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Incompetence
by Rob Grant check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
Some kind of Agent, he works
as part of a cell of three who can only be contacted through personal ads. What
he does we are never quite sure. He is mainly known as Harry Salt but has a collection
of spare identities. His travels to discover the truth takes him across Europe
in a series of bizarre and comic scenarios.
As the title 'Incompetence' suggests this is a place where the
mere fact of having a seemingly immovable obstacle of a major character
flaw does not preclude anyone from any job. It is a Europe so bound
up with paperwork and bureaucracies that if you are declared dead
no matter how well you feel it is probably best to lie down and
be buried. Through
this minefield for the unwary in a world where most shoes are made of vegetables
and policemen have anger management issues, Harry Salt must travel to unravel
the mystery of who has killed his fellow 'agent' Klingferm and who know wants
to kill him as well. Basically this story is an extended rant against
a world that appears to have gone rather barking. It set in a Europe that has
already decided that cucumbers must be straight, Cadbury chocolate is a 'chocolate
flavoured' product and will soon be labelling yoghurt as a 'fermented milk drink'
unless it is from Bulgaria. Grant will find many readers who will share
his despair of a place where the trains can only run on time if they don't pick
up any passengers. He takes pot shots at everything that annoys him, the excessive
use of mobile phones, jobs for the inept, paperwork and corruption. I just hope
he got it all off his chest. This book is real 'grumpy old git' territory and
possibly some of the bile will be lost on a younger generation that take so much
of this for granted. Action and adventure and finding some decent shoes
sums up the approach of this novel. There are guns, girls and some very odd people
indeed. I enjoyed the story though I do not share his despair over Europe...yet! Sue
Davies
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OTHER REVIEWS - December 2003
Other reviews this month Dreams Underfoot by Charles De Lint Spirits In The Wires by Charles De Lint First Rider's Call by Kristen Britain Roma Eterna by Robert Silverberg The Life Eaters by David Brin and Scott Hamilton Midnight Lamp by Gwyneth Jones Dreams of the Compass Rose by Vera Nazarian One Lamp: Alternative History Stories edited by Gordon Van Gelder The Druid King by Norman Spinrad Star Trek: Nemesis novelisation by J.M. Dillard Unto Leviathan by Richard Paul Russo The Sundering by Walter Jon Williams Nylon Angel by Marianne de Pierres Falling Out Of Cars by Jeff Noon The Darkest Part Of The Woods by Ramsey Campbell Lord Of Snow And Shadows by Sarah Ash Tales Of Ten Worlds by Arthur C. Clarke Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Radio Sunnydale Dante's Equation by Jane Jensen Archform: Beauty by L. E. Modesit Jr
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In a mad, mad world which of us can claim
to be sane? A man who has no identity or existence on the computers
of Europe finds out that someone really, really wants to kill him.
This
Europe may be strangely familiar as it is closer that we dare worry
about.
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