10 - Transit

I completely understand why this book seems to be so polarizing.  Reading other reviews, it seems that many fans have problems with the sex scenes and explicit content, which does get graphic at times.  Although I do have some problems with Transit, I personally didn’t mind the sexual stuff, since I’ve gotten used to the VNAs being edgy at times, but I don’t blame anyone for hating it.

By far my favorite part of this book is the worldbuilding.  Aaronovitch envisions a 22nd century human race that has conquered the solar system and constructed a massive interplanetary transit system.  Characters quickly flit back and forth between a number of settings on Earth, Mars and Pluto, and Aaronovitch makes sure to focus on the cultural diversity of the resulting interconnected society.  As in Cat’s Cradle: Warhead, we see the soft underbelly of humanity in the form of the neglected Plutonian slum known only as “The Stop,” where Benny finds herself after being separated from the Doctor.  The book’s conflict results from an Icarus moment; humanity tries to harness forces it doesn’t understand in the name of progress, lets an abstract entity through from another dimension, and chaos ensues. I love the setting, and by the end of the first half of the story I was itching for more!  The Doctor’s pseudo-companion for this story is Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart, the Brig’s adoptive great-great-granddaughter, and she was also a highlight of the story.  A genetically engineered student with a mysterious past and promising theories of time travel, she reminds me a bit of Zoe Heriot, and would make an interesting futuristic protagonist even without her familiar last name.

Unfortunately, this story has some cracks in its foundation that widen to massive canyons in its second half.  Having just left Ace in Love and War and begun his travels with future archaeologist Bernice Summerfield, the Doctor’s psyche (and Benny’s) should be a major focus of the story.  We do get some references to Ace - still not as much as I’d have liked - but Benny gets it even worse!  She’s possessed by the entity for most of the story, like Sarah Jane in “The Hand of Fear,” so we don’t learn much about her - even though this is the perfect setting for her area of expertise, given that it’s in her past but our future!  Aaronovitch seems to have made up for the lack of Benny by having the Doctor chase after multiple fake Bennies created by the entity instead, but this just acts as padding and lasts far too long.  The cosmic horror aspects of the first half also fall away past a certain point, and I think I would have preferred a more abstract ending.

I do recommend Transit for fans who find the setting interesting, but if I were to reread it I think I’d stop at the end of Part One.  Definitely a huge step down from Love and War, but basically anything would be.