| CAT'S CRADLE: WARHEAD by Andrew Cartmel |
| Story 6 Synopsis: Earth's near future. The Doctor investigates the Butler Institute, a global company which plans to offer immortality through computers. He gets Ace to steal back a top secret object in a barrel. This turns out to be a boy with tremendous latent psi-power. The Doctor has also lured a young girl to his house, who can trigger the boy's power. They all head for New York. The boy, Vincent, is taken by BI biostock teams, and thence onto the home base of O'Hara, the brains behind the new bio-computer plan. The Doctor expects that the girl, Justine, will have her distaste for the eco-damage caused by BI amplified by Vincent, but she turns out to just be relieved to find him alive. Instead, O'Hara provides the source, and a cold wrath is visited on the whole project. |
| Review:- The middle part of the Cat's Cradle trilogy isn't particularly tied in with the theme of the TARDIS in chaos. In fact, the ship doesn't feature. Instead, the Doctor and Ace take on a nasty global company and bring it down. In essence, the plot seems strangely minimal and straightforward. But the descriptions of individual characters and their backstories really sustain interest, and there is at times a circularity to events. Though Vincent Wheaton's mysterious powers are never given proper explanation, it doesn't quite matter because he's just a plot device. Even the wilful Justine is little more than a set of cliches. The book is told in 4 blocks: firstly, the Doctor's search for Vincent. Then, Ace's recovery of Vincent. Then bringing Justine in to the plan. Then events in New York and the final showdown. This works pretty well, and the change of styles keeps things fresh. The heart of the story is a depiction of the chaotic state of the environment in this near-future Earth. Time and again, the detrimental consequences of pollution are shown as grims facts of life, and this drives the plot: that the Butler Institute plans to allow mental immortality for the human race, within computers. Whether that's logistically credible is neither here nor there - the point is that this solution is akin to running away, to giving up because the problem is too great to tackle. Fortunately, it seems the intention of the conclusion is that BI and the like will instead turn towards a global cleaning-up operation, and making their money that way. Events in Iceberg fit in with this mildly dystopic vision. As a character study, this book works pretty well, whether detailing the sad accident that changed Justine's life, to Bobby Prescott's downfall, to Mancuso's handling of a hovercraft. Each of these characters seems real, and understandable, and when their stories cross each other, it becomes all the more impressive. Overall, this is familiar territory for the series, but perhaps an unfamiliar treatment. It's certainly an enjoyable read. As well as being part of one trilogy, this would also become the first in a trilogy of New Adventures by Cartmel using Vincent and Justine. But events in Warlock and Warchild would take the characters a long way... |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |