The novel “Engineman” by Eric Brown was published for the first time in 1994. In 2010 it was published in a new edition that includes eight short stories set in the same fictional universe.
For many years, enginmen, specialized pilots, drove the interstellar spaceships through the Nada-Continuum, a continuum outside our space-time that allowed to travel across many light-years away in a short time. However, a new technology has replaced that kind of propulsion replacing it with portals that allow an even faster and cheaper interstellar travel.
For the former enginmen the problem isn’t only the loss of their jobs but also the fact that for them traveling across the Nada-Continuum was an almost religious experience that has created in them a kind of addiction. Ralph Mirren is one of those enginmen and is trying to live the best possible way despite the lack of interstellar travel. However, one day a stranger contacts him to propose him to make a trip the old way but he must maintain absolute secrecy.
“Engineman” is set in a future where humans have colonized many planets. Interstellar travel and commerce have been allowed for a long time thanks to a form of faster-than-light interstellar propulsion but technology kept on progressing and starships have been replaced by a system of portals.
A few years after the almost complete disappearance of interstellar starships, their pilots are usually misfits. For them, crossing the Nada-Continuum was a mystical experience and it’s hard for them to live without it like being in withdrawal from a drug. They have even created a religion linked to their experience, also because most of them had visions of ghosts and think that the Nada-Continuum is the afterlife.
The tendency to mysticism of the story, including the presence of an alien species on the planet Hennessy’s Reach that seems to be able to connect to the Nada-Continuum, is one of the elements that may not appeal to the reader. “Engineman” is a strange mix of technology, although it’s not exactly a hard science fiction story, and others that seem more fantasy and this can leave you puzzled.
As if that weren’t enough, Eric Brown creates a complex story in which events that at least at first aren’t connected are combined together. In fiction, coincidences are a typical trick but in “Engineman” I honestly think that they’re used too much. The story contains enough subplots to create two separate novels in which perhaps the author could have developed the various elements more also achieving a better balance between the technological and the mystical sides.
Obviously, it would’ve been necessary to restructure the story heavily to separate the plot connected to Ella and the one connected to the mystery of the last journey of Ralph Mirren and his brother but I think it would’ve been the best choice. Among other things, Eric Brown could’ve developed better the story about aliens, which the way it is seem to epitomize various new age cliches. The ending of the novel would’ve deserved a greater development rather than being just an epilogue that frankly looks rushed.
The good thing is that the pace of the story is almost always fast, even if there’s a good balance between events and characters. Despite the presence of multiple subplots, the story is pretty straightforward even if in the course of the novel there are several twists and revelations.
In “Engineman” there are many characters and inevitably only some are well developed, especially Ralph Mirren, with his problems in living without the access to the Nada-Continuum. Again, restructuring the various stories to create two separate novels would’ve aided allowing the author a better developpment of other characters.
Despite the flaws, if the mystical side doesn’t bother you, “Engineman” is all in all a pretty good novel but honestly I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re a fan of Eric Brown or at least the elements of the story make you really curious. If you decide to buy it, look for the 2010 edition which includes eight short stories set in the same fictional universe.
