Backwards by Rob Grant

This is it then, my friends. The end of the road. We’ve reached the last of the Red Dwarf novels – Rob Grant’s Backwards. A second, alternative version of events that follow on from the reality bending rollercoaster that is Better Than Life.

Which, I guess, kind of makes this the Superman Returns of the Red Dwarf universe. No, hang on, that’s far too cruel a way to start this review. This is not Superman Returns, and it’s not Superman 3 either. Or, sadly, the first Superman. Very much few things out there are the first Superman movie. A lot of things might think they are, but they’re more sort of Superman 2, if you know what I mean.

In fact, let’s just steer clear of the Superman references from now on. You’re not going to find as many winners there as you’d like to think. Whereas, so far, these Red Dwarf novels have all worked for me, three out of three. True, the first two novels are still my favourite, but Doug Naylor’s Last Human was a far more fun read than I was expecting.

   As it turned out, it wasn’t easy for me to predict where Rob’s Grant book was going to take me because, of all the Red Dwarf novels, this was the only one I’d not read before. I was sure I’d read Backwards at some point a long time ago but, after a few pages, I started to realise I’d never so much as opened it before.

Going in, before that revelation, I was fairly certain I knew what to expect. You see, with no real grounding for this theory, I’d always assumed that you could split the storytelling of Rob Grant and Doug Naylor pretty neatly down the middle.

Don’t ask me why, but Grant felt like the ideas man to me. The one who could find a way to take a new scientific idea and turn it into the foundation for thirty minutes of cult TV brilliance by pushing the boundaries of a theory to the brink of absurdity. Whether that’s the stasis leak in series II, the Inquisitor replacing you with a more successful alternative version of yourself in series V, or the gestalt entity Legion in series VI.

   I probably got the idea from how the show continued after Rob Grant left. Doug Naylor seems to prefer focusing on the grander story, the continuing narrative of the Red Dwarf characters. The evolution of the canonical show, from the re-introduction of Kochanksi to the return of the crew to the revelations about Rimmer’s past. It was also a theory I found echoed through Grant’s surreal BBC radio comedy show, Quanderhorn. Here’s a man, I thought as I listened to people with clockwork brains fighting giant vegetable monsters caught in time loops, who likes to look into the stranger ends of scientific research.

   Now I’m not saying that doesn’t happen in Backwards. Grant is clearly enjoying the chance to go back to some of what I’m guessing are his favourite ideas from Red Dwarf (particularly from series III, IV and VI) and see how much further he can push them without TV censors, a TV budget or a sitcom running time breathing down his neck.

   It certainly feels like he set himself the challenge of taking the idea of the Backwards world a lot further than they ever did in the TV show. No one here is making a career drinking out of a glass of water forwards. Instead, we open with backwards murders and reverse police chases. Crash take-offs and people getting dangerously close to becoming children again.

Later on, the pulpy note of the western themed Gunmen of the Apocalypse is still there, only Grant drenches the fight with his four horsemen of the apocalypse with buckets of cartoon gore and all manner of strangeness, that includes at least one person having their finger eaten.

   What surprised me, though, was how well he managed to wrap these bigger versions of some classic plots into the same style of story as the previous two books he’d written with Doug Naylor. Don’t get me wrong, much like Naylor’s Last Human, this isn’t all successful. The odd joke crashes to the floor, whilst the level of jeopardy in Backwards reaches the point of mania so quickly that the whole book occasionally feels like it’s caught in freefall.

Still, though, it contains what might be my favourite take on the character of Ace Rimmer. Plus, let’s not forget the breed of killer robots Rob Grant has created for this book, which are surprisingly fun; for all their devious nature and insane lust for killing the one last human left alive in the universe, they also act like it’s imperative no one kills Lister too quickly or by accident until they’re all ready to see who can do it the best.

   Thanks to its sprinting pace, Backwards is certainly a nippy read. You skip through the trials and consequences pretty quickly. Maybe a little too quickly at times. That might be because they feel a little closer to the show than some of the situations in Last Human, but that’s not to say Grant is afraid to throw his characters into some strange situations. There are a few moments designed to catch you off guard.

   Although, after reading all of these books, I would say one thing that really disappointed me is just how badly The Cat suffers from sidekick syndrome at times. He gets some great gags across all four books, a few you’ll recognise from the TV show, but he never really gets the development he deserves. I was really hoping to find that in Backwards, but he’s still standing just off centre stage a lot of the time. Much like his television incarnation, you always wish The Cat just got a little more room to breathe. In the novels, he can often get reduced down to a one note response, allowing more room for the rest of the cast.

   The way Rob Grant ends Backwards does make me wonder if he was planning to take the story a little further on. Sure, there are a couple of clunky moments as you head towards the slightly rushed ending where he it feels like he can’t quite make his mind up quite how to leave it, but I’m choosing to believe that he wanted to write more and, seeing as Lister had given no end of development over the novels and Rimmer got to meet to his successful parallel self in Ace in Backwards, it might’ve finally been The Cat’s turn to get the same treatment in the next novel.

   All in all, Backwards is a great genre hopping adventure if you’re looking for a quick and enjoyable read. Some sections really fire on cylinders and the biggest weakness it can have at times is it leaves you wishing Grant had been able to spend longer on some elements, like Ace Rimmer’s backstory or the more believable intro to the virtual world of High Midnight.

Backwards might not always feel like it’s reaching for the larger character arcs that Doug Naylor was after with Last Human. However, that choice does gives this fourth novel time to add in plenty of jokes. Yes, you might see some of them coming from a reverse sprinting mile away, but that doesn’t stop them from bringing a smile to your face. Cat’s night time activities in the woods on Backwards world, for a start. The Agonoids names. Rimmer’s glee at winning a fistfight.

   I’m really glad I’ve taken the time to go back to the Red Dwarf novels and read them back to back like this. I’m sure, in the grand scheme of things, that they’ll be seen by a lot of people as an outdated novelty, no different from the script books or behind the scenes companion, but it’s a real shame if that’s the case. These books are a really interesting, really funny, really smart, long form way to extend the universe of the TV show they first sprang from.

   Reading them again has made me hope they’ll keep making the show, without a doubt, whether it’s as longer form specials like The Promised Land or more half hour episodes. To be honest, though, I’d actually rather we got more of the novels. In fact, I might clear some space on my shelf, ready, just in case. I just have to hope, if they do turn up in the post, that it’s not a sign I’m trapped in a total immersion video game.

…maybe I should checking my arms for messages, just in case.