Written by Colin Searle, THE CALL OF ABADDON is science fiction of the most far-reaching kind. The action is set in the twenty-third century. Earth has been rendered uninhabitable by the fallout of countless nuclear weapons, and it’s ravaged by radioactive superstorms. New Toronto (a massive, flyblown arcology) is shielded from the tumult by a massive dome. One of its inhabitants is Jason, a scavenger living in a clandestine settlement called the Village. Central to the action is an obelisk under the care of Avery Oakfield, a United Earth Federation scientist charged with discovering its power. Before he knows it, Jason finds himself to be a receiver of the mysterious “crypto-language” the obelisk emits.
As with any science fiction or fantasy book written on an epic scale, the expository elements bear a heavy burden. The opening chapters are heavy-going, containing not only portraits of the many characters they have to introduce, but also the parameters of the world in which they’re situated. This is sometimes reflected in the dialogue, which at times takes on an artificial feel; it describes things or events strictly for the reader’s benefit, as the characters have no business saying them to one another because they’re already aware of them. Similarly, attempts to evoke the slang terms of the future (humans describe AI-driven robots as “boltheads” or “bolt-buckets,” receiving the appellation “meat-bags” in return) come across as heavy-handed.
Once New Toronto’s (and the Village’s) credentials have been firmly established, however, the style settles down, and we are left with a saga that segues into military SF and cosmic horror at times—touching on themes of technology and ethics, personal morality, and retribution. In that sense, THE CALL OF ABADDON is timely. At this unique moment of humanity (during which AI and its potential uses are revolutionizing the way in which people act, work, and think), one of the most powerful checks on AI must be the unknown consequences of developing it. Without revealing the novel’s central conceit, this sense of the unknown is at the story’s heart—encapsulated in Abaddon’s monolithic, seemingly impenetrable form. As Jason struggles to define his own relationship with Abaddon, we realize (with a slowly dawning dread) that his predicament is our own.
Colin Searle’s THE CALL OF ABADDON is a timely and dramatic mixture of dystopian fiction, military SF, and cosmic horror.
~ Craig Jones for IndieReader