The Paradox Men

Author: Charles L. Harness

Space opera is all about big concepts, what Brian Aldiss has called "wide screen baroque", and they don't come much wider or more baroque than The Paradox Men. Like much of the early fiction of Charles Harness, its central characters are caught in a time loop, so that everything twists around and at times it can be difficult to follow. A spaceship carrying a strange man called Alar crashes, and Alar finds himself hunted by the forces of America Imperial because he has been identified as a threat to the regime. At the same time, America Imperial is building a new faster than light spaceship, which it is hoped will help bring about the next stage in civilisation. Only the new ship bears a curious resemblance to the ship in which Alar crashed. A swashbuckling adventure that whips us through time and space, extravagant, action-packed, wild and colourful, this is a book that manages to be deeply profound and profoundly silly all at the same time.