Furious Gulf

I found this penultimate entry in Benford's long-running Galactic Center series a major letdown from the previous book, Tides of Light. Tides, and its predecessor, Great Sky River, were strong on characters and I cared about their survival against a seriously hostile universe, taken over by mechanical intelligences. But this book is one long surreal dream sequence. Well, technically, our heroes have entered the warped space time physics of the Galactic Center. In an epilog, Benford, an astrophysicist, says he tried to stay within the bounds of science. But when the environment becomes completely unpredictable, when holes become portals to alternate realities, when time is somehow warped into physical matter, when people from various show more points in 20,000 years of human history interact, the difference between between dream and reality no longer matters. And when everything is a dream, story goes into its own black hole. All that's left is a sequence of events, a few scenes of some power, but nothing really is at stake in terms of choice, realization, etc.

Not recommended, despite its importance is setting up the final volume. show less

So this chapter in the Galactic Center saga is told from Toby's POV. Life isn't easy for the son of a captain. He wants to talk son-to-father, but too often it's in front of the crew, so it winds up sounding like an out-of-line ensign sowing discord. And when it seems like they're talking father-to-son, Killeen reverts back to captain-to-crew. The reason for that is Toby is carrying around the personality of his father's dead girlfriend, Shibo, on a chip mounted into his internal computer system. Killeen claims that it's because she was an important member of the crew with valuable skills, but Toby thinks Dad just can't let go. They're both right.

In the hierarchy of dead people stored on computer chips, personalities are at the top. show more They take up a lot of memory and, given enough time, can override their host. And that's what Shibo starts to do.

After a hellish trip through the high energy physics equivalent of Scylla and Charibdis, the Argo arrives at an odd oasis in some kind of balanced region within the maelstrom, a bit like a Lagrange Point but with space-time at work instead of gravity. Interacting with the people there is odd, and there is much confusion between the two parties with the locals using home field to their advantage rather than trying to help their distant cousins.

In the midst of negotiations, Toby has an outburst which complicates matters. Killeen tosses him into the brig. When Toby gets word of what transpired in his absence, he feels like he was setup. Toby runs away with Quath, who acts as a guard/guide. They sneak behind the proverbial curtain only to fall into what I think were pocket universes of space and time. Things get a bit strange as Benford plays around with physics at a level I can't pretend to understand. Toby finds himself on his own, struggling to deal with Shibo's needy disembodied personality, the weirdness of the landscape he finds himself in, coming of age as an adult, and being pursued by malevolent entities.

At my age, I'm not really into coming of age stories, but when Benford doesn't make the story all about Toby, it holds up. The exploration of around the galactic center made for some entertaining reading. I wouldn't have minded more of that. But I struggled with the physics involved getting near the core and Toby's explorations at the oasis. The conflicts are kind of resolved, but not really, and the ending is something of a cliffhanger. Still, if you've made it this far into the series, you have to go all the way.

3.75 stars rounded up to 4. show less

Number 5 in a series? Dammit! I hate that about SciFi. Nowhere on the cover does it say it's part of a series. And the ending just dumps you off with no real conclusion until the next book. I guess this explains all the useless mentions of past events. Very frustrating. This could have been a good standalone book (even as part of a series) if they had just ripped out some of the extra fluff and put a real ending on it.

No big favourite.

Ciclo del Centro Galactico V

Thats my review