I decided to take a trip both back in time and into the future and read Gregory Benford’s Galactic Centre series of books. They are considered Science Fiction classics but for some reason I have never read them. This was the time to make up for that shortfall my book pile dwindling for the first time in many years due to illness. I read his Novel “Foundations Fear” (part of the Bear, Benford, Brin, Isaac Asimov legacy) many years ago and thought it truly magnificent but somehow I had never read what is considered his masterwork.
This is the first novel in a series of eight and so expect more reviews on them salted through others. Â I have to be honest and say that this novel was a terrible disappointment though it is not bad. I suspect that it had its time in the early seventies and has faded as other more impressive Sci-fi writers have come along doing the same things but having learned from the likes of this man know how to do it better. I do not mean to fault it, as it is a well put together tale. For the time this was written I suspect it was faultless but the likes of Iain M Banks and Dan Simmons make the originality look woefully old and creaky though i suspect it was groundbreaking at the time.
Like many of these Hard Science fiction books I suspect that if i had read this in the seventies I would have said; wow. It is dated and was clearly of its time even if visionary. I must say that I feel rather rotten but two stars out of five. I apologise to Mr Benford. I suspect it is the period when it was written rather than the novel itself.
