Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers
First edition cover
|
|
| Author | Rob Grant & Doug Naylor |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Red Dwarf |
| Genre | Science fiction, Comic novel |
| Publisher | Penguin Books |
|
Publication date
|
2 November 1989 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback & Hardback) |
| Pages | 304 pp (first edition, paperback) |
| ISBN | (first edition, paperback) |
| OCLC | 30363896 |
| LC Class | PR6064.A935 R4 1989 |
| Followed by | Better Than Life |
Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers is a best-selling science fiction comedy novel by Grant Naylor, the collective name for Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, co-creators and writers of the Red Dwarf television series, on which the novel is based. First published in 1989, the novel presents the plotline of the TV series as a cohesive linear narrative, providing expanded backstory of the Red Dwarf world and more fully developing each of the characters, particularly Lister and Rimmer. The book incorporates elements and scenes from the first and second-season episodes The End, Future Echoes, Kryten, Me² and Better Than Life. In 1990 the book was followed by a sequel, Better Than Life.
The book has also been released in a 1992 Omnibus Edition and as an Unabridged Audiobook, read by Chris Barrie.
The book begins in 2180. Commercialism is still life, and most of Earth's natural resources have been depleted. Most of the solid planets and moons in the solar system have been colonised. Having ended up in a supply port on Saturn's orbiting moon Mimas after celebrating his 24th birthday by binge drinking on a Monopoly Pub Crawl in London, Dave Lister is trying to earn enough money for a shuttle ticket home by stealing taxis and picking up fares while sleeping in a bus station locker. But since he always ends up losing the money, either by getting mugged or by getting drunk, it's obvious he won't be getting home any time soon.
One night Lister picks up a Space Corps officer calling himself 'Christopher Todhunter' (who is obviously wearing a fake moustache) asking to be taken to a plasti-droid brothel, only for the droid to malfunction and nearly rip off his private parts. This gives Lister an inspiration, and he quickly signs up with the Jupiter Mining Corporation, intending to get himself signed to a ship and going AWOL once it reaches Earth. Despite his lack of qualifications and the admissions officer deciding he had an attitude problem – Lister told him that he wanted to sign up to "explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations and to boldly go where no person has gone before" – Lister is quickly assigned to the mining ship Red Dwarf as the lowest ranking crew member. On board he meets the drunken Petersen, who informs Lister that Red Dwarf will indeed be returning to Earth... after a four-and-a-half year round trip, much to Lister's dismay. Lister is assigned to Z-Shift as a technician, with duties that the service droids are considered too good for, and is introduced to his supervisor and roommate Arnold Rimmer, who Lister recognises as the Space Corps officer with the fake moustache. Unfortunately, Rimmer is also highly neurotic and pretentious, and he and Lister develop a mutual dislike.
...
Wikipedia