The novel “Vertigo”, reprinted in 1991 with the title “Terminal Velocity”, by Bob Shaw was published for the first time in 1978.
The invention of a counter-gravity (CG) belt allowed people to fly on their own without the need for any vehicles. This form of freedom, however, has also led to a semi-anarchist use of the air by many people and the need to establish an Air Patrol corpse. They should avoid the dangerous uses of the CG belts but there are few of them while the new air traffic is huge.
Rob Hasson is an Air Patrolman who was involved in a serious accident in which he’s been badly injured. On the road to recovery, at least physical, he goes to spend an extended period of convalescence with a Canadian fellow Patrolman but he finds a situation even worse than the one he was used to in the area because the air is controlled by groups who compete in dangerous flights and his colleague obeys a local ruthless businessman. As if that weren’t enough, Hasson is terrified at the prospect of flying again.
Bob Shaw is famous for the ideas contained in his stories and how they are developed, also showing the developments in society brought by a certain invention. In “Vertigo” it’s an equipment that allows human beings to overcome gravity and fly like birds. They’re small so they can be easily worn and they’re cheap so everyone can have one.
In most of his stories, Bob Shaw describes the development of an invention from the beginning, instead in “Vertigo” he introduces a situation that has existed for some time based on an invention which at that point is taken for granted. Air traffic of people using CG belts is huge, with all the consequent problems.
Bob Shaw projects the existing situation on the roads in the air. Most of the people traveling in their cars drive with at least a decent level of caution but there are those who violate the laws and even those who use the roads for clandestine street racing. For young people, a car can bring a new freedom but there are those who use it in a destructive manner.
The traffic in the air only aggravates the already existing problems on the roads because dangers can really arrive from all directions. In such a situation, even the Air Patrol instituted to maintain order struggle to do their job.
In this situation, Bob Shaw tells the story of Rob Hasson, an Air Patrolman involved in a serious accident. His physical wounds are bad but the worst thing is that he’s terrified of flying again. “Vertigo” is actually the story of his rebirth.
Bob Shaw has always cured the characters in his stories, in fact Rob Hasson’s problems and emotions are described with many details. His physical weakness, caused by the accident, is accompanied by a mental weakness, which also has other causes. In the course of the novel Hasson’s previous problems are explained, caused by his father: he thought he had overcome them but the accident made him regress.
The situation Hasson finds in Canada doesn’t help and you wonder if Bob Shaw had had problems with the locals in the period when he lived in that country because for the most part Canadian characters have several negative characteristics.
A character suffering from an illness or a disability appears in several stories by Bob Shaw but the most typical is blindness. In “Vertigo” Al Werry, Rob Hasson Canadian fellow Air Patrolman, has a blind son who is following a long therapy that eventually will allow him to recover his sight. Hasson can move around without problems, although he must be careful not to strain his body that’s still weak, yet he’s more isolated than the blind boy because of his inner problems.
In the course of the novel, Rob Hasson must not only heal physically but also find himself, which doesn’t mean going bac to who he was before the accident but discovering who he’s become to find his new path. His change is parallel to that of Al Werry, another man who, in a different way, has inner problems that led him to a strange relationship with a narcissist girl and to being controlled by a local businessman.
The main flaw of “Vertigo” is that the plot is in many ways predictable. Rob Hasson’s rebirth of also passes through some really obvious twists and turns and that shows how this novel is character-based rather than plot-based. Basically, the story serves to develop the protagonists.
In the end, “Vertigo” is an excellent psychological novel that has an interesting science fiction background in which, however, the plot is rather trite. For the readers who enjoy this kind of story, it can still be interesting.
