books guide
walking to babylon
the new adventures (virgin) #071
Written by: Kate Orman
Publication Date: 19 February 1998
ISBN: 0 426 20521 9
Pages: 257
back cover blurb
'I'm scared of letting all these people down. Like the whole human race. At least if I get blown up as well, they can say I died heroically. Assuming I ever existed at all.'
When Bernice Summerfield visits the People - an incredibly advanced civilisation living in a Dyson sphere - she discovers that even in utopia they still have their problems.
An illegal time-travel experiment threatens war that could destroy them all. Rather than risk it, the People and their ultra-powerful computer, God, are prepared to eradicate the source of the problem - the ancient city of Babylon. But such action would involve the death of a quarter of a million human beings, and do incalculable damage to Earth's history.
Babylon - and the human race - have one hope. Benny returns to the cradle of civilisation to try and stop the interference. She has just one week to prevent a catastrophe that could mean she will never be born. Her only assistance comes from a Victorian linguist who has stumpled across the experiment himself. But he's no help at all - even though he has a power neither of them suspects.