# Mainline by Deborah Christian



## Anthony G Williams (Feb 21, 2015)

I was browsing my bookshelves the other day and spotted *Mainline* by Deborah Christian.  I was puzzled, because I had no recollection of this book whatsoever, but must certainly have read it (books don't get shelved until I have). The publication date was 1996, when I would probably have ordered the book from a postal SFF bookseller I dealt with at that time, who used to send an occasional stock catalogue with recommended reads and comments on each book – sadly, long killed off by the online booksellers.

The blurb sounded promising so I duly read it. The plot is set in a very distant future in which humanity has expanded to create an empire of many worlds, shared with alien races. Some humans have developed psychic abilities of one kind or another, and these are marked with face tattoos to warn people of their particular skills – except for some Imperial agents, and wild talents who have so far escaped identification.

Reva is such a wild talent – a young woman who can move between alternate time-lines at will or hover invisibly between them, deciding on which one to enter. A useful talent for her chosen profession of assassin, enabling her to appear and disappear from any particular reality; her ability to achieve the apparently impossible has made her wealthy. She is a sociopath who has kept aloof from involvement with other people, simply changing lines to avoid problems. However, on a visit to her home planet R'debh, a watery world where she endured a difficult childhood, she finds herself drawn into relationships with Lish, a "Holdout" (supplier of illegal merchandise to the criminal fraternity) and Vask Kastlin, whom she believes to be a fixer, but (as readers know) is actually an Imperial agent with his own talents. The threat posed by another assassin, the formidable alien Yavobo, holds Reva pinned to the mainline – the reality she is now in – due to her reluctance to abandon her new friends to their fate. She is faced with one problem after another in resolving the complex situation which develops, and experiences a gradual shift in her priorities and character, eventually being forced into taking drastic action.

This was the author's first novel and was an impressive debut, keeping me turning the pages and reluctant to put the book down. It is not without flaws, however.  The story is too crowded with characters and other strange beings such as Borgbeasts and the legendary Ghost Ray, although to her credit I didn't usually forget who people were. Furthermore, I could never sort out what happened to the versions of herself who existed in other time lines which she crossed to. She materialises physically in each line, but also seems to replace the local version. I do prefer such plot devices to make sense within their own context, however wild the concepts might be.

A quick web search revealed that Deborah Christian, who nowadays prefers to use her middle name of Teramis, has been working primarily as a game designer, although she has published three other novels; two fantasies soon after *Mainline*, and *Splintergrate* (to be published soon) which is set in the same universe as *Mainline*.

(An extract from my SFF blog: http://sciencefictionfantasy.blogspot.co.uk/)


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## Omphalos (Mar 10, 2015)

Must have been like finding a $20 bill in your pants pocket. 

I have done that before myself; found a book in the "read" pile that I just don't remember.


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## Anthony G Williams (Mar 11, 2015)

The odd thing is that how well I remember a book (or a film) seems to have nothing to do with how good it is: I have forgotten some good ones, but recall some much less good stuff.


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## Rodders (Mar 11, 2015)

Sounds pretty interesting.


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## martin321 (Mar 25, 2015)

Thanks for posting the review. The book sounded interesting so I picked up a secondhand copy and have just finished reading it. I thought it was great.

The book is a fast-paced SF techno-thriller with lots of interesting ideas and some cyberpunk elements not to mention smugglers, snowcats, netrunners, aliens, spaceships and more besides.

A sequel called Splintegrate is currently due for publication in May 2016 (according to Amazon), but the publication date has already been pushed back once, so who knows when it'll arrive?


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## martin321 (Jul 20, 2020)

*Splintegrate*, the long-awaited sequel to Mainline (1996), was published at the end of 2019, and I've finally got around to reading it. I'm happy to report that it was worth the wait.

Splintegrate is a cyberpunk novel set in the same universe as Mainline, but it's not a direct sequel so there is no need to read Mainline first. A number of characters appear in both books, including the netrunner FlashMan, who is a particular favourite of mine.

Kes a dominatrix at Tryst, a pleasure house on the planet Lyndir, becomes caught up in Imperial power politics when a high-ranking official decides that one of Kes' clients needs to be taken out. Kes is imprisoned in a military research facility, where (unknown to her) an experimental cloning technology called "Splintegrate" is used to turn her into a weapon.

Good world building. Kinky but not very explicit sex. Plenty of tech, cyber-hacking, cloning, body enhancement etc.

(4.5 stars out of 5)


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