The British Library has released a number of sci-fi titles to celebrate the contribution made by British authors to the genre. Amongst them is Four-Sided Triangle, by William F. Temple, a novel which later found fame as a film produced by Hammer (prior to their lucrative horror days).
Four-Sided Triangle is a novel which follows gifted colleagues Bill and Rob, who with their intelligence and resources, create the Replicator, a device which can create a literal, perfect copy of anything. However, complications arise when Bill falls for Lena, the secretary that works with the men. Unfortunately, Lena chooses Rob and the two marry. Unable to shake his feelings for Lena, Bill uses the Replicator to create a copy of her, she is named Dorothy, in a bid to bring an end to the love triangle (hence the four-sided of the title). However, the good intentions of the experiment soon turn south when the line between who is the original and who is the copy become blurred.
This novel is essentially a take on the Prometheus legend; it raises the ethical questions (much like Frankenstein before it) of ‘playing God’ for our own purposes whether that is out of pride, or in Bill’s case out of lust. Temple exploits this ethical dilemma allowing his characters towards the end of the novel to discuss the matter of life itself, almost out of ironic self-awareness; this self-aware trait is often associated with modern authors showing Temple’s ability to be ahead of its time with his narrative. However, with this quality awareness, you spot the very dated diction of “I say” and “confound you” which could have modern audiences they were reading a parody of ’50s science fiction, or the script for an episode of Futurama or Red Dwarf.
Overall, Four-Sided Triangle deserves a new appreciation given that some of that some of the science fiction of its pages has become real (wasn’t there a recent news story in which a gun can be created by 3D printer now?!) Some of Temple’s warnings should be heeded.
FOUR-SIDED TRIANGLE / AUTHOR: WILLIAM F. TEMPLE / PUBLISHER: BRITISH LIBRARY PUBLISHING / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
