Gregory Benford 'Artifact'

Gregory Benford, a physicist and SF writer, is known for his hard SF, especially his celebrated 'Timescape'.

'Artifact', written in the mid-80s, is pretty dire, a strange manner of a creature. It can't decide if it wants to be a political thriller or hard SF?

As a political thriller, 'Artifact' doesn't thrill and it lacks pace and plot. As a hard SF novel, the science really only starts from page 180 onwards in a 400-page affair. The premise? A mysterious 'artifact' with a strange set of properties which is explained in an afterword at the end of the novel. Ultimately, 'Artifact' is unsatisfying as a political thriller, weak as SF, horrid as a standalone novel or story and boring as a science text.

If one were interested in the science involved, one would be better off reading a well-explained and illustrated book written in the popular science vein on quantum mechanics, cosmology or such by a known writer like Michio Kaku or Stephen Hawking. Likewise for the other genres. This unholy combination of political thriller and hard SF doesn't work.

Strangely, the book is filled with characterisations of stereotyped Greeks and Italians. Europeans and people with non-Anglo-Saxon extraction seem to get killed in the novel in gruesome ways. Benford appears to harbour a strange anti-European attitude which pervades the novel and the afterword. What's the deal? Why?

Another quirk observed is the numerous lovingly described observations of women's physiques throughout the narrative. Those observations would not be out of place in a lads' magazine like Maxim or Loaded.

The prose is unconvincing, unadorned and hard to read, almost as bad as Asimov's weak prose.

I have read the tedious 'Timescape' previously and was unconvinced. I had wanted to give Benford another try. After this second attempt, I doubt if I will bother with a third.