Terminal World

Alastair Reynolds

Orion Books / Gollancz (2010)

Hachette (Australia)

Few SF writers have managed or even tried to construct a whole new world with its own physics as a setting for their novels. Frank Herbert succeeded with Dune, and Alan Dean Foster with Midworld. Now Reynolds has joined the successful ones with this monumental novel.

Thousands of years ago Earth suffered some sort of cataclysm that saw it divided into zones. The zones are not geographic but technical - they restrict the level of technology available within each zone. If the technology doesn’t fit into the zone’s parameters it simply doesn’t work. People cannot cross freely between the zones either without the help of antizonal drugs. Even then the drugs’ effects are only temporary.

The center of the world is a huge spire formation called Spearpoint. It is so high it goes past the upper atmosphere, but even it has been settled by highly evolved humans called “Angels”. Lower down is Neon City where electricity and electrical devices work. Below that is Steamtown which has technology of a sort that would best be classified as Steampunk. Finally, at the lowest level and spreading out onto the largely unsettled plains, is Horsetown.

The world’s inhabitants make the best of what they have in their own zone and trade with the other zones for medicines, machinery and food. Out on the plains it is more like the Wild West. There are the raping and pillaging Skullboys, migrating bands of devolved humans. Even worse are the Carnivorgs, a failed robot experiment that somehow manages to survive by eating human brain tissue. There is also the almost-mythical Swarm, once the protectors of Spearpoint. They live their lives almost completely in the air in their huge fleet of dirigibles, only touching down for fuel or trade.

The situation on Spearpoint is not static. The Angels have sent out exploratory teams using advanced medicines and mutations to see if they can plant agents permanently in Neon City. Their aim is to eventually take over the city. Quillon is one of the infiltration team members. He has left the team and is now hiding out in Neon City and working as a city pathologist. He learns the Angels are looking for him for the knowledge of Neon City that he has, and realises that he must leave. With the help of Meroka, a female guide, he escapes to the Horsetown level then out onto the plains. They are captured by the Swarm.

The Swarm is carrying on open warfare with the Skullboys, who also have dirigibles of their own. Following a major battle Quillon is able to put his medical experience to work and gradually gains the trust of the Swarm leaders. Meroka turns out to be an excellent air gunner and finds a place in the crew. A woman and her mysterious daughter who were rescued from the Skullboys by Quillon also come aboard the dirigible.

There it turns out that Nimcha, the young girl, is a Tectomancer. She can influence the position of the zones. She is being called by a being living under Spearpoint. Following a major zone shift the Swarm decides to head for Spearpoint and offer medical help to the citizens of the various levels. Each person involved in the decision has their own motives, but Nimcha’s seems the most important – she has the impression that she is needed to repair the faults in whatever has caused the zones to develop.

The trip to Spearpoint is not easy, crossing many zones, and once there they will face old enemies.

The book is brilliantly constructed and of epic length, but the long and involved plot does not get in the way of brilliant imagery. The Swarm, particularly, comes across as a glorious Steampunk adventure, but entirely credible in the way it all works. I would love to see it made into a film. Terminal World is a truly original piece of SF and has all the potential to become a classic.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 3 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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