The Infinity Program

There’s a germ of a passable (if overused) short story idea in Hardy’s debut, but it’s buried in a meandering, poorly edited tale of outdated and over-the-top corporate politics. Jon Graeme—whose full name appears no fewer than 30 times—is a technical writer at a company with zero female programmers, no HR oversight, and a surfeit of obscure technical jargon. He befriends Harry Sale, an impossibly trite caricature of the irascible yet charming programmer. While on a fishing trip, Harry falls and dies, is resurrected by a mysterious force, and becomes obsessed with building a new operating system. At the same time, strange events start to affect whaling ships, oil rigs, and other threats to the environment. The pacing is all over the place, and the few shifts away from Jon’s point of view are jarring. Worst of all are the scenes featuring love interest Lettie, such as her speech revealing her Electra-complex obsession with nerdy men like her father. This throwback is eminently missable. (Apr.)