The Labyrinth Key / Howard V. Hendrix

The Labyrinth Key
by Howard V. Hendrix

science fiction, thriller

copyright 2004
read in May 2014

rated 5/10: readable, but only if there's nothing else

First, the good points: I like the virtual reality of Labyrinth. Back in April I read Otherland, and was not impressed by the author's virtual reality. I commented on the lack of a simple off switch. Worse yet, the Otherland VR was boring. A virtual copy of a boring reality.

Nothing boring about the Labyrinth VR !

Pity about the rest of the book.

It's science fiction in the style of Charity of the Gods: take a minor fact or wild theory and build it into a wild reality. With a touch of Doc Smith: this may be possible so the hero will create it in his spare time.

The book is also a thriller: more super powerful secret societies than you can poke a stick at. And so many spies and double agents that every evil wrongdoer knows more about what you're doing than you do.

I read the clearly significant prelude and wondered what on earth it was all about. I was prepared to abandon the rest of the book -- but something seemed familiar... Sure enough, I'd read it before. If I could read all the way to the end in 2008, surely I can struggle through in 2014.

And so I read to the end. Why ? Well, at least I can write a review...

I certainly did not read this book for enjoyment.

People popping up all over the place. Science gone past mad into stupid. Mind merged with the internet to become... not god, but some human become a godlike angel... Who knows. Mystic mumbo jumbo that would make Dan Brown proud.

And so I reached the end of the book. Where the hero (hero? well, central character) becomes all-powerful. Where he rights all wrongs. Sort of.

One of his super-powers is the ability to skip between parallel universes. So, having accepted parallel universes -- the sort where every choice splits off a new universe -- all he is doing is selecting the universe where all choices lead to the happy ending.

Back in his initial universe, nothing had changed.

Sure, we can all believe in Happy Land. It exists, just over there. Unfortunately the existence of Happy Land does not affect the existence of Sad World. Which is still here. As miserable as always. In its own little parallel stream of universes.

Lots of modern science and maths. Wrapped up in an unbelievable story. With a rather pointless ending.

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