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“The Gire and the Bibrat” is the fourth Runcible
Tale. Telepath John Tennyson takes a series of Runcible journeys in order
to triangulate a scream that he has 'heard'. Earth Central calls
in Agent Prime Cause - Horace Blegg - to assist. Bleegg is too
valuable a tool to waste on such a dangerous mission, since he has powers that
even Earth Central does not seem to understand. However, Blegg is able to
lift John Tenyson's abilities to an almost supernatural ability.
Although Tennyson very much doubts that Blegg survived Hiroshima, he needs
all the help he can get, since he is facing the development of a most
unusual biological weapon, a couple of illegal cyborgs, and a contra
terrene device...
This is another suitably enigmatic
tale featuring Agent Prime Cause. Like a good chef, Neal Asher never
really throws anything away - Earth Central's interaction with Blegg is almost
exactly repeated in the prologue to Gridlinked
(although Blegg calls Earth Central 'Al' rather than 'Hal' here).
'Sea of Death' is the name of a short story that Neal Asher had published
in Interzone. Beyond this, Neal Asher will sometimes write something
that really strikes a chord with you - here it's "I lay face-down in the
mud and pretended death" - this reminds me of when I had an Action Man
khaki mac when I was a kid, and I would lay down on the hill in the school
playground, pretending that I was invisible - it seemed to work. In The Line of
Polity there's that delicious moment when Aberil thinks that he will
not die yet as he has "far too much to do" (Chapter 19 p. 488) - much
the same goes through my mind when I'm on a grueling long distance
flight. And who knows? Perhaps one day Agent Prime Cause might
decide to give a certain Ian Cormac some of his powers...
Authortrek Rating:10/10
|
Visit our Neal Asher page,
for a Neal Asher biography, Neal Asher bibliography, Neal Asher short
stories, and interviews |
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