by the White Book: a Far Angelus Novel Paperback – 8 Oct 2003

.Bragg claims that the idea for this yarn began while chatting with a Russian desident in a Moscow artists' loft. Billed as a novel of hard Science Fiction, by the White Book is this author's first effort.The year is about 2020, the world has become polarized around the Sino-American struggle and oil reserves continue to drop. Given the prologue - a brief newspaper column of a girl gone instantly and inexplicably missing on the London tubes - the plot becomes an engaging tale woven around the two main characters, McGregor and Tagg, the girl's husband (all too briefly) and brother, respectively. These two are themselves snatched off a high-speed catamaran ferry to become embroiled in the political ambitions of schizophrenic empire-builder Domidus on Angelus, seventy-six thousand lightyears away.Bragg delivers a novel that is epic in scope and rich with plot and detail, but the story is much more than simple conflict. He feeds our desire to figure out how a civilization evolved from descendants of human abductees on a plateau eight kilometers above a deadly jungle, all surrounded by an intolerable, planet-wide desert.Throw in some religion, history, physics, advanced communication tech and alien genetics and it becomes obvious this author has done his homework researching the background in detail. Such nuances aside, what fuels a good read, especially one that is over 500 pages long, is the plot.Bragg blends an alternate Christianity and alien science with a fast-paced storyline worthy of any blockbuster action movie. The characterization never gets lost in the adventure as Bragg draws on several distinct character types and a lone, and lonely, alien Grey named Artisan Eleven. With only a couple of initial lapses into character verbosity, the plot and the action soon take centre stage and the result is an involving read.By chapter four I was pretty sure I knew just who Paullo was and what fueled his personal motivations. I was wrong. Again in chapter eight I was sure - wrong again. Not until the shocking end does all the bits fall together to show us what really drives this complex character. But, along with moments of terror and danger, there is subtle humor, and, as an interesting sideline, we watch the sometimes rocky progress of Tagg's love life. However, although Good generally triumphs over Evil in the novel, bad things can and do happen to innocent bystanders, and so it goes in by the White Book.The maneuverings in this far, unknown colony of Earth, both political and social, could be taken as a mirror of sorts to sociopolitical events today: Domidus is uncomfortably close to modern tyrants in ambition and ruthlessness, but with a particular talent we hope no Earth-bound dictator ever inherits.Bragg, a post-grad linguist and long-time educator, is kind enough to include a technical afterword and two appendices that explain a little of the science, astronomy and the custom-made language used in the novel. For the rest of us, it's a help if that sort of thing interests you.But, is the book actually worth the time to read? Picture his imagery, his characters, his unique Angelus universe, and Bragg's by the White Book is a novel looking for an award. For those who merely look forward to a sequel, check out the first chapter of on the Winds of Angelus on the companion website of Bragg's current effort at FarAngelus-dot-Com.