and now he doesn’t just want to see the past, he wants to change it. Through Nick.

Caught in the web of Dumfries’s regrets and the government’s lies, Nick and Lu soon find themselves in the spotlight of a decades-long drama… with a killer ending.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

337 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 28, 2005

About the author

Pen name for Dennis Danvers.

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed it.

Future dystopian without being heavyhanded about it, by which I mean to say it's a story that legitimately centers around the characters, not the world in which they live (and why it's shitty.) That's a bit of a rarity for future dystopian stuff, in my experience those books really want to roll around in how awful the world is.

Don't get me wrong, I like some dystopia. But this was a fun first-person vaguely noir-ish story that really would have been ruined by that.

So yeah. Enjoyed it.

[Tom Loock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert Sydney is a pseudonym for Dennis Danvers (there is an interesting story behind this to be found on his homepage), an author whose novels Circuit of Heaven and End of Days I rate and recommend very highly. He had a reason to use a pen name for The Bright Spot, yet it still reads - thankfully - like a Danvers-novel.

It is SF with thriller & romance elements and a quick read. For my taste it could have been longer and more elaborate, and I'm wondering if sacrificing background was the author's or the publisher's idea. Still a good read, but if you've never read Danvers, I urge you to try "Circuit of Heaven" or the excellent "The Watch".

[Raechel Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Bright Spot is a well written book of noirish science fiction even though neither the story or the characters ever really engaged me. The hero, Nick, is just smart enough, and the situation just plotted enough to keep one reading along (as long as one doesn't look too hard at logistics of 'ware, the main plot device). It's the ending that's a letdown, a little too easy, a little too neatly wrapped up. The rest of the book could have been forgiven if Nick had been made to make the really tough decision at the end rather than being given an easy out by the author. It's a quick Saturday read, but not a story that will stick with one beyond the last page.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recent Reads: The Bright Spot. Robert Sydney's slow dystopia is a fascinating tale of two actors in over their heads. They're a cyberpunk Nick and Nora in The Thin Man, and the prize is the brain control software that makes people cheaper than machines. It's r/antiwork fiction.

[Hugo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sci-fi noir from a (pseudonymous) SF writer, possibly as the science is a little wonky, raises more question than it answers, and is in any case secondary to its effects on the characters, who are rounded, believable, and engaging.

This feels like slipstream SF of its time (early 2000s), very reminiscent of Michael Marshall Smith's earliest works, mixing the relentless action with sharp humour, but Sydney caps this all off with a cracking and emotionally effective ending.

[Diane Bliss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ambitious, engaging plot

Thoroughly engaging, I read this novel in one sitting. The plot quickly pulls you in and holds your attention from the beginning pages and the pace is unrelenting. Part sci-fi, part who-done-it, it's a magical blend of the two genres that keeps you guessing all the way to the last page. Thought provoking and timely.

[Kal ★ Reader Voracious · Rating 3 out of 5]

I spent my time reading this book in a combination between confused, intrigued, and annoyed. There are numerous typographical errors, and some of that chapters STArT ofF LiKe ThIs, which is annoying. The story was decent though, although convoluted and difficult to follow. The history of 'ware should have been more prevalent instead of the rolled-out-in-the-,middle thing.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was fun. The dystoptian 21st century was a little bit too close for comfort. We're pretty much one war and one software program away from this possible future. Some of the passages about the government, surveillance and drones were also very timely especially since it was written almost 10 years ago.