Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers - Rob Grant and Doug Naylor

by Harbinger

Hello everyone, not having had the best week I felt the need to immerse myself into something comforting.... but then changed my mind and read Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers. Anyone who knows me will tell you I am obsessed with Red Dwarf, when I grew up it was on all the time at home. I probably know most of the lines off by heart (deeply sad I know). Though in fairness to myself I have never had the slightest urge to go to a Red Dwarf convention. Don't think I am getting on people who go to conventions, it has just never been my cup of tea.

Anyway, the writers of the show wrote a few books, which obviously I adore. The book encompasses the time before the show starts and the first and second series. In 2180 David Lister, is living a desperate life on the Spanish controlled moon Mimas trying to earn money for a shuttle ticket back to Earth and his beloved Liverpool. He arrived on Mimas after getting drunk on his 25th birthday and has no real memory of how he got there, and how he has ended up with a passport in the name of Emily Berkenstein. Lister eventually decides to join the Jupiter Mining Corporation ship the Red Dwarf. However during the trip Lister is put in suspended animation, and later awakes to discover that the crew are dead and the ship is now 3 million years away form Earth (and Liverpool). Worst of all his only company is a highly neurotic dead man.

In general terms this is normally the type of book I hate. In my humble opinion when something crosses from one medium to another, something is lost. The reason while I feel this works, is that the show's humor was character driven and so long as the characters remain consistent with TV then there is no problem with alterations in plot. If I were to draw a comparison with other books, it read very much like a Terry Pratchett and not like Douglas Adams (as I expected it would). As with Terry Pratchett there comes a time when an element of seriousness enters the book, sometimes it is subtle and lying underneath the humour, at other times it is much more overt. When it comes down to it the story does have unhappy undertones, a group of people who dislike each other trapped on a space ship for all eternity.

The Characters are as you would expect. Dave Lister, the lovable Liverpudlian bum with an obsession for curry and a girl who he only dated for two weeks. Who is trying to hold his own sanity together as he comes to terms with being, most likely, the last human being alive.

Arnold J. Rimmer, a character that has, unflatteringly, been compared to me. An emotionally retarded chicken soup machine repair man. Neurotic, idiotic, bureaucratic, stuck up megalomaniac, who deep down hates himself and tries to blame others for his failings.The Cat, the best dressed entity in the Universe. Vein, egotistical and more than a little stupid there is absolutely nothing serious about the cat, a complete comedy character. He like Lister is the last of his kind, being the product of a species that evolved form Lister's cat over 3 million years.

Kryten, a guilt ridden sanitation robot who has spent the last few hundred years looking after a dead crew. Finally everyone's favorite computer Holly. Apparently with an IQ of 6,000, who growing increasingly senile, has charged himself with attempting to keep Lister sane (no easy task).

Any way this review is far too long! So I simply say give it a try, as well as the other Red Dwarf books. Better Than Life, Backwards (by Rob Grant only), and The Last Human (by Doug Naylor only)

Happy reading everyone. Smoke me a Kipper I'll be back for Breakfast!