Culture club...

"So what's Superior Beings about, then?" one of my friends is sure to ask me soon. I'll have no idea what to say, really. It's about xenophobia, atheism, futility, jealousy, humanity. Less thrematically, it's about walking vegetables, talking foxes, faded deities and people being eaten. But if you're asking about what is the heart of the story, what is it, you know about...? Um. Dunno mate.

Early on, when we first encounter the naked and horny Eknuri, we appear to be in for a cheap Star Trek depiction of free love and culture shock, largely centred round the familiarly voluptuous lust object of companion Peri Brown. But this mildly distasteful, juvenile strand is promptly dropped like a hot potato with a change of location and the introduction of the main antagonists, the vulpine Valethske. We later hear tales of how these cunning hunters breed human captives, and then breed fear in them before feeding on their flesh. Thus enters the threat, but ...

It's all a bit 'blah', really. The Valethske come across as just one more anthropomorphic animal race, with their instinct for the hunt reminiscent of the tv story Survival, and their Klingon-esque concern with honour and glory - plus the standard-issue competitive, mistrustful soldiers. And it becomes difficult to maintain much awareness of what themes this novel might be intended to have, or indeed what story it is trying to tell - the threats, the mistrust, the genuine alien-ness; these are all present, and convincing enough, they just never really seem to be going anywhere.

It's a bit surprising, then, that things pick up rather toward the end, perhaps because with several characters and plot strands having outlived their usefulness, it has become easier for both author and reader to focus on a more manageable range of ideas. This is very much plucking victory from the jaws of defeat, though - how much better if the initial juvenilia and subsequent uninspiring flailing around, had been avoided. Nevertheless, Superior Beings is, well, alright. I'm sure we've all read much worse.