March to Other Worlds Day 17 The Fold by Peter Clines

March to Other Worlds Day 17 The Fold by Peter Clines

This novel starts out as cerebral science fiction at its very best. A group of scientists have created a device that permits instantaneous teleportation from point A to point B, yet they are not ready to make their government financers happy by releasing the device—which they swear all evidence shows is safe—for commercial (or even secret government) use yet. The question is why? That’s the heart of the mystery in the first half of the novel and despite the protests of the scientists, the reader knows from chapter one that people are being hurt by their work. As the chapters unfold it becomes apparent that the whole world may be in jeopardy—not from a cataclysm but through a series of subtle juxtapositions that would cause ever increasing amounts of chaos and distress to societies across the planet.

 

That’s an awesome problem and the hero is extremely well suited to uncover the root of the trouble. Mike has a fully eidetic memory and Clines has conceptualized what that means better than any author I have ever read. Mike’s ability to sort through vast amounts of information quickly and decisively was amazing. The psychic damage that never being able to forget anything does to him was also a brilliantly insightful addition to the tale. I always enjoyed the scenes where his mind spins into gear and starts making connections, although frankly I wondered why it was so difficult for him to come to a conclusion that I reached in chapter one.

 

And that’s the first problem with this story. Mike makes brilliant deductions throughout the book but we’re at least halfway through it before he begins to consider what every reader knows is happening from chapter one. Heck, one of the team of scientists is even a Star Trek fanatic but the solution (born right out of that series) never occurs to her. So that’s bad, but perhaps we have to accept it so that there is proper dramatic build up.

 

It's not so easy to excuse the second problem. The last quarter of the book moves from being a fantastic cerebral mystery to a shoot-them-up standoff at the OK Corral. This was such a copout from the much subtler and frankly far scarier problem I had initially envisioned based on the idea of millions of juxtapositions ripping apart social ties throughout the planet. In many ways, that ending would have been far creepier because it would be very easy to imagine the government refusing to accept the evidence of disaster in favor of a highly lucrative economy-changing invention.

 

In summary, The Fold is a wonderful idea that loses a little of its power toward the end of the tale.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Fold-Novel-Pet...

 

If you enjoyed this post, please share it. Authors thrive on networking.

 

If you’re interested in The Fold, why not join the discussion on my author page at Facebook? https://www.facebook.com/GilbertStack...