EMBLAZONED on a jacket, the words 鈥渁 novel of computer suspense鈥� may seem a
clich茅 designed to repel the potential reader. But if Gollancz chooses to
entice us with that phrase on Duane Franklet鈥檚 Bad Memory (拢15.99, ISBN 0
575 06342 4), that must mean the right readership buttons are being pressed. As
a genre, this kind of thriller clearly has plenty of mileage left, if Franklet鈥檚
adroit and imaginative piece is anything to go by.
Beginning with misconfigured computers, wayward shipments and sales division
cockups in a Texan manufacturer of PCs, Franklet soon has us enjoying a lively
head-to-head between the troubleshooter at Simtec and a team of ruthless
consultants led by one Hektor (Simtec is Troy, electronic breaching is the
Trojan horse . . . you get the idea.) The stakes, of course, soon involve
corporate America, not to mention the hero鈥檚 wife and daughter.
Franklet himself has been a top computer troubleshooter, which speaks well
for the technical detail, but is this another 鈥済reat detail, shame about the
writing鈥� scenario? It鈥檚 encouraging to report that the plotting here is very
skilfully handled, as is the characterisation, so there鈥檚 a genuine involvement
in the convoluted plot mechanisms. A compelling and lively debut.
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Quite a different kettle of genetically modified fish is Andrew Harman鈥檚
witty and prodigiously inventive A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Gene (Legend, 拢4.99,
ISBN 0 09 978881 0), in which the cringe-making pun of the title is bracingly
apotheosised in a Pratchettesque spin on the more bizarre byways of
laboratory-engineered mutation. At the Splice of Life Patentable Biosciences Ltd
labs (yes, yes, all the wordplay is designed to make your teeth ache), Professor
Crickson is about to unite carnivores and vegetarians by implanting the taste of
chicken into the genetic patterns of corn. Like his oven-bake sushi and
microwavable steak tartare, this bids fair to be a market winner, but Harman
wouldn鈥檛 be able to create comic chaos unless something went badly wrong.
And this involves what looks like industrial espionage, but moves into very
weird territory (abduction by creatures that almost defy description, new DNA
strands turning up in the amniotic tanks), giving the outrageous Harman a chance
to display some unassumingly impressive literary references alongside the verbal
fireworks and manic plotting. At times, a little more discipline might have kept
the momentum of the narrative a little less stop-and-start, but that seem a
trifle churlish in light of the fun on offer here.
Scientific rationalism applied to a subject not usually approached from this
point of view usually throws up stimulating results. Jim Crace鈥檚 take on the New
Testament in Quarantine (Viking, 拢16.99, ISBN 0 670 85697 5) is a real
treat for the reader, even if it creates problems for a reviewer because it
depends so much on highly ingenious revelations for its incidental
pleasures.
Suffice it to say that Crace鈥檚 clear-eyed narrative of Christ鈥檚 fasts in the
Judean desert 2000 years ago is bound to upset the pious (generally something a
challenging writer should do as a matter of course), while not entirely
dispensing with the mysteries of faith. There鈥檚 a hint behind Crace鈥檚
customarily elegant prose that his research for the book has resulted in some
surprising conclusions for the sceptic that Crace himself clearly is. Assured
and original, although there are echoes of Michael Moorcock鈥檚 classic Behold
the Man.
The fragility of knowledge in the face of tyranny is the theme of Hong Ying鈥檚
Summer of Betrayal (Bloomsbury, 拢14.99, ISBN 0 7475 3249 4), with a young
woman poet surviving the massacre in Tiananmen Square only to undergo a painful
odyssey in pursuit of truth through, among other things, sexual freedom and
erotic liberation. If the sexual passages guarantee a ready narrative grip,
there鈥檚 still an unyielding intelligence at work here.