Ersatz Nation by Tim Kenyon

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Ersatz Nation by Tim Kenyon

Pub: Big Engine. 232 page enlarged paperback. Price: Ł 9.99 (UK). ISBN: 1-903468-07-8

Check out website: www.bigengine.co.uk and www.clockhousepress.com

‘Ersatz Nation’ is a fusion of parallel universe and 1984. Swapping between alternative realities has been done many times.

Ersatz Nation by Tim Kenyon As a consequence, using this theme for a novel requires a variation of compelling readability. Tim Kenyon's book deals with characters under the thrall of a sinister force called Mother Necessity who recycles everything - and I mean everything - as fissor, matter that provides all material needs.

This monstrous force subjugates its inhabitants and kidnaps individuals from the reality we call home. One of the main characters, Patrick Dolan, is the principal agent for fulfilling this last unpleasant requirement so Mother can use these victims to enhance her own understanding of mortality.

Few people question Her control and those that have, the primes, if not reconfigured into some useful item, are isolated and left to fend for themselves. The other principal character is Selmer Rayburne, the son of a renegade. Denying him promotion because of this, Mother precipitates a crisis that gives him no option but to confront the truth about Her existence.

At first, ‘Ersatz Nation’ can be heavy going without any irony or humour to lighten the dire situations of the two principal characters. When their story lines do gel, quite literally, together as they desperately jump through the dangerous hoops constructed by Mother Necessity and new layers are added, the plot becomes more compelling.

Even so, in fiction of any description, suffering needs punctuating with a little levity if only to help heighten its impact. Mother Necessity is the ultimate representation of a problematic mother fixation, more so for the male reader who can comprehend this emotional conundrum.

A woman might consider Her as a misguided Mother Earth with an uncomfortable amount of technology at her probing fingertips. And my goodness, how She can probe: from everyone's innermost thoughts to the act of copulation. Nothing is sacred. No wonder Dolan and Selmer are in awe of Her. Who is Mother Necessity?

At first there is an uncanny resonance with Diana Rigg's murderer in the TV serial, ‘Mother Love’. It transpires that She is nothing more than a piece of technology gone mad, and one created by a male genius.

No female conundrum here - a bit disappointing in a way. Mother Necessity's program was installed as a consequence of Society's overwhelming greed. This scenario is probably more plausible from an insular American perspective than anywhere else that has done more than flirt with socialism.

The KI embedded in the back of the neck and through which She controls and downloads thoughts has little scientific plausibility. Even less so the now ubiquitous scorpion-like creature beloved of TV SF, in this instance used to uninstall the KI.

Nevertheless, within the confines of the story the pseudo-science and the parallel realities do work. In an attempt to enhance credibility, the author is prone to profound statements that can border on the absurd.

The story itself is plausible enough in its own context. Gravitas and superfluous explanation only inhibit the flow of the plot. Without many of these it would have become more fluid without necessarily being pitched into the realms of fantasy. ‘Ersatz Nation’ is not easy to engage with at first, but it is worth persevering until the loose ends are brought together to create their own momentum.

Tim Kenyon has made a worthwhile contribution to the welter of parallel universe scenarios, all the more so because it is a first novel.

Jane Palmer

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