Prometheus Road by Bruce Balfour
01/09/2004 . Source: Donna Jones 
pub: Ace. 310 page paperback. Price: $ 6.99 (US), $ 9.99 (CAN). ISBN: 0-441-01221-3. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.penguin.com
Ace
Tom is a different kind of boy, he doesn't conform to the masses. His parents would like him to become a valuable asset on their farm but Tom has other ideas and they don't fit in with the Gods.
San Francisco has been cast into the sea centuries ago, where it was is off limits to the likes of Tom and his fellow man. But Tom likes to float in the sea, he likes to spend time looking for ancient relics from a past that seems destroyed beyond repair.
When his pastimes are noticed by the Gods, he also finds out that they aren't what they appear to be. That they are in fact an artificial intelligence created by humanity to keep the balance. Only their idea of balance involves nanobombs and shepherd-like cyborgs with psychotic methods of shepherding.
Tom finds himself catapulted into an existence of running from dangerous enemies and his only hope of survival comes from a strange hermit who acts as oddly as the AI gods.
Bruce Balfour hooks you into his strange and restricted world from the first page, an original idea that seems to have unlimited potential. Unfortunately, that's about as far as it goes, eventually letting the story down with forgettable characters and a plot that merely throws the reader from one plot device to another.
Tom is permanently on his back, passed out. The characters that he meets are a motley crew of guides that open his eyes to the truth, only each one is much the same as the one before. The interesting character of Tom's girlfriend, Tempest, seems the only hope of a meaty heroine. Her story takes us along a different course that appeals to the reader, but sadly falls short by a rushing of her part in the tale.
The story is set in various weird and wonderful settings. 'Prometheus Road' being a kind of cross between the Yellow Brick Road of Oz and a kind of Stephen King House of Horrors, the mix most of the time ends up being one of detached dysfunction. The AI gods reside and take meetings in a kind of virtual-world Arthurian realm, upon war horses and wearing full suits of armour. It falls into a kind of corporate board meeting and just adds that element of lunacy-too-far.
Unfortunately, Balfour's story of AI lording it over humans feels like a huge sham. The apparently unrelenting AI seem farcical and like many a human villain, merely banal. The conclusion to 'Prometheus Road' leaves the reader asking the question, 'Why the hell did I waste my time reading this?' and subsequently wondering what all the fuss is about.
I can't hope to find anyone who would like this book. In some respects, the almost fantasy ripple mixed into the Science Fiction vanilla is this story's main downfall. In other respects, it is just a badly plotted, ill conceived hero novel. Definitely one to leave on the shelf at the bookshop!
Donna Jones |
|
Add SFcrowsnest.com daily news updates to your
own web site or blog - just cut and paste the code
below...
POST YOUR COMMENTS  CLICK HERE TO HAVE YOUR SAY
|
