Annihilation Factor

by Barrington J. Bayley

From the Garlowe Clusters in the north to the Veils of Darkness in the south, the Star Kingdom sprawled over roughly a fifth of the galaxy. So huge was this realm that those who tussled for power over it seemed unable to appreciate that it faced annihilation by the Patch, a roving region of peculiar pseudo-energy a light-year across which drained the life-force from any living thing it encountered.

The Patch had moved into the Kingdom and was systematically feeding on system after system. Cynically unperturbed by the appalling loss of life, the royal houses merely tried to involve the Patch in their machinations, to the extent that civil war broke out all over again. But in the event, the Patch was to provide the crucial factor in the struggle for absolute power. The Annihilation Factor!

Genres: Science Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Barrington J. Bayley published work principally under his own name but also using the pseudonyms ofAlan Aumbry, Michael Barrington (with Michael Moorcock), John Diamond and P.F. Woods.

Bayley was born in Birmingham and educated in Newport, Shropshire. He worked in a number of jobs before joining the Royal Air Force in 1955; his first published story, "Combat's End", had seen print the year before in UK-only publication Vargo Statten Magazine.

During the 1960s, Bayley's short stories featured regularly in New Worlds magazine and later in its successor, the paperback anthologies of the same name. He became friends with New Worlds editor Michael Moorcock, who largely instigated science fiction's New Wave movement. Bayley himself was part of the movement.

Bayley's first book, Star Virus, was followed by more than a dozen other novels; his downbeat, gloomy approach to novel writing has been cited as influential on the works of M. John Harrison, Brian Stableford and Bruce Sterling.

Reviews

[Earl Biringer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll be honest, I don't understand this book at all. At first, I was thinking it might some sort of parody or satire - like Spinrad's "The Iron Dream". Then I started thinking it might some sort of anti-post-modernist deconstruction of Machiavelli's "The Prince." Then toward the end I started thinking it might be some sort of allegorical Christian apologetics. I really don't know, but it's not nearly intriguing enough for me to care enough to think about it any more deeply.

I really don't know - as a straightforward story this is definite one-star material (1930's pulp-style writing, complete with ridiculous dialog, one-dimensional characters, wooden prose, and absolutely preposterous plot), but since I can't believe that an author who was once published in Moorcock-era New Worlds could ever publish anything this bad, I'm assuming it was intentional and just didn't work. Benefit of a doubt gets it a second star.

[Nick J Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bayley's first novel and not his best tbh. Enjoyable nonetheless.

[Peter Brander · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know it's a space opera, and I know it's silly and not very good. But try reading it, and pretend that it is a brainstorm for a Alastair Reynolds-novel.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this book as a kid and I remember enjoying it.