Conference noted::sf

967.0. "Robert Reed" by RGB::REDFORD () Wed Mar 20 1991 22:05

"Down the Bright Way"
Robert Reed
Bantam Spectra 1991

A parallel worlds novel of Clarkean sweep, idealism, and naivete.

The Bright Way is an artifact built into the Earth's crust that
allows travel between parallel universes.  It was built by a
race called the Makers, now vanished.  It is the
only such bridge in the galaxy, and Earth is the only planet that
spawned sentient life.  A million years ago, an advanced race of
hominids called the Founders discovered the Bright Way and set out to 
explore it in hopes of meeting the Makers.  The Founders are
monkey-like in appearance, but are peaceful, agrarian, and matriarchal.
Body-swapping makes them immortal, and chips in their heads called
'hard memories' enhance their intelligence.

The Bright Way is linear, and a portal must be established on each
Earth before the next one can be reached.  As the Founders travelled,
they contacted the other human species they came across.  They hope to
unite all humanity in their quest to meet the Makers.  The travellers
call themselves Wanderers, and induct new members into their ranks as
they move.

Now they have reached our Earth.  They ask for little but peace and
international cooperation.  They have wonderful technologies to
offer.  Their leader is Jy, who started the original crusade back on
the Founder homeline a million years ago.  Since then she has visited
hundreds of thousands of different Earths, bringing a message of
peace and hope to each.

The protagonists are a human man who pretends to be a Wanderer and a
girl who falls for it.  The girl is desperate to meet Jy, and the man
agrees, thinking that his disguise can probably get them in.  Little
do they realize that a terrible danger has been found along the
Bright Way, one that threatens the entire network.

Grand.  Its optimism and promise of transcendence reminds one of the 
Arthur C. Clarke of "The City and the Stars".  Sex has been added and
the technology has been updated, but it has that kind of vision.

And like with Clarke, you sometimes wish for a dose of real-world
nastiness.  How, for instance, do the Founders pay for this crusade? 
They've made tremendous sacrifices to support it, but take nothing
from the worlds they visit.  Why don't they take obvious precautions
against disguised Wanderers like the protagonist?  With their hard
memories, they could easily just remember the faces of everyone on
the staff.  The villains of the novel are fairly unpleasant, but
wouldn't last a minute against, say, S. M. Stirling's Draka. They're
far from being a cosmic threat.  

Still, the plot carries one along, and there's a tremendous
inventiveness to the Earths visited.  Reed is a young author, but
already has several novels out ("Black Milk", "The Hormone Jungle",
and "The Leeshore").  I look forward to more from him.

/jlr

Ths sounds like a good one.  I've been looking thru the shelves of bookstores
and libraries in the sci-fi sections.  It seems I'm hard pressed to find 
anything new or original.  Most of the books all sound or look the same.  A lot
of sword and sorcery fantasies or laser-gun shoot-em ups.

ktlam...