The Devil’s Halo Chris Fox Hutchinson, Paperback £10.99, ISBN: 0091794994 July 2005 Glyn Jones

If realism is your thing, look away now. Chris Fox’s new novel, The Devil’s Halo, does not concern itself with the mundane activities of everyday folk. Instead, it opens with a quote attributed to ex-French President, Jacques Chirac, inveighing against American dominance of space, the Universe and everything, so setting the scene for the tallest of espionage tales.

It’s a big book in every sense. Over the next 470 pages, it deals with the changed but ever shifting allegiances of a geo-political world not so far in the future from our own, where the New World is estranged from the Old. It takes a more than slightly stereotypical look at half a dozen nationalities, including the Russians (vicious), French (arrogant), English (absurd), American (resourceful) and Finnish (stoical). It talks us through a variety of technologies, some reasonably well known (GPS), others less so (stealth fighters, military level encryption, operational satellites) and still others that seem to belong to the outer reaches of the spy writer’s imagination (flying surveillance devices the size of insects, computer viruses that make run of the mill worms, Trojans and their ilk seem positively welcome to your in box). It uses plotting devices such as an escape from Russia via space rocket, a deeply embedded mole who, it transpires, has had more than his (or her) fair share of hormone injections and a uniquely unwelcome breakfast offering for the newly installed President of the Greater European Union. The mayhem (and the body count) ends with an equally improbable homily on the social benefits of American isolationism in a post technological world.

The bottom line is it’s a lot of fun. It also has one well developed character in Constantin Rodin, the Russian hit man. Though curiously the character who narrates the book, Terry Weston, generates less sympathy. The Big Theme, tension between Europe (supported by Russia) and the USA over dominance of space, is intriguing, if ultimately hard to take seriously because of the dominance of the pro-USA perspective and all that stereotyping. Even so, if you’re looking for something provocative, with a convoluted story line, another reason to hate the French and more back stabbing than a party leader contest. Strap on your safety belt, space cadet, and set the controls for the heart of the sun.