Robert Reed (1) (1956–)

WARNING! Some familiarity with advanced particle physics required (well, at least a passing knowledge of the difference between baryonic matter and dark matter). Not for anyone who thinks that science fiction is all 'Star Wars' stuff.

Brian Aldiss' description of a certain kind of science fiction as 'wide-screen baroque' could have been invented for this book. Godlike, near-immortal super-potent humans rule the galaxy and play mud pies with universes. Inevitably, things go wrong when even show more gods overstep their powers and trigger the explosion of the galactic core. The person responsible - the Alice of the title - flees to her family home to await judgement but also to plot with her baby brother how to evade the consequences of her actions. (By 'baby brother' we mean someone probably only 500 years old or so.)

Add to this intrigues between the thousand Families who make up the ruling caste of super-humans, and we have another large-scale novel from Robert Reed.

Although I sometimes have problems with novels where the protagonists start engaging in metaphysical finger-painting and intellectually grappling with the space-time continuum (when some novelists start doing this sort of thing, they tend to overlook minor issues like 'plot' and 'characterization'), in this case I was pleased that Reed kept us quite well-focussed. Characterization in particular was quite well-done and certainly better than some of his earlier novels; and although some of the plot became quite abstract, by concentrating on individual protagonists, the novel didn't lose its way. show less

Beyond the Veil of Stars reads like an autobiography of a boy who spends his childhood with his father chasing evidence of aliens and then grows up to be one. The tone is matter-of-fact, which helped me buy into the premise of a universe in which "people" can walk through "intrusions" on their own planet and come out the other side on another planet in the form of a native of that planet.
The characters and the relationships between them are what takes Robert Reed's book more than a cut show more above the average science fiction. The evolution of the relationship between the protagonist, Cornell, and his spaceship-chasing father over the years is the human thread that carries the story. Along the journey, other relationships, both short- and long-lived, are realistically developed, as are the characters. For instance, Cornell's missing mother haunts the book through photographs and memories, then comes on scene during what is for Cornell a life-changing cameo.
Other wonderfully drawn characters, who age or mature along with Cornell and his perception of them, are his neighbors, the "Petes", who act as surrogate uncle and aunt, Porsche Neal, Cornell's basketball-playing, space-travelling girlfriend, who is full of alien surprises, Logan, a military-type/hero-gone-mad supervisor of alien missions, and the hapless Jordick, who in the words of the immortal Leonard H. McCoy, "should have stood in bed" rather than enrolled for duty on the alien world of High Desert.
The story unfolds with Cornell traveling with his father and Pete, who for the simple reason of being a kind, caring person, chauffeurs them from one alien-spotting to another. The trio seek manifestations of alien landings, which are large glass circles in the ground. Toward the end of the book these circles again play an important role in Cornell's and his father's lives. One day the earth suddenly "everts" so that instead of the usuall starry sky, the people of earth find themselves looking up at a reflection of the earth. This event is referred to as the "Change" for the rest of the book and as with the Kennedy assasination or the bombing of the Twin Towers, everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing the day the "Change" took place. Scientists begin to take a serious look at the possibility of aliens at that point, although only a specially chosen elite have access to that knowledge.
This is a book worth reading twice for the elegance and complexity of its characters and their relationships, with the science fiction aspect mainly serving as the setting, as it should be. show less

This book has an attractive style; like wide-screen baroque space opera written by Bradbury. The premise, of an almost monastic order of Wanderers (some of whom aren't very monastic at all) travelling between alternate Earths in search of the Makers of the Bright, the way between the worlds, is expressed in very elegaic terms. We see the plot unfold through the eyes of a number of key viewpoint characters; and some of these are not what they seem. Reed injects a lot of plot quite painlessly show more whilst talking about these characters. It took me a while to realise that all these different Earths were in parallel universes rather than different worlds in the same universe, and the mechanism of travelling the Bright is a little hazy; first the Wanderers have ships, and then they are suddenly using the portals into the Bright as some sort of lift (elevator) cars; a little more focus on the nuts and bolts of the story might have helped a bit. Overall, though, a worthwhile novel. show less

A story about the future of the suburbs after the mortgage crisis. I always love the way Reed can get under current events and twist them just so to make them alien.