The Last Legends of Earth: A A Attanasio

Legends persist long after the people, even the world that spawned them have died. But with a sufficiently advanced technology (here indistinguishable from magic of the distinctly mystical kind) you can bring anything back to life. All the beings on the artificial planetary system of Chalco-Doror have been reborn from fossilised DNA drifting in the reaches of space, hurled out by the explosion of our solar system billions of years before. Life would be good, if it wasn’t for the zotl, vampiric insect brainsuckers that feed on the tasty chemicals produced by agony, and for the fact that the planets are going to turn back into a spaceship in a few centuries, killing everyone. The Rimstalker has been re-animating the dead of all the centuries to serve as bait, with the help of her three artificial intelligences, in the hope of finding the mysterious O’ode that will kill off all the zotl. Unfortunately, one of the AIs has gone mad, another has joined the zotl and the Rimstalker is trapped underground in her spacesuit so she has to entice the humans she’s doomed to help in her search. Well, otherwise it would be too easy.

What with all the plot devices and the large cast of characters hurtling around through the lynkgates, travelling between different times and alternative histories, Last Legends is a long book, perhaps a little long to sustain its examination of responsibility and freedom. The notion that all life is stored as light, expanding endlessly out to the ends of the universe is worked out logically and gives the proceedings an air of doomed mysticism reminiscent of Moorcock to match the grand epic sweep and the convoluted timelines. The zotl are self-absorbed, malevolent and utterly chilling, giving the book many of its best moments. Although it’s the last book of the Radix series, you don’t need to have read the other three to enjoy this one. A fascinating and intriguing book, but not ultimately as satisfying as it might be.