The Grand Wheel Explained

The Grand Wheel is the eighth science fiction novel by Barrington J. Bayley. The novel follows Cheyne Scarne, a professor of "randomatics", as he is selected by the eponymous organization (which holds a galactic monopoly on games of chance) to represent humanity in a card game with infinitely varying rules. The name of the main character appears to be a reference to John Scarne.

Literary significance and reception

Rhys Hughes, in his survey of Bayley's work, described The Grand Wheel as an "entertaining gambling novel" with a "seedy and elegant" atmosphere.^[1] Colin Greenland, writing in Foundation 18, received the novel negatively, saying that it had been produced for the market and "would have been old in 1957".^[2]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Annihilation Factotum: The work of Barrington J. Bayley . The Council for the Literature of the Fantastic . 2012-09-30 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20121004220800/http://www.uri.edu/artsci/english/clf/n6_a3.html . 2012-10-04.
2. Web site: Astounding Worlds of Barrington J. Bayley. Foundation 18. 2012-09-30.