Funny, and I'll be reading more from this person, but ...

And there it is again, this time in Rob Grant’s Colony: the belief that babies just … happen (they’re brought by a stork or found in a cabbage patch, perhaps?).

“Everyone finally agrees that global warming is a serious problem, now they’re up to their necks in water. And as the land masses shrink, as resources drown under the swelling waters, the world population has exploded. There are more people alive now than ever lived in the whole of human history. Billions and billions trying to scrape a life from the receding land and its dwindling supplies. More born every day.” (p25).

That SHOULD be “And as the land masses shrink, as resources drown under the swelling waters, men continue to impregnate women. … More made every day.”

‘Now’ is not the time to suddenly deny agency, control, power–all the thing you men so love. ( )

I now remember why I like Red Dwarf so much, both on the television and in printed form. My only complaint with this book is that it's too short. Eddie O'Hare, after accidentally misplacing a lot of money belonging to an unsavoury person of the criminal persuasion, decides to take a chance and join Charles Perry Gordon in a scheme that would ideally leave both of them debt-free and set to live a good life. Unfortunately for Mr. Gordon, his inventory of necessary anatomical parts ends with a slight - though important - deficit as Mr. O'Hare shoots off into space on the good vessel Willflower (having taken Mr. Gordon's place), bound for a centuries-long trek across the stars, all in the name of the survival of the human race. Things take a turn for the ugly when a promised rendez-vous in the garden turns into an emergency head-ectomy and Eddie wakes up centuries later as a head in a jar (spine still attached thankyouverymuch.)

Can Eddie save the crew of the Willflower (now tens of generations on from the original pioneers of which Eddie was one) before the plunge into a gas giant no one has actually noticed before? Or before the ship tears itself apart? Will he have sexual relations with Science Officer Trinity Peck? And if so, how the hell will he accomplish it in his new shiny blue metallic robot body?

The book is one long rollercoaster ride of insanity with quips, demented dialogue and the occasional jab at religion here and there. I guess one could say I liked it. ( )

Red Dwarf lite.

Stock plot - a polluted earth faces an anarchic end, a ship the size of a city sets off to travel for many generations to populate a new planet and preserve mankind.

Rob Grant's hero seems to be a product of self loathing, who makes their hero a brain and a spine in a jar?

Man arrives on colony ship after an identity switch, finds out he is second in command, the person he switched with turns out to be a megalomaniac who has designed the destructive social rules that seem to have all but destroyed the project many generations later when our hero is revived in jar of green gloop.

Ship turns out to be sentient and saves the day. ( )

The Times is wrong about this book. Its not "cruel, cynical and very funny", its cruel and cynical for sure, but it lacks hope and is overall just depressing. I certainly didn't feel it was funny. Its strange, I loved the Red Dwarf series, and this book is very similar. I think the problem is that this book lacks all the hope and charm of the Red Dwarf books and TV show. Its a book entirely comprised of Rimmers, and that's hard to take.

http://www.stillhq.com/book/Rob_Grant/Colony.html ( )

Enjoyable ( )