book log: 76) Colin Kapp -- Patterns of Chaos

[julesjones]

76) Colin Kapp -- Patterns of Chaos

Another of the books that I greatly enjoyed as a teenager but haven't read for some years. Fortunately it turns out that this is one I still enjoy. A man wakes in the middle of a vicious attack upon a city by a starship, dragged from unconsciousness by a voice inside his head. He has no memory of who he is and what he's doing there, but the voice in his head is no hallucination. The first priority is to get him up and moving to where he's supposed to be -- because Bron is a deepcover agent with a telepathic link back to his base, and being amnesiac doesn't excuse him from the job he was sent to do. Within a few hours, the planet he's on will be destroyed by hellburners, deadly missiles that can tear a planet apart. And in those hours, the Destroyer fleet will raid, taking slaves and goods, and most particularly anyone with expertise in chaos theory -- the concept that the patterns of chaos can be read to predict the future. One of the first things Bron learns about himself is that he has a synthetic personality embedded to allow him to pass as one of those experts, making him a target for the raiders - and a Trojan horse.

Which would be an interesting story in its own right, and the initial phase of the book is a very good story of a deepcover agent rediscovering who he is a bit at a time, while in the middle of the most dangerous job he's ever done. But Kapp takes it to a new level, as Bron comes to understand that the hellburner was aimed at him. Specifically him, personally. And that it's been on its way for 700 million years...

This is a solid piece of 1970s space opera, with a plot on the grand scale combined with some fascinating details to flesh out the universe, and some well-realised characters. It's short by modern standards, but that's all to the good, as it's a tightly written story. An entertaining way to pass a few hours.

LibraryThing entry

Comments

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun. I love Colin Kapp's stories about the Unorthgodox Engineers.

[julesjones]

If you've not read this one, I think it would be worth your while trying it -- though it's probably long since de-accessioned by your local library.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I might look to see if I can find a cheap second-hand copy. (Something which I sadly failed to do a year or two ago when I looked for his collection of UE stories.)

[julesjones]

Every so often I look at the price of the UE collection, and am sad. I may just go and collect the relevant editions of New Writings instead. (Alas, the ones I already own are not the ones with the UE stories.)

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I've read two or three of the UE stories, but think that I've only got one of them in an anthology somewhere on my shelves. I also have a copy of his novel The Survival Game, in which the main character is an officer in the UE, though the UE as such doesn't feature. It's an enjoyable read, but more serious in tone than the UE short stories.