The fact that Walter Jon Williams has gaming credentials is also a tremendous plus.

Implied Spaces takes place about two thousand years into the future. The novel opens with the protagonist Aristide trundling across the desert iron age world of Midgarth. He is a traveling scholar of sorts, not to mention a skilled swordsman. The locals are having an issue with raiders who are led by a clutch of evil priests... But these priests are not exactly what they appear to be.

This is not an uncommon trope for a fantasy themed novel, which is duly noted by Aristide, but surmises that the issue is more than it appears and then has to get back to his own world in a hurry. Midgarth is a pocket dimension that humanity has created, but thousands of miles is still thousands of miles and Aristide has to get back the hard way. Williams choses to mostly skip plotting transitions, so the novel moves to a new location with a minimal segue.

This kicks off a chain reaction of a plot that veers quickly away from a stereotypical fantasy troubles… and that is about as far as I will go beyond saying technology, genres and implications ratchet up quickly. Think going from Conan to Total Recall to 28 Days Later to Contact all in 264 pages. Aristide is much more than a traveling sword wielding scholar... and his near two thousand year life span and choices he made come to a crux.

Implied Spaces is not a long book and Williams spends very little time in setting up characters and the world in which they live. What you learn about the worlds is presented as the plot moves along and it is refreshing. What is not learned is also somewhat vexing as there is a tremendous back story that is implied and intriguing but very little is learned about it. On the flip side Implied Spaces advances at a breakneck pace, which is a change of pace from his space opera trilogy which had a plethora of back story and filler. This is all bone and muscle and zero literary fat. Walter Jon Williams gives amusing nods to gamers, who in this future had the kind of disposable income that dovetailed with people wanting to create pocket universes. Williams has written gaming materials previously, namely the Cyberpunk supplement based off of his own novel Hardwired. Whether Williams still games or not, I do not know.

From a gamer’s perspective there is a lot to like about Implied Spaces beyond Williams’ ode to gamers. First the issue of pocket dimensions and the how and why people would have them is covered. The R Talisorian RPG Dream Park leaps to mind, save these worlds are still rooted in realistic physics. Magic would be tough to emulate, even with nano technology. However, RPG’s can afford greater artistic license so that is not much of an issue. That said, there is the requisite magic sword in Aristide’s arsenal… but that is mostly courtesy of science being advanced to the point of looking like magic. Multiple genres are tackled less by trying to combine then but rather are dictated by where Aristide is. Life is different on a medieval world than a tropical resort or in a future cityscape or a battlefield. It is an interesting exercise in how to pull off so many sub-genres in one slim novel. For the most part Williams’ multiple genres coagulate nicely, which is an example multi-genre RPG’s could take note of. The reasons both in regards to plot and world building are believable and after reading through Implied Spaces I did not believe this to be contrived.

Implied Spaces is a good novel but after reading all of Williams’ prior novels this is neither a definitive work of his or his best. However it is fun and delivers a plot that is bigger than the page count suggests. There are gaming angles from both plot and mechanics that gamers who want to tackle multiple genre campaigning should take note of.

Fans of science fiction are also served well serve as Implied Spaces delivers an interesting breakneck plot that only slows down as the novel is winding down. The plot is more like a picture made from connect the dots than an actual painting, but what is ultimately revealed is a fun pay off and a enjoyable distraction.

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