Status
Call number
Collection
Publication
Description
Cheyne Scarne was a gambler... and he took the big plunge when he bet his life to get to the inner circle of the Grand Wheel. Because the Wheel was the ultimate Syndicate - the final Mafia - that controlled all that was illegal in all the planets under human control.But Cheyne was not to know whether he had won or lost when he gained his point. Because the Wheel had plans for him. And they made him the historic offer he could not refuse.There was, it seemed, a similar gambling combine in the rest of the galaxy, bigger by far than the little group of stars held by Earthlings. And the Wheel wanted a cut in this. So Cheyne Scarne found himself selected to be humanity's own player in a game in which nobody knew the value of the cards and the rules of the game were infinitely variable!… (more)
User reviews
The usual suspects of new wave space opera are met on the way: mysterious alien artefact - check; gung-ho hero with a taste for fast women - check; extinct alien race who can be contacted through time - check; five legged cybernetic male albino chimp called Susan - no, I made that one up. But there are definite traits to this kind of SF and Bayley is a master of them, whilst exposing the obvious limitations of stereotyped characters and wooden dialogue. It doesn't really matter though when the story is this exciting.