Concrete evidence of an emerging talent...

TheStone Man – Luke Smitherd 

THIS is a strange one but a very good read. It fits as science fiction but has a strong fantasy tone. The eponymous perambulating crisis is a Golem-like monstrosity which turns up in Coventry (yeah, why not?) on a mission that destroys anything in its way.

Indestructible and uncaring, it strides off through the Midlands with significant loss of life to harvest body parts from an already alerted and terrified human being. And then it does it all again, although by this time it has an entourage of despairing humans.

Our hero – loosely – is Andy, a freelance hack who sees the arrival and dreams of glory without much thought for anyone else. Smitherd explains his slightly bizarre attitudes by having him confess to an undiagnosed Asperger's condition. That provides a neat twist to his character development.

He trails the alien/beast/Golem, develops an ability to track it, gets recruited by a scarey but winsome Brigadier Straub (latterly feminised more completely with the name Laura), frighteningly fettled by the secret service and finally recruits his own opposite – Paul, a man with a conscience and similar Stan Man tracking abilities.

This conflict and the fact that Smitherd decided specifically on casting the senior officer as a woman of exceptional rank provides a highly enjoyable range of situations.

The story is strong on character study, perhaps less so on plot but that is part of its charm. Smitherd avoids any pat answers to the why or where of the Stone Man and leaves us only with the feeling that this lump of pedestrianised clay is actually beyond our ken in every sense. Its monstrous but bizarre construction – literally walking concrete but with technological advantages – ensures plenty of drama.In fact if this is not eventually a movie then there is no justice. Though whether Hollywood could avoid making it a B-movie style The Blob is uncertain.

It would have been easy for Smitherd to decide it was from planet Zog, or the the star HumptyDumpty or even some transfer from a multiverse we wish we never knew about. Instead he concentrates on the nightmare lives into which his various characters and especially the main duo are plunged.

He has worked hard on his military and secret service crediblity and it is pretty convincing. I would love him to edit out all of the 'gottens' and some at least of the fucks. His dislike (or realitsm?) about hacks is palpable and probably fair enough in this century.

He even admits to re-writing his ending to provide a more convincing result which I forbear to spoil.

Smitherd is a self-publisher which says a lot about the general lack of imagination and wit in the world of publishing. He must be grateful (if probably conflicted) to Amazon. I am into another of his works and am already feeling hooked. Except for all those gottens....

RapW Dec, 2015

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And he thought he'd had his chips...

One side benefit of our winters away is I get to read more and with the advent of the Kindle it is easier. Not better,not more enjoyable, just easier.

I also get to indulge my long enjoyment of science fiction (do be quiet,please) and nowadays to read some of the new material. Thus I have just completed The Martian by Andy Weir, his impressive first published novel.

It is an astonishing story really - all about one man stranded on an alien planet with no realistic hope of survival, let alone rescue. Mark Watney is one of a team of six making the third landing on Mars. A massive dust storm tips their ascent vehicle too far for recovery just as Watney is swept off his EVA suited feet and thumped in the chest by part of a landing gear. He vanishes and despite risking the entire crew in a fruitless attempt to find him, Commander Lewis finally gets five safely off-planet and up to their orbiting craft.

She waited so long they saw zero blood and heart signals from Watney's suit. But unknown to them his blood had re-sealed his suit and he lived. And awoke as the only man alive on Mars and as a result of storm damage with no hope of talking to Earth ever again.

So far so terrifying. But Watney is made of stern stuff and although a botanist by training is a fixer by inclination. We are treated to a tour de force of improvisation as he creates a small scale market garden in which to grow potatoes. He has six times one person's rations and can last months on protein and vitamin pills. The issue is carbs - so the pots. Lucky they provided a few fresh ones for experiments then. Water is plentiful and recycled, air is ditto but a problem which he fixed - one of his better wheezes. And he has a habitation unit designed for six all to himself.

Crises occur but he identifies a hope - an old Pathfinder probe lies in the sands 1200 kilometres away. He decides to liberate it using his Mars Rover (he has two) Another triumph of ingenuity follows as he revives its radio and talk at last to NASA.

Weir writes this like a play so this is definitely Act 3. The miracle of his survival galvanises a rescue plan and not one but two hastily assembled supply probes are launched and lost. Then they decide his returning crew mates on Hermes can slingshot around Earth and with a Mars fly-by pick him up - if he can drive 3,200 kilometres across Mars to the Landing and Ascent unit sent for the next exploration team due to travel in 18 months time.

His old chums on Hermes agree to the necessary 18 months extension of their already two year voyage and carry out the manoeuvre. Watney demonstrates more amazing ingenuity and manages the long and frankly terrifying journey to the next landing site.

Nothing goes smoothly and I will not spoil the ending. But it is good. And no wonder they made a film of all this. Weir writes it like a screenplay since he has so much science to explain and engineering to describe. he does it well and it is compulsive reading. But...

Here's the thing. He dos not address in any meaningful way Watney's greatest enemy - his own psychology. Could anyone actually cope with being so utterly alone and stranded? If yes I think he and we needed to know the strategy for that act of stoic ingenuity.

And then there is that storm which started all this. To be honest there was a moment reading this when that recurring thought threatened to derail credibility. But, just in time, Weir drummed up another storm but unlike the first it fails to deliver anything like the hammer blow that it threatened. And by means that stretch credibility I fear.

Now I am a bit techie and long-time space travel buff but the science and chemistry is beyond me. Most of the stuff is believeable, even when it is astonishing. Watney could just about manage most of the science and engineering fixes entailed, especially when he finally gets some NASA back-up. And when he uses his meagre supply of pots for his long trek there is no mention of any protein. Hmmm.

Weir successfully paints Mars as the alien and hostile environment it certainly is but it is infamous for sandstorms visible from Earth. That air may be thin but the dust is dust. Watney does do a lot of solar panel cleaning. But all his kit was designed for a way shorter duration.

Taking the psychological risks and the hostility of the planet I can buy three months, even six. I can even buy a few hundred kliks cross planet. But 15 months and two trips - one of 2,400 kliks and the next of 3,200. Ah well, it was still a good read. Do try it.

SIDEBAR: Reading this story I was convinced I had read something similar in the past. I am pleased to say I was right. In 1956 a novel, No Man Friday, was written by Rex Gordon (Stanley Bennett Hough). It featured a cheapo Brit rocket which killed all but one of its crew (on an EVA at the time natch) but made it to Mars where the survivor bends his science skills to survive on the hostile planet. It ends very differently in that age of Little Green Men by the Brit Astronaut meeting up with troglodytian inhabitants of Mars, etc etc. But given that stranded stories probably start with Jonah in the whale who was alone in an alien environment (think God as NASA and chuckle!) the triumph for Weir is weaving a convincing story out of high tech ingenuity!

NEXT: The Stone Man