Non-Stop

A highly original concept of varying lifeforms living within a massive ship on a very, very long journey, most of whom haven't a clue of what is going on.

As a Novel this is well written and builds up well towards an unpredicable and thrilling ending.

There are only two flaws:

1) The main characters who go on a journey of discovery are not likeable people, have primitive morales and constantly squabble among themselves. Therefore it is a struggle at times to care much about their wellbeing through the perils they face. Good news here though is that this is a story about personal development as well as a cracking and exciting adventure. So they do become more worthwhile towards the end.

2) The physics of the ship doesnt make sense. Considering this is a 80 deck ship, each deck a circular slice massive in its own right you would have thought gravity would have had a say when our 'heroes' move across the decks on their vogage of discovery. The narrative seems to imply that is just a straight walk along one corridor.

Apart from that, if you trust me that there is insufficient spoilers in this review to really explain what is going on and that the main protagonist becuase half decent in the end, then you have a page turner that gets exponentially more exciting the nearer you get to the end. The first part of the three sub sections does seem to spend too much time setting the scence and getting to know the tribe, their culture and rules (ala Helliconia) but once they step out to explore things outside their small world, things get very rewarding.

In these days of Netflix sci-fi series being snapped up based on decent stories this is a prime candidate for a top quality TV series.