The Shift | Panda Ray | Sunspacers Trilogy

The Shift

Virtix turns everything Alex Munn writes into reality...but can he survive it?

• The Shift
• By George Foy
• Bantam Spectra
• $12.95/$17.95 Canada
• Trade paperback, July 1996

lex Munn is a Manhattan soap opera writer who's recently divorced, works with people he despises and is totally disillusioned about his life. That makes him the perfect fit for the immensely popular soap, "Pain in the Afternoon," which is a unique show that viewers can interact with thanks to Virtix. Virtix is a virtual reality technology so good that viewers can't tell the difference between real life and the melodramatic sufferings of the soap opera characters they interact with.

Despite the success of his show and his access to the cutting-edge Virtix technology, Alex can't find happiness. His coworkers aren't any help as they constantly fill his cup of discontent to overflowing. There's Joel Kamm, described as "the foulest mouth in New York." Also on the team is Ved Chakrapani, whose Bombay accent is so thick that trying to follow one of his technical discourses is a nightmare. Lovely Amy Dillon, who's as "pretty as an Irish lament," is the only one who eases Alex's pain.

Author George Foy introduces all of these characters with a raffish, breezy style that's sure to keep most readers interested. However, the tour de force of The Shift is clearly its opening chapter. Foy sets the hook and yanks hard with an exciting, pulse-quickening description of a dangerous, unseen enemy pursuing Alex in a 30s-style setting.

This dank and gloomy dead-of-night chase could easily fool readers into thinking The Shift was a period piece from the early 1900s, and it's almost shocking to find the book is set in the near future. Foy doesn't disappoint readers with this abrupt change of pace, though, as this richly detailed past features prominently in the future of The Shift.

The story kicks into an even higher gear when Alex introduces his newest Virtix program, which he calls Munn's World. Munn's World is set in the gritty New York City of the 1850s, when a horrendous serial killer called the Fishman is terrorizing the Bowery and disemboweling his victims. The Fishman is obviously modeled after Jack the Ripper, but Foy puts his own horrifying, unique twist to the age-old story of a serial killer.

The Fishman, in a mind-bending plot thread, escapes from the virtual reality world Alex has created, breaking through into the present and wreaking havoc as he stalks Alex. From this point on, the novel never lets up, pulling its readers along at a breakneck pace. Foy also slips in some sly humor that artfully emphasizes the gritty reality of life in a Virtix world.

In The Shift, Foy takes on an uncommon genre, the cyber-thriller, more than succeeding in creating an artful blend of science fiction and a wonderful, old-fashioned mystery/thriller.

In addition to being a reader of science fiction, I am also drawn to mysteries; thus it was a special treat to see the two of them so skillfully combined. -- Steve

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Panda Ray

A 10-year-old boy and his grandfather flee his evil parents through parallel universes...

• Panda Ray
• By Michael Kandel
• St. Martin's Press
• $20.95/$29.99 Canada
• Hardcover, July 1996

hristopher Zimmerman has been telling some interesting stories in class, and they've got his fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Palmer, worried. When Christopher claims that dinosaurs died out not because of a meteor impact but because they developed psi powers and subsequently killed each other with mental blasts, Mrs. Palmer decides enough is enough. During a parent-teacher conference, she reveals her concerns about the young boy's stories to his mother, Debra.

Debra realizes that Christopher has been traveling with his grandfather, using the family's secret powers. She regards this as an intolerable risk and calls a family meeting to deal with the problem. The family agrees that Christopher must be "scooped out" (essentially have his soul, and thus his powers, removed), as they did with his older brother, Brian. But while Christopher's sister, Kaelin, reluctantly votes with the rest of the family, she secretly helps him escape in the middle of the night.

Christopher seeks temporary refuge at his grandfather's house. But Debra has been threatening to send Grandpa to a retirement home, so he and Christopher decide to flee together. Using the family's powers -- and the geometrical significance of the bathroom tiles -- they travel to the distant past. But Debra is persistent in her search for them, and they soon get a message from Kaelin warning them that Debra is closing in. Facing mortal danger, they continue their flight through the Seven Seas (or universes), until they have no choice but to turn to Grandpa's mysterious Dravidian friend, Panda Ray, for help. But no one turns to Panda Ray, except as a last resort...

While Panda Ray is ostensibly a novel of two ostracized family members on the lam, the real treat here isn't the suspense of the chase. Rather, the strength of this novel is the way Kandel suffuses his narrative with a wonderful quirkiness and heavy doses of black humor, beginning with the title of the first chapter, "Too Much Science Fiction?"

Grandpa is an especially funny character, whether he's instructing Christopher on the nature of the universe, talking to his dead wife Emily or trying to satisfy his still-raging hormones. And when Kandel describes the method of travel between his universes -- all based on geometric patterns related to pentagons, which allow the Zimmermans to use their powers to catch cosmic strings -- he actually makes geometry entertaining.

In the best section of the book, after Panda Ray sets the conditions for helping Christopher reconcile with his family, Christopher is forced to discover that he's no more innocent than his parents. In defending himself first from a school yard bully and later from the FBI, he becomes just as viciously cold-blooded as they are.

Panda Ray is probably not a novel for everyone. But it has several fun ideas, and readers who like black humor are going to have a great time.

I laughed out loud. Repeatedly.-- Clint

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Sunspacers Trilogy

Juvenile fiction for adult readers

• Sunspacers Trilogy
• By George Zebrowski
• Borealis, White Wolf Publishing
• $14.99/$19.99 Canada
• Trade paperback, 1996

eaving home for college can be traumatic, especially when the dorm is floating somewhere between Earth and the Moon. George Zebrowski begins his trilogy about teenagers in space with Sunspacer, the story of Joe Sorby and best friend Morey who apprehensively accept scholarships to attend college on the off-world habitat of Bernal One. Grand dreams of becoming a renowned physicist of the 21st century fade when Joe allows the lure of space colonization to change his priorities.

College plans are also prominent in The Stars Will Speak. Lissa, a lifelong resident of Bernal One, decides to begin her collegiate studies on Earth. Overcoming her fear of living on the surface of a planet rather than inside a protective sphere, Lissa assists in the analysis of signals being sent to Earth by an alien civilization. In the process, she finds that self-acceptance may be the first step in deciphering the alien code.

Behind The Stars is the final piece in this trilogy, and it brings together the children of Joe and Morey as they are confronted by advanced technology left behind in an alien space port. Once again, it is the teenagers who take center stage as three adolescents are chosen to solve the puzzle of a teleportation booth found in the center of the space station.

Taken as a whole, Zebrowski's trilogy is a work of hope and promise for the future of mankind in space. The characters experience a satisfying balance of space discovery and self-discovery, and therein lies the strength of the book. These stories of teenagers encountering the unknown are also told in a straightforward style, which guarantees easy reading. Unfortunately, those who enjoy a host of characters and multiple subplots may find the going rather monotonous and Zebrowski's style simplistic.

In many ways, this collection is reminiscent of Robert Heinlein's juvenile novels. All three parts of the trilogy are reprints, with the first two books having originally been released as juvenile novels in 1984 and 1985, respectively. This makes the trilogy an ideal introduction to the genre for younger readers, but the author's skill at descriptive narrative is sure to entice veteran readers as well.

One of the best surprises in Sunspacers is the way Zebrowski accurately captures the inadequacies, hopes, fears and the potential of adolescence. Older readers -- anyone over 21 -- will recall many of the feelings expressed by these teenagers. In fact, this book is worth a read simply for the chance to stroll down memory lane in a spacesuit.

In some ways, I felt like I was watching "Happy Days" with the Cunningham kids having moved to the Moon. Those who enjoy warm-fuzzy endings will not be disappointed. -- Susan

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