Endless Shadow by John Brunner

The byline reads 'space bridge to disaster' - what it should read is 'space bridge to boredom'. Harsh, very harsh, I know. My mother told me if you don't have nice things to say then don't anything at all. I didn't listen to her. Endless Shadow, unfortunately has nothing going for it aside from a great cover. The print that populates the now 61yr old foxed pages does little justice to the pulp it is etched upon.

The early chapters are a kaleidoscope of chaos, pushing and pulling the plot in different off-worldly directions; from serpentine worshiping cults, to political posturing, to human traffic control aboard an intergalactic spacebridge, it's hard to know which thread to focus on.

The Space Bridge (akin to Thor's Bifrost) is the road which spawns many forks and is the place-setting which eventually spawns the braided narrative. 

Jorgen Thorkild, sci-fi homage to Thomas' fat controller (pre-dating Thomas of course so homage isn't the right word, perhaps inspiration?) is an angst ridden government man who takes his job so seriously he ends up committed to a mental institution following a meeting with political dignitaries from seemingly dangerous worlds. It's through this lens that  Endless Shadow starts to progress the plot with the Bridge core to proceedings.

Politics are plentiful, revolving around worlds signing up as a highway destination or risk rather harsh consequences; in the case planet Azrael, the destruction of the whole planet...there is rationale to support this overly dramatic interplay but it still reads as nonsensical escalation for the sake of nonsensical escalation. 

Endless Shadow is the weaker of the two stories in this Ace Double feature, I suggest prospective readers enjoy the cover art before flipping the book upside down and turning it over to read The Arsenal of Miracles by Gardner F. Fox.