'I'll rip out its windpipe and whip it to death with the tonsil end.' (Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers / Better Than Life - Grant Naylor)

Member Name: ben_83

Product:	Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers / Better Than Life - Grant Naylor
Date:	04/07/01 (92 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent characters, original scenarios, well written, absolutely hilarious

Disadvantages: Those who have seen the early episodes of the televsion show may find some parts familiar

'Red Dwarf', for those of you don't know, is a situation comedy set in space and the most successful television programme (viewers wise) that BBC2 has ever shown. However, the creators of the series, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, felt that the show didn't do justice to their vision and decided to write a series of novels based around the television series. 'The Red Dwarf Omnibus' is the first and second of the four novel series - 'Red Dwarf' (also known as 'Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers') and 'Better Than Life' - bundled together.

The premise is this: Dave Lister, a slob from the twenty-fourth century, ushers in his twenty-fifth year by going on a 'Monopoly' board pub-crawl round London, having a drink in every one of the squares. Naturally he's totally blotto by about halfway round and wakes up the next morning on the seedy Spanish-owned Saturnian moon of Mimas, his mind a blank. Desperate to get back to Earth but unable to raise the funds, he decides to join the Space Corps on a mining ship, the eponymous Red Dwarf, bound for home. However, he hadn't banked on the time it would take so, to make the journey seem faster, he deliberately breaks quarantine regulations knowing he'll be imprisoned in suspended animation (or stasis) for the rest of journey. He is in for a big shock when he is let...

This will be familiar to fans of 'Red Dwarf' on television as will most of the subsequent goings on but this is not as bad as it might seem. You see, science fiction needs background to make its otherwise ridiculous universe seem believable and that's just not possible in a series of half-hour shows. It is in a book though and this medium really does Grant and Naylor's overall vision justice. It's like a tired old dog suddenly awakening and starting to jump through hoops.

To write good science fiction you need imagination and Grant and Naylor have this in spades
proving that they're not just joke writers. Lister is a reasonably good creation, although a drunken slob is hardly the rarest of comedy characters, but Rimmer, Lister's holographic (in other words, dead but being simulated by a computer from personality data he recorded while he was alive) companion is excellent. An emotional cripple and a thoroughly dislikable person (or smeg head in Dwarfian), both of which he attributes to his horrendous upbringing, Rimmer is a totally original and utterly hilarious character.

Most of the comedy in the two tomes is focused on Lister and Rimmer's relationship (as was the case in the early episodes of the television show) but other characters feature quite prominently. Primary in this role is Kryten (named after author Michael Crichton), a sanitation mechanoid (or 'bog bot'), who absolutely must follow orders from his human masters, has an overactive guilt chip and an unwavering belief in Silicon Heaven, a creation of humans to keep mechanoids in line. There is also Cat, a humanoid who evolved from the common domestic cat in the three million years of inactivity on Red Dwarf. The ship's computer, Holly, who fears his IQ of six thousand has diminished somewhat in three million years on his own, also features. Worthy of an honourable mention, even though it only plays a small role in the second novel, is Talkie Toaster, a novelty kitchen appliance who is obsessed with toast.

Without exception, the ensemble cast is totally original, very funny and offer the novels a good balance of personalities.

The scenarios also show great imagination. The creation of the Total Immersion Videogame and the effect it has on Rimmer with his diseased psyche is pure comic and science fiction genius as is the part when Rimmer moves in with a clone of himself. The polymorph, a creature able to feed on the emotions of its prey with absolutely hilarious results is also inspired. The fact that the 'Red
Dwarf' universe is totally devoid of any type of extra terrestrials is an imaginative twist on the tired old science fiction assumption that intelligent life is out there somewhere.

To make everything even better, the books are executed perfectly ensuring that no comic opportunity is missed. As well as this, the dramatic parts are written with suitable gravitas meaning that the plot is not merely a framework around which the jokes are woven.

Okay, so it's a book of a television series but don't let this put you off taking the opportunity to read one of the funniest books around. Very rarely does a book make me laugh out loud but 'The Red Dwarf Omnibus' did. And then some. In fact, even though it's sacrilege amongst the science fiction fraternity and I'll no doubt get chastised for it in the commentary section, I'd go as far to say that 'The Red Dwarf Omnibus' is better than the late Douglas Adams's 'The Hitchhiker?s Guide To The Galaxy'.

If you watch 'Red Dwarf', you will love this but if you don't watch 'Red Dwarf' you will consider it the funniest thing you've ever read.

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