Transition

Many Worlds Explain Today

I must confess that I like Iain M. Banks' Culture series the best, but this was a good read with some nice twists and closure at the end. There did seem to be some inconsistencies not clearly resolved in the novel, the most vexing of which involved mental vs physical travel between parallel worlds. In spite of that, however, I liked it very much and was reminded of Pynchon's "Against the Day" often. The alternate world in which the Christians were the terrorists was especially thought provoking. Highly recommended.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

terrific cerebral science fiction thriller

The Concern oversees the behavior of leaders on what appears to be an infinite number of parallel worlds. When they feel a person may cause worldwide harm, they send their Transitionary agents to assassinate that individual. The Transitionaries alight from one world to another by using a drug septus that enable their movement.

One of the more adept Transitionary assassins is Temudjin Oh, who has recently began to doubt the missions as he questions the morality of intrusion and murder even as he understands he is an "Unreliable Narrator" telling an obvious false tale based on his wrong premise. While his ethical concerns grow with each hit, others have problems too but different from his hesitation to kill. Mrs. Mulverhill for instance opposes the Concern and has started a small rebellion while Patient 8262 fakes mental illnesses to gain hospitalizations in order to avoid Transitionary assignments. Mulverhill considers Patient 8262, but actively tries to recruit Oh.

TRANSITION is a terrific cerebral science fiction thriller that demands people scrutinize and probe what is going on in their world instead of just acquiescing and accepting. With obvious implication and condemnation of the Iraq government change Iain M. Bank makes a case that instead of inane shallow bumper sticker analysis people need to dig into the essence and the background like Oh who no longer trusts or believes in the "benevolent" Concern as the members have their own agendas. With surprisingly plenty of action considering the intelligent design of the novel, fans will join Oh in Tibet, Venice, London and elsewhere as he struggles with the universal question of to kill or not to kill and be killed.

Harriet Klausner

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Terribly disappointing

For the first hundred or so page I was impressed with the author's skills at character building and dialogue. A little half way through I started getting the dreaded feeling that the book was nothing but character development - rambling along endlessly but I shook this off, declaring it as simple blind pessimism. By viewing the amount of stars I designated to the title, obviously my initial instincts were correct. The plot plods along at a millimeter a minute and eventually ends in a hastened wrap which seemed incompatible not only to the rest of the book's pacing, but as well to its overall style.
As for the writing in a whole: as I stated the character building and dialogue were good. Good doesn't mean great. The whole piece was rather lack-luster, void of passion, without genuine expression.
In short, I felt the characters to be tangible, but meandering about on vacant stage.

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