View source for Troika by Colin Pascoe

{{infobox1
|title=Troika
|author=Colin Pascoe
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=There is a flaw in the basis of human understanding and when Crib discovers this he cannot be allowed to pass on the knowledge.  Thought-provoking and tense.
|rating=3.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=154
|publisher=Authors Online Ltd
|date=November 2010
|isbn=978-0755212873
|cover=0755212878
|aznuk=0755212878
|aznus=0755212878
}}

At the end of the summer, when most of the tourists had gone home one who remained stumbled upon a Troika vase with some papers stuffed inside.  Cautiously, she began to read the story of a man on the run, apparently a patient who had escaped from a mental hospital.

At the beginning of his story he had been what he called 'a normal person', married with a job in a care home.  One day when he was out with his dog he walked into an area of absolute quiet, which then went black and all feeling left his body.  It would be a month before he returned home and unsurprisingly, everything had changed.  But it wasn't just the loss of his job and his wife's disbelief of his explanation for his absence that was different.  He had changed too.  He had knowledge that would prove to be dangerous.

Human understanding had been based on one unquestioned idea.  Something had been overlooked though – and that was the very nature of thought.  Crib – for that was the name he was known by – came to the notice of the UFO intelligence services and he was taken to the mental hospital.  In effect he was imprisoned to prevent him telling others of the knowledge he'd gained.  When he escaped it was the intelligence services , the men in grey uniforms, who pursued him through west Cornwall.

It's the sort of pursuit which leaves you holding your breath, too.  Forget all the high-tech chases you've seen, this is a frightened man being pursued on foot through rough countryside.  He's tired, dirty and thirsty and there's no way that he can stop until he finds a refuge, but even then he knows that his time must be limited and this is his one chance to tell his story.  And that story is well told and particularly convincing.  Like it or not there are points there that you are going to have to think about.

The most unusual part of this story is that the reader can choose their own ending – it is, after all a time of uncertainty.  I read each of the four endings and made my choice (no, I'm not going to tell you!) but I think that I would have preferred Colin Pascoe to dictate the ending he had in mind rather than giving me the choice.  Making the choice pulled me out of a story which had me on the edge of my seat and forced me to make rational decisions when I least wanted to!

I'd like to thank the author for sending a copy of the book to Bookbag.

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