Forbidden Knowledge: The Gap Into Vision (Paperback)

I'm pleased to report that both of these talents are on full display in "The Gap into vision: Forbidden Knowledge". The personalities this time around are Morn Hyland and Nick Succurso. Morn, seen earlier almost entirely as a victim, comes into her own as a dynamic and strong-willed person. In "Forbidden Knowledge", she draws on a staggering amount of tenacity and courage to continue fighting for what she needs against all odds. Nick, for his part, gives us previously unrevealed levels of depth as he struggles to keep control of his ship and his crew. When these two come into conflict, the result is breathtaking to see, one of the best character duels ever written in imaginative fiction.

And that's not all. While those two battle the twists of fate and each other, Angus Thermopylae is caught in a different web of intrigue. Furthermore, the plot and the universe keep expanding. Like many Donaldson fans, I found "The Real Story" entertaining but mildly disappointing, partly because the future world we saw there seemed somewhat cliché. Well, suffice to say that I can lodge no such complaint against "Forbidden Knowledge". The story leaps suddenly from being small and simple to being complex and epic. The Amnion who reside in 'Forbidden Space', a topic barely mentioned in the first book, come fully into the picture now. Through brief snippets of past history and a few suggestions of multi-layered conspiracies lurking beneath the surface, we start to see that Donaldson is developing a bigger picture. This book, in short, is awesome.

This is a many-faceted story of corporate corruption, greed, and an insidious alien presence that seeks to undermine human life as a prequel to changing it into something non-human (Amnion - the name of the aliens). A complex and fascinating faster-than-light future is set most effectively against a background of Morn struggling to stay alive and sane aboard a pirate ship with a captain as alternately unstable and brilliant as the rest of his crew, and various people who want to help, rape, hug and understand her. The tale takes leaps of horror, throwing itself from intra-crew intrigue, sexual jealousy, viruses and murder, to confrontation with an alien horror and an unimaginably horrific yet at once deeply human and profound examination of childbirth, all mingled in with the tale of Angus from the first story, and an examination of the ethics of turning a human into a machine. As a study in how a book can be at once enthrallingly horrible and a thorough character study of several different people, this book has top marks.

The only thing that brings it down - the only thing at all - is the consideration that others without my love of SF and dark foulness will read it, and not have the same opinions. If you haven't got a strong stomach then you probably won't be reading "Forbidden Knowledge" in the first place; but, if you do start, my advice is don't finish. You will have nightmares. This consideration of others forces me to mark down. In terms of piling horror upon horror in an intense and sickening yet maniacally gripping and extraordinarioly effective, and - crucially - *human* way, this story has no equal. Anywhere.

It's goddamn brilliant. But it may not be to your taste.