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Down The Bright Way by Robert Reed
01/01/2004 . Source: Rachel Broome 
pub: Orbit. 358 page paperback. Price: £ 6.99(UK), $ 9.99 (CAN). ISBN: 1-84149-255-8. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.orbitbooks.co.uk
'Down The Bright Way' is set on our world but with our world just one of a series of parallel universes.
These universes are all linked by the Bright, through apparently just one point: the Earth. Each Earth followed the same path until primates had evolved, then slight evolutionary changes started creeping in, with the result of thousands of different types of humans.
One of the oldest peoples, 'The Founders', were the first to discover the Bright and have dedicated their world to travelling along it, gathering up volunteers from other branches of humanity, until they reach the end - or find 'The Makers'.
However, not everybody on the Bright is as peaceful as the Founders and their followers.
This story follows five people as they are caught up in this conflict along the Bright: Kyle - a man from our Earth pretending to be one of the alien humans; Janice - Kyle's girlfriend; Quence - a human from halfway along the Bright; Cotton - an example of one of the most radically different types of human yet found; and Jy - The Founder and most important human in the mission to find the Makers.
Apart from Jy, the characterisation in this book was good. The sense of Janice and particularly Kyle being out of their depth and just swept up in something they don't understand and how they cope with that is strong.
Believing in anybody who is a million years old and half perfect would be a bit more suspension of disbelief than I could normally manage. Jy didn't do it. I didn't believe in her. The other characters were good though. 'Bad guys' who you could understand and empathise with rather than the born evil variety.
I found the first bit of the book, setting the scene about Jy's mission and followers and Kyle's deception, a little slow. It was interesting, especially Kyle's storyline, but the story definitely kicked up a couple of gears when the bad guys got involved.
This was a nice little adventure story and there were a few plot twists and ideas that I didn't guess were coming.
Rachel Broome
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