The Grand Wheel

I wasn't expecting much from a book with the premise of intergalactic card players. Typically of Bayley, however, many strange and fascinating ideas flow out of this basic concept. The end result is an adventure that begins with a gambler with a (for once not self-induced) drug problem and finishes by discussing the philosophy of luck and the link to super novas and the origins of life, in a tent on a tiny asteroid in a galactic gap called 'The Cave' in a far off galaxy.

The usual suspects of new wave space opera are met on the way: mysterious alien artefact - check; gung-ho hero with a taste for fast women - check; extinct alien race who can be contacted through time - check; five legged cybernetic male albino chimp called Susan - no, show more I made that one up. But there are definite traits to this kind of SF and Bayley is a master of them, whilst exposing the obvious limitations of stereotyped characters and wooden dialogue. It doesn't really matter though when the story is this exciting. show less

There’s no way that this book should have entertained me as much as it did. I’m no mathematician nor am I a gamer or gambler, so any tale predicated on an understanding of probability and game theory should have been a non-starter. Add in a ludicrous plot, and wafer-thin characters and it gets worse. - But I found it a surprisingly engaging read that drew me in enough to want to know the outcome of the final game.

This novel is the one of Bayley's that reads most like a Phil Dick novel . It's about an intergalactic gambling cartel so it deals with gambling and luck as themes. A lot of fun. Fans of KW Jeter's Science Fiction might like it as well.