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| Original Title: | Neverness |
| ISBN: | 0553279033 (ISBN13: 9780553279030) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | A Requiem for Homo Sapiens #0 |
| Literary Awards: | Locus Award Nominee for Best First Novel (1989), Arthur C. Clarke Award Nominee (1990) |
David Zindell
Mass Market Paperback | Pages: 552 pages Rating: 4.13 | 1275 Users | 87 Reviews
Narrative Toward Books Neverness (A Requiem for Homo Sapiens #0)
This is a really enjoyable 'big idea' science fiction novel that takes place millenia in our future on the planet Icefall, also called Neverness. It's kind of Dune meets Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, Vol 1 with high level mathematics, posthumanism, and trippy metaphysics thrown in.The story follows the life of Mallory Ringess, a trainee enrolled at "the Academy" that was founded by a pseudo-monastic order of truth-seekers called 'the Order of Mystic Mathematicians and Other Seekers of the Ineffable Flame' hoping to become a pilot. Now in this day and age a pilot is a very special kind of beast who combines the aspects of a theoretical mathematician with those of a questing knight. Using advanced mathematics the pilots are able to navigate within the manifold, a kind of hyperspace that links all parts of the universe, but whose dangers can lead the untrained or the unwary to get lost in the tangled skeins of space-time. The pilots are thus a special breed. They are men and women who live for the precarious dangers of the manifold and who search, quixote-like, for the proof of the elusive Continuum Hypothesis which would allow a pilot to fall from any point in the universe to any other without the complicated mathematical mappings normally required to traverse hyperspace.
It is also a quest for godhood as the pilots search for the secrets known as the Elder Eddas. These secrets are said to allow beings to transcended their mortality and become gods of one sort or another, and the galaxy is sparsely populated with some of these dangerous and unknowable superbeings, former humans whose consciousness is now housed in nebulae or moon-sized computers. This dangerous life has brought about the motto of the pilots: "Journeymen die", for it is few pilots who ever survive to their mastership.
The world Zindell creates is a fascinating one full of strangeness and wonder. Mallory is an interesting character, equal parts idealistic dreamer and pompous ass. His best friend Bardo is even more entertaining...a figure equal parts Falstaff and Porthos. The story bogged down a bit for me in the middle where Mallory and his fellow searchers look for the Elder Eddas among the Alaloi, a group of humans who had 'carked' their flesh and minds to become like the Neanderthals of earth in rejection of the advanced technology used by the other people of Neverness. Overall, however, this is a great tale, bursting at the seams with crazy-awesome ideas that leave a lot of food for the imagination.
Recommended.
Also posted at Shelf Inflicted
Describe About Books Neverness (A Requiem for Homo Sapiens #0)
| Title | : | Neverness (A Requiem for Homo Sapiens #0) |
| Author | : | David Zindell |
| Book Format | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 552 pages |
| Published | : | June 1st 1989 by Bantam Spectra (first published 1988) |
| Categories | : | Science Fiction. Fiction. Fantasy. Space. Space Opera. Science Fiction Fantasy. Business. Amazon. Philosophy |
Rating About Books Neverness (A Requiem for Homo Sapiens #0)
Ratings: 4.13 From 1275 Users | 87 ReviewsCriticism About Books Neverness (A Requiem for Homo Sapiens #0)
I picked this up because I read several comparisons to Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun, and there are similarities - dense, evocative prose; rich, textured, and unique world-building; a taste for the striking strange - both in well-written imagery and concepts; a young, arrogant, first-person narrator who is not a philosopher but is given to philosophical pondering; a combination of humanity's past with humanity's far-flung future. Zindell definitely takes his own path though, inspired as he mayI really wanted to like this book. I had high hopes going in because the world-building seemed interesting and unique and I've seen the novel draw comparisons with Dune, which happens to be one of my top favourites of all time. Unfortunately, Neverness proved to be very much not my cup of tea. The plot is an epic mess, the world-building never gets explained (the author just throws planet names and made-up words at us like we're supposed to know what he's talking about), and the writing style,
This is one of the finest pieces of literature I've read. I don't expect to write something like that for a sci-fi book, but this was an absolute mind thrill ride.The book takes place mainly in the protagonist head; Mallory Ringess(not Ringer, the description for this book on here is complete garbage.)The semi-bizarre, thought-provoking mix of existentialism and stoic emotion had me re-thinking my view of the world.I highly recommend this to anyone.
"I journeyed on, and my ship seemed like a dark, stale tomb imprisoning me, darker by far than the Timekeeper's stone cell. As a germinated seed seeks its way out of the ground into the light of day, I longed to break free of the old thought ways that stifled me and restrained my inspiration". David Zindell's Neverness balances itself as an epic tale of an anthropological expedition set out in deep space, written in densely earnest philosophical prose, often contemplating what it means to be
one of my favourite books of all time. Its a total mystery to me how the author of this very unique and inspirational book could have also written "the EA-Cycle" which was very dull and stereotype in my opinion
DNF 15%. I couldn't connect with this book. In a distant future a man tries to join an order of pilot/mathematicians who navigate though the galaxy by solving theorems. The story starts on solid ground. The man, his surroundings in a faraway planet in a faraway future, his friends and family are introduced. The foundations of the plot and the world are built up a little in a few episodes where the man is learning/training to be a pilot in a kind of college town on an alien planet. This is all
This book and the following requiem for Homo sapiens trilogy that follows are a sci-fi masterwork.
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