Rating: 
Summary: A Pastiche of PKD rather than an Homage...
Review: Due to Barnes's use of the historical victory of the Axis powers to establish his future Earth, approximately 100 years hence, it is rather difficult not to see Finity as an homage to Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle (1962). The use of stereographic realities as a centerpiece of the novel even more directly pairs Finity with Dick's earlier work. But the intermittent 30 years of theoretical quantum physics has clearly influenced Barnes's much more scientifically based exploration of parallel realities and life after an Axis victory, making Finity a much more hard Sf version of Dick's The Man in the High Castle (which relied on science not at all). What begins as clear homage deteriorates, sadly, as Barnes becomes more and more interested in solving his posed quantum mystery rather than exploring the alternate future culture(s), so vital to The Man in the High Castle and Katherine Burdekin's Swastika Nights (1937).Increasingly difficult to explain, Barnes's posited future involves parallel realities that bleed together through quantum interference derived from the use of particular quantum technologies: virtual reality devices, the internet, and telephones - essentially those technologies that define the Information Age. When an individual uses a quantum device, they switch over to a parallel reality, often to one close to their own (maybe they had something different for breakfast), but occasionally to a far different reality (the Axis achieved victory). Thus, a sizable amount of character interaction is comprised of discussions regarding the disparate realities from which they come - all of them missing a United States of America, none of which are widely different. The most interesting aspect of the novel is the variety of parallel cultures that Barnes introduces, which are unfortunately only used as interesting segues rather than cultural explorations. And yet, of the variety of Americas introduced, and the political elements that lead to the disappearance of America, fascism seems to be the one constant element, inescapable whether the United States becomes the American Reich, Communist America, or the Puritan-run United States. As such, Finity seems to forecast the return of Republican-lead American government (although Barnes might have been responding to the Democrat-lead socialization projects of the 1990s); thus the novel seems particularly appropriate in latter twentieth century American science fiction, responding to the binary politics that relegate American politics to mediocrity cum fascism. The protagonists are brought together for their academic specialties by Geoffrey Iphwin, a wildly powerful corporate executive, to solve the mystery of this disappeared America, and after 240 pages of preliminary adventuring and theoretical discussions on abductive reasoning and parallel realities, the protagonists are on the precipice of solving America's disappearance as they cross the border into the forgotten land. It seems that in some latter day America, an Office of the Pursuit of Happiness comes into being, responsible for achieving, through socialist means, happiness for all Americans, at any cost. If one can overcome Barnes's supposition that the American public, even under fascist Nazi rule, would accept socialized happiness this might be acceptable; Barnes imagines an America so un-American, that it's rather difficult to believe. Finally, when the source of the mystery is revealed, the conclusion of the novel - and the protagonists' escape from their imperfect realities - I found myself left wanting. Whereas Dick achieves a sense of horror in that the Nazi-ruled reality is inescapable, even for those who know more perfect worlds exist, Barnes allows the protagonists to escape their reality, constantly seeking adventure in other possible realities, thereby allowing them to also escape the imperfection inherent in any possible world. This uplifting conclusion, very democratic, very absolving, entirely obviates the broader thematic interests implied by the use of parallel realities that exist under fascist, anti-American rule. Burdekin's very early mediation on a world run by Nazis was such an acute understanding on the nature of love and emotion in a fascist world, something that Dick was able to echo in the rather transitory and impossible relationships in The Man in the High Castle, but outside of the occasional inability for versions of characters to relate sexually, Barnes posits a Nazi world where love is an option. American transcendentalism leads to such conclusions, but Dick hinted at the same probability, but removed it from possibility by erecting an insurmountable barrier between realities, which Barnes crushes with newfound quantum physics. It's a rather pessimistic position to take regarding this novel, but I find that it's impossible for me to not be disappointed in Barnes's transcendental escapism - the novel could achieve so much more poignancy without it. As a political novel, Finity falls short; The Man in the High Castle, infused with Dick's politics, was a perfect, and subtle, political novel much like Burdekin's earlier work - Finity is simply an adventure and as such, while it borrows tropes from Dick's, does simply that: it is more a pastiche than an homage.
Rating: 
Summary: Barnes needs to try something new
Review: Fans of Barnes' Time Wars series will certainly find this book familiar. The similarities stretch beyond the basic theme of the investigation of multiple worlds, to similarities in the personalities of the lead characters and their relationships. Although this book does develop some rather interesting ideas, such as the notion of abduction (vs. induction or deduction as ways of forming conclusions), the story simply doesn't work. A large part of the problem seems to be that Barnes decided that he would try and force the story into a happy ending. His highly uncharacteristic insistence that the story end well for the main character leaves many loose threads and questions. One of the things that I admire most about Barnes is his honesty--when the story calls for a character to die, he or she does, even if it is rather a likeable character. Although this is true for most of Finity, the ending is a peculiar departure into La La land which left me very annoyed. Another basic problem with this book is the complete lack of likeable characters. By twenty pages in I seriously wanted to poke the main character with a sharp stick, which made it hard to sympathize with him. All in all, not a successful book, and I'd only recommend it to die hard Barnes fans who've already exhausted all his other writing.
Rating:
Summary: Good story without an ending
Review: Good read, bad ending. The beginning was very well done and had me hooked before I knew it. Looked forward to see how it would resolve. Unfortunately, the ending never resolved anything, except to end the book. Seemed like the ending was rushed, put the book down with a feeling of disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Good story without an ending
Review: Good read, bad ending. The beginning was very well done and had me hooked before I knew it. Looked forward to see how it would resolve. Unfortunately, the ending never resolved anything, except to end the book. Seemed like the ending was rushed, put the book down with a feeling of disappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: An Interesting, Stimulating Read
Review: I have only recently discovered John Barnes, but I can say that he is a very talented writer. I had had this book on my shelf for a good while now, and I am glad I finally picked it up to read it. I found this novel very entertaining and "gripping." Granted, the story is disjointed at points, but so is the world that Barnes has created here, one where people "jump" back and forth between dimensions or universes. Some of the characters are quite forgettable, but the narrator and Iphwin stand out from the crowd. Despite this, I would like to have seen more "fleshing out" of Iphwin in the novel; there were aspects about him that lingered in my mind until the end. I expected to get some insight on these traits, but the lines were left dangling somewhat. What I remember most about the narrator is his detailed explanations of and conjectures based on "abductive reasoning." Maybe I have managed to get away from hard science fiction long enough to be impressed by Barnes' elaboration of these ideas, but the fact of the matter is that I was impressed (in a similar way as I am impressed--though somewhat bored--by Jules Verne's prosaic "scientific" tangents). The ending of the story was indeed somewhat anticlimactic. With just a few pages to go, I kept wondering how the author was going to tie everything up into a neat little bow in so short a time. In point of fact, Barnes did the opposite of what I was looking for and resolved very little. In a way, though, it is nice for an author to resist the pressure to achieve balance and full illumination in his writing. All in all, I found this to be a very good novel; before I was halfway through it, in fact, I had already gone out to buy all of Barnes' books that I could find locally. I have read a couple of his other novels since reading Finity, but I found this book to be the most interesting and memorable of the group.
Rating:
Summary: An Interesting, Stimulating Read
Review: I have only recently discovered John Barnes, but I can say that he is a very talented writer. I had had this book on my shelf for a good while now, and I am glad I finally picked it up to read it. I found this novel very entertaining and "gripping." Granted, the story is disjointed at points, but so is the world that Barnes has created here, one where people "jump" back and forth between dimensions or universes. Some of the characters are quite forgettable, but the narrator and Iphwin stand out from the crowd. Despite this, I would like to have seen more "fleshing out" of Iphwin in the novel; there were aspects about him that lingered in my mind until the end. I expected to get some insight on these traits, but the lines were left dangling somewhat. What I remember most about the narrator is his detailed explanations of and conjectures based on "abductive reasoning." Maybe I have managed to get away from hard science fiction long enough to be impressed by Barnes' elaboration of these ideas, but the fact of the matter is that I was impressed (in a similar way as I am impressed--though somewhat bored--by Jules Verne's prosaic "scientific" tangents). The ending of the story was indeed somewhat anticlimactic. With just a few pages to go, I kept wondering how the author was going to tie everything up into a neat little bow in so short a time. In point of fact, Barnes did the opposite of what I was looking for and resolved very little. In a way, though, it is nice for an author to resist the pressure to achieve balance and full illumination in his writing. All in all, I found this to be a very good novel; before I was halfway through it, in fact, I had already gone out to buy all of Barnes' books that I could find locally. I have read a couple of his other novels since reading Finity, but I found this book to be the most interesting and memorable of the group.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best Barnes book you will find.
Review: I went on a John Barnes reading spree a short time ago and put away probably 6 or so of his books one after the other. Needless to say I really like him as an author. Finity was the last book I read. I thought, when stacked up against what Mr. Barnes is capable of as an author, this one really fell shy of the mark. Specifically what I didn't like was the way the story seemed to wander around too much before a clear plot line was established. I found myself wondering when the author was going to get to the point and quit 'setting up' the major plot element. He spends way too much time describing the minute details of some pretty uninteresting characters, which unfortuneately happen to be the main ones. The science was pretty vague most of the time. I've seen writers like Harry Harrison pull this off before and even Barnes has done well at making thin science work in a story. This book isn't able to do that however. Too bad. I like the idea of sci-fi stories with elements of displacement in time and dimension but this one just pretty much fell flat.
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant writer takes a dive with "Nazi's in Space"
Review: I've been a big fan of John Barnes after reading his wonderful novel "Mother of Storms." He has a wonderful knack for adding special elements that kept the reader interested, as well as establishing believable characters and well woven plots. His collection of short stories, "Apostophes & Apocalypses" (Dec 98) was also superb. So what happened? This novel contains one of the most overworked themes, chopped up storylines and only glimpses of his usual brilliance. Maybe it could be hacked together as a "Nazi's in Space" b-grade movie for Hollywood--but even that would take some doing. If you are a die-hard Barnes fan, you may find some satisfaction here. I'm sorry to say that I didn't.
Rating:
Summary: Possibly the best multi-worlds story I've encountered
Review: I've only started reading John Barnes' books lately, but this one really caught my interest. There have been a number of attempts to write a multi-worlds story that made sense, but most of them were either drowned in pointless hard-sf jargon or almost without any science whatsoever. The ending is a little unsatisfying, but does go okay with some of the character's standpoints. It was a story that kept my interest the whole way.
Rating:
Summary: A lame effort from a usually-good writer.
Review: John Barnes has written some first class books. This isn't one of them. First, it's full of inconsistencies. Do people's minds travel among parallel universes, or their bodies? The answer: both, with no reason given for why it's sometimes one and sometimes the other. Second, the basic plot is mostly hackneyed. The one original twist is a heavyhanded allusion to TV channel-surfing that isn't enough to sustain a novel. It might have worked for a short story. Perhaps that's what this book is: a short story stretched into a short novel. Anyway, I left it feeling cheated, an experience I have never had with a Barnes book before.
|
