Andrew Darlington on Barrington J. Bayley

Andrew Darlington debuted with the poem “Anthem For A Lost Cause” in the arts magazine Sad Traffic in 1971. Over 3,000 published items have followed, from Music Journalism to Erotica, from closely-researched SF-features to interviews with culture icons—with selections collected into I Was Elvis Presley’s Bastard Lovechild (2001). His short story "My Little Black Egg" appears in the recently published Emanations: 2 + 2 = 5.

Mr. Darlington offers an intriguing review of two novels by Barrington J. Bayley: The Grand Wheel and The Fall of Chronopolis. Considering Bayley's use of complexity as both structural and thematic phenomena, Darlington describes

...potential complexity, piling concept on concept into a staggering theoretical pyramid which views time, like recording tape, regularly overdubbed, looped, spliced, phased, edited, or wiped clean . . . Real-time events occur in random sequence, snaring and discarding individuals without rational motive or reason. And there’s no escape from its illogic, for consciousness is constantly recycled through the same life-time..."

To read the full review, please click HERE.