Lucifer (2013) Review

 

Lucifer could perhaps be more aptly titled Game Of Barebones.

WRITTEN BY

Paul Darrow. For no man means evil, but the devil. And we shall know him by his Blake's 7 books...

PLOT

20 years after the end of Blake's crusade, the Federation has collapsed, its remnant forces controlled by a council of megalomaniacs known as the Quartet. When a ship of theirs crashes on the island planet Gaius 7 and discovers Avon living there in exile, they become determined to acquire Orac from him to consolidate their power.

ANALYSIS

The sleeve of Lucifer's cover contains a brief description of its author, obviously penned by Darrow himself. Amongst the information it provides(for example, that he wrote a video game novelisation that one could only ever hope to purchase from some obscure second-hand shop in the UK) is a mention of the fact that he was fascinated by military history. 

Now, the following is pure conjecture, but bear with me - military historians traditionally have a limited understanding of the mindset of those in power, because, well, historical figures are often no longer alive. So the study of military history is not a study of personalities, but rather the strategies. And that's what the majority of Lucifer feels like. It's a Wikipedia synopsis of fictional military history with dialogue attached as a necessity. Darrow provides each of the players with memorable idiosyncrasies to distinguish them(and as a drive for their actions), assigns them different positions of power and influence. Then the games begin. Chess is an obvious inspiration, and is referenced repeatedly. 

I can admire that. Hell, I can even love that. Clearly, Darrow put his greatest effort into figuring out what character would make what move and why relative to all the others. However, that's pretty much all he put effort into and there's the drawback. Half of Lucifer seems to be missing, and that's where the Game Of Thrones comparison comes in. George R. R. Martin's books follow a similar concept, with various factions all vying for the central McGuffin - the Iron Throne of his fictional 'gameboard',  Westeros. But Martin's characters are actual personalities, whose moves depend on realistic life choices, not pure strategy. There's a reason why his books are so long, and it's because Martin worked hard to make sure we believe his heroes and villains could exist outside of the game. And that's why people root for them. 

Darrow, in direct contrast, might as well be moving little painted figurines around. He seems to view power as inherently corrupting, and that those who want it must be mad, bad and dangerous to know. The only exception is the Chinese, who hold the virtue of honor, one of the few(if not only) admirable qualities in his universe. 

Well, what else? The idea of Avon living on an island planet(the island part being a veiled reference to Napoleon's Elba) is based on Terry Nation's 1990s concept for a sequel. Darrow conspicuously leaves out the part where Avon was supposed to teach the next generation of freedom fighters. But nonetheless, these sections were definitely where I had the most fun with the book, because it felt the most like Blake's 7, albeit an action-oriented Rambo version of it. Amusingly, you can tell that Darrow struggled to connect Avon's story with the power play of the Quartet. Even taking Orac into account, Avon barely factors into their schemes and comes across more like a minor nuisance. 

CHARACTERS

There's a curious lack of passion in the aged Avon. It reminded me of Series C, when he'd won the Liberator and didn't seem to know what to do with it until he began imitating Blake. But whilst that was merely the show retooling itself, this time it's intentional.
After all, Darrow's previous attempts at writing the character have usually involved some kind of emotional impetus, such as avenging his father or trying to get rid of a particularly foul mad scientist on moral(and pragmatic) grounds.
Here, however, Avon himself confesses that he's not quite sure what his ultimate intentions are. He appears to have no further interest in taking down the Federation(or rather its successor), but instead merely wishes to be free and enjoys having the odds stacked against him.
Despite my misgivings about Darrow as an author, I think he's nailed what drives Avon. Challenge. Scientific, robbery, war, whatever. Avon is so jaded that until another Anna Grant or Blake comes along to gives his life a greater meaning, he's stuck being an adrenaline junkie. 

Speaking of Blake, I'm not quite sure it was necessary to fire shotgun rounds through his dead face, but I'm glad he got as much recognition as he did. Avon was more torn up than I expected(which isn't much, but I didn't think he would be at all!), and I liked the moments of melancholy that accompanied the mention of Blake's name. 

It was strange to me that Servalan had survived the dissolution of the Federation, given that Darrow seemed to have forgotten her stint as Commissioner Sleer in Series D. The excuse was that she knew too many of her enemies' secrets, yet they have no problem double-crossing her later in the book after she makes one single tactical error. Still, Darrow knows Pearce more than well enough to capture her delightfully dark personality in prose(more so than Servalan's own, actually), and the reunion between their characters at the end of the book is well worth the wait. I also enjoyed the detail that despite her personality, Servalan likes to be liked, which I think rings very true with her backstory.

Of the newer characters, I liked Avon's fellow exiles Cassandra and Magda. Whilst we don't learn how they ended up on Gaius 7, we do know that Cassandra was a member of Avalon's rebel group, and met Avon at some point during his Liberator years. Her daughter being Avon's girlfriend gives the trio some nice tension, as we're not quite sure how much Cassandra will tolerate him. The actual relationship between Magda and Avon is a curious one - Darrow being Darrow, we don't learn much about it, but from the circumstances and the way they're written, it would seem that Magda grew to idolize him as a bold adventurer from far away, and Avon accepted her companionship since... well, 20 years is a long time. She's reminiscent of Meegat in that way, just a bit more fierce and witty. 

Whilst the complex galaxy-spanning machinations of the Quartet wore me out quickly, I did really enjoy the more smallscale scheming going on aboard the Base warship. I'm not sure why - maybe they were easier to follow or maybe the book had introduced too many new characters by the time we got to Iphigenia. But there was just something more fun about seeing a bunch of common soldiers curry for young Gabriella's favor, eking out their own power bases and followers and such. The very concept of this isolated Death Star-like stronghold being commanded by an almost sitcom-like group of dysfunctionals trying to play adults with their distant rulers would've been enough for a whole novel if you ask me.

NOTES

• Darrow's grasp on science remains tenuous at best. Winds and gravity in space(allowing for heliplanes to travel between planets), the aforementioned "island planet". As in Avon: A Terrible Aspect, Earth's solar system seems to represent the entire Milky Way galaxy, with anything outside it being in a separate galaxy. Somehow, sunlight from stars is reflected to the island planet by dying stars, whatever that means. 
• What makes this even more confusing is that there is a running gag about a guy who keeps confusing spacecrafts for aircrafts. I'm half-convinced that Darrow was just trolling his editor by that point.
• I'm not quite sure why Serge Collon's computer suddenly develops the personality of a panther upon meeting Avon, but... it's kinda funny.
• Who the heck told Cassandra that out of all of Blake's crew, Avon had wanderlust?? Did she run into a drunk Vila? Similarly, somebody must've been really confused to describe Travis as being 'superficially charming'.
• I'd love to know Avon's daily routine on Gaius 7. Did he just brood and bang all day?
• Given the Federation's penchant for conquest, the fact that the Chinese have remained independent whilst living on Earth is nothing short of a miracle. 
• At some point in the book, we learn that the Quartet have a new outpost similar to the Base, called the Hub. I'm sure it'll be followed by the Axis, the Pivot, the Fulcrum, the Centre and the Core.
• I refuse to accept that Orac stands for 'Original Random Advanced Computer'. ORACLE!
• Impressively, even though an Alien Grey harlot tries to seduce Avon at one point, there's no sex scenes in the story. Big Finish must've put its foot down.
• Servalan and Rufus choose a 'manmade satellite' as their meeting place, which I can only assume is some kind of space station, or they decided to hang out on Terminal. 
• Gauda Prime is in "Prime Space", is it? Mmm, you can just smell the imagination wafting off the page.
  
• Dancer's real name is Rudolph, which would mean that the Alien Greys have some concept of Santa Claus. 

INFORMATION!

• Cassandra was a member of Avalon's resistance force, which only refrained from joining up with Blake due to Avalon's distrust of Avon(whether this refers to the encounter in Project Avalon or some other is not made clear). Cassandra also reveals that Avalon has died. 
• The "Then" section of the book is set immediately after Blake. 
• Gabriella is the daughter of Travis, and wants to avenge his death in Star One. 
• Serge Collon's mercenary assistant Hector was once one of Anna Grant's bodyguards. He betrayed her to the Federation shortly before the events of Rumours Of Death, which might be the real reason why they turned up at the end.
• Avon was once in the Federation Youth Scheme, presumably some kind of equivalent to the Hitler Youth?
• Blake had allied himself with the warlord Rufus Pearl prior to Avon's arrival to Gauda Prime. 
• Avon claims that only he can activate Orac, either referring to the key or more likely to some kind of reprogramming done between Sand(the last time somebody other than Avon activated it) and Blake. 
• According to Cannon, Avon had already committed some kind of terrorism prior to hooking up with "that liberal crusader Blake"(which occurred in Space Fall).
• The Federation once tried to have Avon sectioned(committed into a mental asylum), but were unable to find proof of insanity.
• The Federation's collapse by the Alien Grey (as depicted in this book) was foreshadowed in Avon: A Terrible Aspect. Rather impressive, given that it was written 24 years before.
• Five editors are credited for Lucifer. Five. It's hard work, is mr Darrow.
  

BEST QUOTE

"You should remember that, in the game of chess, should a pawn reach the heart of the opponent's territory, it can become the most powerful piece on the board."

CONCLUSION

I wouldn't call it a good book, but I was able to appreciate what Paul Darrow was trying to do here better than in any of his previous writings. There's a commendable ambition to Lucifer. And perhaps due to his age, it was more personal and less cruel.