Suddenly everyone wants Captain John Truck, which is odd, given that nobody has ever wanted him before. General Alice Gaw of the Israeli army wants him, as does her opposite number with the Arab socialists, and Dr Grishkin, and even Chalice Veronica host of the longest running party in the universe. Hitherto John Truck and his ship My Ella Speed has had to make do ferrying second rate cargo around the lesser spaceports at the ass-end of the Galaxy. Now, people are kidnapping him off the street, recusing him and snatching him for their own nefarious purposes.
The thing is, the Opener archeologist Grishkin has found the legendary Centauri Device on Centauri VII, the only planet to have been murdered. Nobody knows what the Device will do. The Israelis and the Arabs assume it's a super-weapon that will decide their endless Earth-shattering war. Grishkin dreams it is a religious revelation, possibly apocalyptic. Chalice envisages the high of all highs, or at least trading it for a megaload of drugs. The one thing upon which all agree is that only a Centaurian can operate the Device. Which is a problem, given the race has been all but exterminated. Truck is the all-but in question. His prostitute mother Spaceport Annie coupled with one of the last Centauri and space John is the result.
It's a hell of a take on the Grail Quest - an off-kilter, typically Harrison take - complete with Fisher King 9the aesthetic anarchist Pater) and a Merlin of sorts (Pater's son, the conjurer Himation. Guinevere has a scarred face and Truck is an unlikely Lancelot. But he gets there in the end. He conjoins with the Device and---
I simply cannot get enough of M John Harrison. This is the third of his novels I've read this year and I want more. He is so different, so unique. Nobody does it like him. Nobody does what he does better.
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