Book Description
The universe of Neverness is intriguingly complex. filled with extraordinary beings. There are the Alaloi, who have chosen to return to the Neanderthal state ... the Order of Pilots which reworks the laws of time and physics to catapult its members through dense regions of 'thickspace' ... the Solid State Entity, a vast brain made up of moon-sized biocomputers... and the leldra, a legendary race of aliens that seeded the galaxy aeons ago with its DNA and so began the evolutionary cycle.

Against this rich backdrop unfolds the story of young, headstrong Mallory Ringess, a novitiate of the Order of Pilots. Against all odds he has penetrated the Solid State Entity - and made a stunning discovery. A discovery that could unlock the secret of immortality hidden among the Alaloi.... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

On my top ten list
Flat out one of the best sci fi books I've ever read. Gives a distinct sense of the eternal, frequently triumphant. If you want to read a book that gives a sense of the amazing skill a human is capable of, this is a good one to start with. The rest of the series doesn't disappoint.

Memorable, sweeping sci-fi
I'd actually nearly finished reading Zindell's "Requiem for Homo Sapiens" trilogy before realizing that:
a) There exists a prequel known as Neverness that I should have read before the trilogy.
b) The reviews of Neverness here are for the most part very very positive.
c) The book had already been sitting on my shelf for a couple years.Oops!!

Well, when compared with the sequel trilogy, Neverness is clearly the work of a less mature Zindell but it makes up for that by moving at a faster pace and bringing the story to a somewhat better close.We also have to keep in mind that the brilliantly rendered setting explored in the trilogy was given 90% of its conceptual basis here in this novel.Zindell truly creates a new universe with Neverness, nearly on par with Dune.That alone makes it an astonishing effort in my mind, even though I would rate the story itself at four stars.It's a great story but there are quite a few holes in the plot, such as how exactly the Ieldra & the Elder Eddas are relevant to anything.Also, the many forays into mathematics were too obviously contrived and just came off as plain silly to me.

The book is quite long at 552 pages in the paperback version, but reads quickly and includes many memorable scenes.A couple that come to mind include the ultimate fate of Katherine, Mallory & Soli's pursuit of the Timekeeper, and Bardo's hilarious issues with tumescence.

I recommend Neverness highly.It pretends to be deeper than it really is (it can't compare to Dune IMO), but Zindell conceives and crafts such a beautiful alternate reality that it's really a must read for sci-fi fans.

Not Free SF Reader
A story quite in the Moorcockian style of things. The adventures of Mallory-Ringess, pilot-mathematician, you could call it. If Jerry Cornelius turned up here, nobody would blink an eye, I think. With shades of the Spacing Guild starfaring as religion stuff thrown in. Of course, there is a big conspiracy or secret at the heart of it.

...and it started so promisingly...
Unfortunately, after a great opening, this book descends into an orgy of navel-gazing, psychobabble and attempted insight into the human condition. A brilliantly realised far-future hard SF setting is wasted by pages and pages of introspection, occasionally turgid prose, and more mathematics than is entirely necessary (even to those of us with advanced-level qualifications in the field!). Plot arcs with the potential to provide great advances in the story and the characters are skimmed over in a paragraph or two, while the interior meanderings of the non-particularly-appealing narrator spew out seemingly endlessly. The motivations of most of the rest of the characters are allowed to remain completely opaque, which might have been intentional but irritates me anyway. I'm still giving it 3 stars though - the universe of Neverness is far too well-drawn for a worse rating than that.

Its not Dune ... its completely different
I like Dune and I like Neverness too. But I resent any comparison of the two books. Herbert and Zindell have very different styles, different philosophies of life, and, most importantly, they are trying to accomplish different things in their books.

Herbert was a great yarn-spinner, and, while he did have some depth, Dune is ultimately just another space opera. Very good space opera, its true. Perhaps even the reference standard for space opera, but, as you read it you should not think too seriously about any of the details of the storyline, since little of it holds up to logical scrutiny.

Neverness, on the other hand, has great depth and is written with a self-conscious irony. In truth, I see it as a profound post-modern masterpiece on the order of Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, except, the narrative is much simpler and the story is neither tortured nor angst ridden. Like Dune, it is good yarn, but, like Gravity's Rainbow it is a story told on many different levels.
... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (14)

Another epic-ish fantasy/quest thing
Story: In format, this is a very standard quest, epic fantasy novel, that bears a strong resemblance, from a distance, to J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and also has many elements from the Arthurian legends (e.g., a sacred sword given to the hero my Lady Nimau, a.k.a. the Lady of the Lake). There are also a smaller number of parallels to Jennifer Roberson's Sword series and Stephen R. Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series.

In The Lightstone, Valashu Elahad is the peace-loving seventh son of a king of the small but historically great Kingdom of Mesh, and he answers the call of a neighboring king, to go on a quest for the Lightstone, a golden cup, forged from an ancient, powerful crystal called a gelstei. All of the world, called Ea, is threatened by Morjin, the Lord of Lies, who might be immortal and might even be a fallen angel, similar to Lucifer. As Valashu heads off on his quest, he gradually collects six companions, each from a different race of Ea. Maram is a prince and a would-be monk who struggles to keep his vows; Master Juwain is a wise old monk; Atara is a beautiful warrior-princess; Alphanderry is a minstrel of unsurpassed skill and good cheer; Kane is the world's deadliest swordsman and a typically nomadic hermit; Liljana is a widowed noblewoman of great skill at various crafts. As these seven journey, in search of the Lightstone, they find ancient gelstei, of various kinds, and find undiscovered skills within themselves.

The most interesting character here is probably none of the seven, but their nemesis. Morjin, the Red Dragon, the Lord of Lies, is a man, or being, of seeming physical perfection, and tremendous eloquence. He visits Valashu in his dreams, and tries to enlist his help to find the Lightstone. Together, according to Morjin, they can use the Lightstone to turn Ea into the beautiful world of peace and love of which Valashu dreams. But, if you say no to Morjin, his beauty and eloquence slip away, briefly, to reveal the monster beneath the golden veneer.

What I liked: The story is well-written, flows rapidly and smoothly, and the setting are described in enough detail to create strong mental imagery. I like the characters, although they fit well-used archetypes and resemble, for the most part, characters in other, well-known epic fantasies. Kane strongly resembles Aragorn of The Lord of the Rings and Atara resembles Jennifer Roberson's heroine of Sword-Dancer and its sequels.

What I liked most about The Lightstone was the bad guy, the nemesis, the foe. Morjin, the Red Dragon, the Lord of Lies, is pure evil wrapped in angel's clothing. He professes the same goals as the hero, and details his plans to achieve a world of beauty and love and peace. He tempts all by striving for wonderful goals. But, is any of true? It could be. Maybe, he has been misunderstood, or has found redemption, or has only done terrible things to avoid even more terrible things. Or, he just lies creatively and marvelously well, and it's all a trap, and he wants to kill, kill, kill, and drink the blood of his victims and crucify all who dare oppose his greatness!

What I did not like: If I had not read The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, the legends of King Arthur, or . . . many other epic fantasies, I would be saying, "Wow! What a great idea! A quest, involving a company of diverse heroes, who find ancient talismans of power, and join together to defeat a seemingly unstoppable foe! How new and inventive!"

But, I have read them. Morjin is one of the more original aspects of this tale, but he is also Lucifer, fallen from Heaven and seeking to regain sovereignty and power.

The list of heraldries and gelstei at the end of The Lightstone strongly resembled the appendices at the end of each volume of George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series.

But, in fairness, I think there was slightly more originality here than in Christopher Paolini's Eldest, and it is certainly written better, and is definitely less boring.

Note: This is as much the beginning of a trilogy or series as is Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, and is as incomplete. The story goes so far, and then stops, to be rejoined in the next book.

A Zindellian Grail Quest
This book reads like Zindell's re-imagining of the Holy Grail myth, with some character types and ideas taken from his Neverness sf series. The book is mostly fantasy, but there are echoes of science fiction in it; for example, in the book there's talk about life on other planets. Besides this intriguing mix of genres, there's Zindell's preoccupation with mystical and with spiritual ideas.

I have some relatively minor issues with Zindell's overuse of certain words and images (diamonds, light, fire). These are minor in that they only give further evidence of his earnestness in producing a spiritual epic. While he also writes many thought-provoking lines, what's most distinctive about a Zindell story, I think, is its spirituality. The Lightstone isn't entirely original (there are hints of Lord of the Rings), but Zindell has reworked some archetypes and classic plot devices in his own way. There's also the strangeness of the characters speaking of nine kingdoms despite the map showing only eight. Perhaps the ninth kingdom is all of them put together?

For those who say there's nothing original in the Lightstone, here's a quotation of Zindell from an interview with him: "The 'Ea Cycle' is a grail quest. It's set in a secondary world which is also a secondary universe, something I haven't seen too much in fantasy, though it's like Moorcock's 'Multiverse,' tying his work together. My fantasy is probably more like a traditional science fictional structure, in that there's a secondary world, and there are other magical secondary worlds around other stars, in much the same way a science fiction universe would be set up....There's an angelic race, then an archangelic race, and a race that's higher than they are. And there's this great galactic civilization. It's not a technological one; it's a magical civilization, but the magic is not 'wizard and elves'; it's more like 'deep structure of the universe.' Built into that structure is the idea that there's an evolutionary progression from lower beings to star people, to immortal beings that would be like angels (though I don't call them angels), to archangels, to kind of an increate race that imbues its life force, its consciousness, into creating universes - of which my universe is one. So there are some very deep structures and a sense of hugeness." Again, what distinguishes a Zindell story are his ideas about transcendence and spirituality.

The bottom line for me is that this book passed the ultimate test: I cared about the main characters and was eager to keep reading until I finished the book. Note: I read the two-volume UK edition, which I think the author revised for the American edition.

I'm sorry I read this (really)
I had some anticipation that Zindell would carry over the originality he showed in his four NEVERNESStitles to this one.

I read all of it, and began hating it after about page 50. It collects all the trite elements of several series and popular novels and adds nothing orignal to the story that would make it it's own story.

It is void of orignality. It is a collection of fantasy novel cliche's, and they all irritate. It would have been different if this book was a parody.

Volume one of a series? I won't buy them, or read them.

A huge disapointment.

Yes, what the heck DIDhappen to Zindell?
One(why only one!?) of the earlier reviewers said this book was awful-- but that person thought Neverness was even worse, so I don't know where he's coming from.In my opinion, Neverness, and most of Zindell's other early work, was excellent, awesome, very original, downright significant.This book, on the other hand, is pretty bad, at least by comparison.It's a great disappointment to someone who who was blown away by Neverness and very impressed by War in Heaven.

There are a few fantasy authors that are original and outstanding, like Tolkien, Eddison, Le Guin; there's a lot of sheer garbage; and there are somein between,pretty good/not too bad, but not on the level of Tolkien or Le Guin.
In Neverness, I think Zindell was right up there (although it's not exactly fantasy, having a lot of hard SF elements).In this book, there are egregious elements of shlock, but he's basically a very talented writer, and he can still write sentences and paragraphs and dialog, so the book is borderline readable; it's kind of on the border between shlock and not-too-bad.But coming from Zindell, a really talented writer, it's pathetic.

It is very trite, formulaic and predictable, that's for sure, and many of the plot incidents are very contrived; for instance, the hero breaks his sword fighting a monster, he's all broken up about it, goes a chapter or two without needing a weapon, and then gets a magic sword from, guess who?The Lady of the Lake, I kid you not.

The characters are recycled from the Neverness series and LOTR (Grays=Black Riders, Kane=Strider, Rumbum or whatever his name is=Bardo), the story is a rehash of LOTR and King Arthur.Oh, and the lead character gets poisoned with a poison that burns and stings for the rest of his life, just like in Neverness.Most of the names are taken from Buddhism, Zorastrianism, and other wildly diverse sources.The plot is a mishmash ofKing Arthur and LOTR.

In two appendices, Zindell drones on about the (unillustrated, and irrelevant to the plot) heraldry of the Nine Kingdoms (which, no matter how many times I count them, on the map, or in the appendix, are only Eight!), and about 16 several sorts of magic colored gemstones (zzzz...).Better he should have put the energy into counting his kingdoms and developing some original ideas.

I don't know what Zindell was trying to do with all these borrowed names and concepts.I don't think it was just laziness; maybe he was trying to make some kind of parody or homage, as others have suggested.It doesn't work.It's NOT a "rich fantasy world"; it's like a Salvation Army store of worn-out junk and faded glories, all crowded and jumbled together.

One thing that could have been really interesting is that the hero is a warrior who, because of his empathic talent, can't hurt or kill anyone without being prostrated by the victim's pain, so he vows not to kill anyone, while becoming betrothed to a woman named Manslayer who has vowed to kill a hundred (honest!).But he kills people anyway, and pretty soon it doesn't even seem to bother him much anymore, a total waste of the one original idea in the book, and one that could have been very fruitful.

I have to think something HAS happened to Zindell--mental illness, drug addiction, something like that.Otherwise, I have to think he could at least get the count of kingdoms right (you may think I'm harping on this, but he mentions these Nine Kingdoms many times, even though only a couple figure in the plot, so I really think there ought to be nine of them).Or he could have come up with some original ideas and new characters.

I made it through the book, but I'm not going to bother with the others in the series. I hope Zindell feels better, and approaches his previous standards in the future.

Decent book
Enjoyable reading for me, but very cliched.I understand this book is a re-issue/re-edit of an older story/series.I havent been able to find out from the publisher if they are going to continue the series. ... Read more

Book Description
Book One of David Zindell's new epic trilogy is set in Neverness, legendary City of Light, where inner space and outerspace meet .. where

THE GOD PROGRAM IS UP AND RUNNING

Into its maze of colour-coded streets of ice a wild boy stumbles, starving, frostbitten and grieving, a spear in his hand: Danlo the Wild, a messenger from the deep past of man. Brought up far from Neverness by the Alaloi people, neanderthal cave-dwellers, Danlo alone of his tribe has survived a plague - because he Is not, as he thought, a misshapen neanderthal, but human, with immunity engineered Into his genes. He learns that the disease was created by the sinister Architects of the Universal Cybernetic Church. The Architects possess a cure which can save other Alaloi tribes. But the Architects have migrated to the region of space known as the Vild, and there they are killing stars.

All of civilization has converged on Neverness through the manifold of space travel. Beyond science, beyond decadence, sects and disciplines multiply there. Danlo, his mind shaped by primitive man, brings to Neverness a single long-lost memory that will challenge them all. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

Chalk Zindell up to the top rank
The six original Dune novels and Asimov's Robot, Empire, and Foundation series generally constitute the finest space science fiction I've read.Simmons' first two Hyperion novels make it up there as well.The Broken God easily ranks with these greats.

I'll echo other reviewers: Zindell's prose reminds me of Herbert's Dune.Almost eerily imaginative and convincing.He crafts a world, a universe actually, and makes it believable.No need to summarize the setting and plot here, the Amazon blurb covers it pretty well.What can I say, it's a very well-crafted, well-written science fiction novel.Vastly underrated.I believe it's out of print now due to lack of sales, but you can get it second-hand though unfortunately you might have to pay an arm and a leg even for the paperback.If you're a sci-fi buff, it will almost certainly give you many hours of enjoyment.

The only nit I have to pick is that Danlo is not a fantastic rendering for a protagonist.He's too upstanding and purely good.I feel that had Zindell added a couple minor flaws to his character the novel would have turned out even better.At this point I've read the sequel The Wild and I can say that though I enjoyed it greatly, Danlo behaves even more perfect and inhuman and I think this detracted from the novel.Who knows, perhaps the final novel War in Heaven will reveal a flaw in his character.I'm hoping....

Poignant and prophetic
Warning: this book is not for the all-action-no thinking-sci-fireaders. You find here beautiful word construction, great characterization and splendid athmospheres. The characters of Danlo the Wild, tortured yet innocent soul, of his friend Hanuman,haunted by his own interior ghosts, of the falstaffian Bardo, will remain in your memory. Here you will find reflections on human destiny, theimplications of genetic and cybernetics, reflections on humand destiny and of the universe. Echoes of Douglas Adams, Neal Stephenson, Iain Banks andIsaac Asimov reverberate through this wonderful novel.(Not to mention that the Borja School chapters have a distinct harrypotteresque feel...and Danlo finds himself with a lightning scar on his forehead(!).This novel is real food for the soul, and whilst it could have been a bit less verbose, and some reflections may verge on the obvious (religions develops in directions their founders didn't foresee ... what else is new?), this book will make you think, whilst entertaining you with a magnificent story. And some notations on human alienation and the perils of religious dogmatism are very prophetics and actual. A must read!

splendid
This has been one of my favourite books for a long time. Loved it. Just a note for those looking for out-of-print Zindell work - Neverness etc - hop on over to amazon.co.uk where they are all very much *in* print. His newer books ( not up to the standard of this one unfortunately ) seem to be released earlier in the UK as well. Weird for an American author.

great book, series could be greater?
4.5 Stars. I read this book before I read Neverness.I wouldn't say I regret it, but for those looking around for a good book, I reccomend checking it out first.It's not a must, but I think a lot of insight into Danlo and some other characters would be gained while reading "The Broken God."There isn't much to say about this book that hasn't been said, but if you're like the kind of books I do- epic universes, interesting characters, and cool tech that isn't the focus of the story.I think this book could please people with lots of different sci-fi tastes.The only bummer is that the sequel- The Wild- costs a whopping $27 for the paperback here on Amazon. Not sure what the deal is with that, but it's holding me back from reading on in this great series.

philosophical, mystical, world-building science fiction
Three features of this book, and of Zindell's sf series as a whole (I'm on the third book, The Wild), stand out for me. First and foremost, the series is very philosophical. Whereas most hard sf authors go into plot-killing descriptions of technology and scientific theories, Zindell focuses on the spiritual and ethical dimensions of his speculative history of the far future. This isn't to say there's no science or technology in Zindell's science fiction or that the series borders on fantasy. Zindell does back up many of his speculations with scientific explanations, but the focus is on exploring philosophical and spiritual ideas.

This might suggest that the series is a morality tale, but this would be so only if a morality tale were any story that is largely about morality or some other philosophical problem. Instead, at its worst a morality tale is a stilted, formulaic fable that so focuses on morality that the characters and the plot are beside the point. While Zindell's series is quite philosophical, Zindell is also a world-builder, and this is the second aspect of the series that strikes me. I happen to enjoy long, world-building sf series (Dan Simmons, Peter F Hamilton, Gene Wolfe). Zindell develops his vision of the far future to such an extent that the reader can't usually predict what will happen or discern any formula (except in the broadest sense of the formula for any epic story). For example, I wouldn't have predicted the disaster described in the very first chapter of The Broken God, nor could I have predicted what exactly is the broken god. Zindell's discussions of philosophical ideas and his invented world are so idiosyncratic that I wouldn't call the series a morality tale--at least not in a pejorative sense. Take the warrior-poets, for example. To some extent, these are Nietzschean overmen who are beyond good and evil, but there's also their preoccupation with finding the "moment of the possible," which I found peculiar and fascinating.

Perhaps the main philosophical theme explored in the series is the relationship between gods and mortal creatures, and specifically the prospect of becoming a god. By itself, this indicates an unusual, mystical, Gnostic perspective on the author's part (everything is divine, the kingdom of heaven is within you, etc). A far future setting may not be necessary to the pursuit of this theme, but obviously one way to become a god would be to harness the sort of technology which doesn't yet exist.

Finally, there's Zindell's writing style. Most of the writing I quite like, especially the similes and the substitution of detailed philosophical and psychological discussions for technoscientific ones. (Again, there are some technical scientific and mathematical descriptions, but they don't take up the foreground. For a fascinating philosophical dialogue, see the long, early conversation between Danlo and the Fravashi Old Father.) However, Zindell has an odd tendency to overuse certain phrases such as "utterly," "fairly," "in truth," "wild," "light of his eyes," and perhaps some others. Even the Devaki phrases Danlo would repeatedly speak seemed to contain only a handful of the same words (I think one of the words means "sleep"). I noticed this much more in the second and third books than in the first one, Neverness. This is a little annoying, but there's so much else going on in the story that I find in reading the third book I can set aside this quibble.

Regarding The Broken God, in particular, I found it just as engrossing as the first book, Neverness. The plot of Neverness is perhaps more interesting, since a great many major events take place in that part of the story, but the second book is more explicitly philosophical. For me the first chapter, the Architects' theology, the encounter with the warrior-poet, and the character of Old Father and the Fravashi philosophy are some of the book's highlights. The second book is primarily about the strange relationship between Danlo and Hanuman, though, and although I found the final revelations of the second book not as startling as those of the first, I still found the ending satisfying, if a little sad. ... Read more

Book Description
RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON

Danlo wi Soli Ringess has returned from the Vild, the first lightship pilot to escape that hellish region of fractured space and deadly supernovas where giant computer-gods make war on each other.

But the Civilized Worlds face their own threat of war. A fanatical cult has seized the fabled city of Neverness and plans to take over the galaxy. Though the cult worships Danlo's long-lost father as a god, he casts his lot with its opponents--and is sent to Neverness to try to reason with its leaders. Instead he must fight to survive: against the warrior-poet who has vowed to take his life, the madman with a star-killing weapon and a grim ultimatum, the charismatic leader of the cult--once Danlo's greatest friend, now his fiercest enemy--and his own unbreakable vow never to harm a living thing.

A contemporary master of speculative fiction and incomparable world-building, David Zindell continues his monumental epic that sweeps us from the outer reaches of the galaxy to the inner depths of the human mind, a stirring cosmic drama of a man of peace torn between the implacable cosmic forces of divinity and destruction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

Back to Neverness
"War In Heaven" isn't really aptly named.The city of Neverness and environs is the setting for most of the novel, rather than out in space.We already knew from the prequel "The Wild" that a galaxy spanning war had been fought for centuries between the gods led by the The Silicon God on one side and those led by the Solid State Entity on the other.So I expected this final book of the series to describe the involvement of the main protagonists (Danlo, Hanuman, Bardo, etc) in the war between the gods and a final end to the Silicon God's reign.

Instead the "war" in this book doesn't involve the gods at all.It refers simply to the large scale conflict between the opposing sides that Hanuman and Danlo have taken.Hanuman has risen to the leadership of the Ringist cult, which during Danlo's absence from Neverness has come to effectively rule the Order.Danlo is now a highly respected member of the Fellowship of Free Worlds, which is a consortium of pilots that have vowed to end the viral spread and poisonous teachings of Ringism.Danlo returns to Neverness to try to bring a peaceful end to the conflict, to reason with Hanuman.Well, things don't quite go as planned and it's a long, bloody road ahead before the conflict is resolved.

It's a solid novel, a great mix of adventure, intrigue, and philosophy.Also, a truly climactic conclusion and then a surprise twist at the very end.The main reasons I mark it down from the five stars I gave the prequels are:

- Larger conflict of the true "war in heaven" between the gods unresolved, and indeed, completely ignored.The final pages hint that the stage is now set for the battle to be taken to the Silicon God, not sure if that implies a sequel or not.Apparently not, since it's been ten years already since publication of this book.

- Zindell's flowery prose impressed me in the first two novels but started to wear me down in this book.It could have been shortened considerably.Too many distracting digressions.

Simply astounding and mind boggling !
My last two weeks have been most stimulating as I finished this remarkable series. From the first book, "Neverness" to "The Broken God" to "The Wild" and finally "War in Heaven", I just could not put the series down. Yes there are times when Zindell tend to be repetitive in his philosophical views but the intensity of the story and characters more than makes up for it. "Neverness" is simply exquisite with spectacular world building and intriguing characters. The protagonist, Mallory, a brilliant and complex personality is definitely one sci-fi character I will remember. "The Broken God" is simply profound though at times Zindell tends to be overboard with his philosophical views. At first I miss Mallory's narration as the first person. However by the middle of "The Broken God", I found myself engrossed with Danlo's fate and liking this protagonist immensely. From the negative reviews of "The Broken God", I perceive that some readers have stopped reading the series due to the slow pace of "The Broken God". That is a real pity because no sci-fi die-heart should miss "The Wild". Here Zindell displays his remarkable world building skills and vivid imagination once again. The pace here is fast and I found myself imprisoned by Danlo's adventures. "War in Heaven" is equally though provoking and captivating. Danlo's loss here is intensely written and I found myself moved to tears. "War in Heaven" is a sastisfying conclusion to the series as Danlo completes his soul searching and finally "sees" his role in the universe or should I say universes. As usual with any great stories, I am sad that the end comes too quickly. I will miss Danlo, Mallory, Soli, Bardo and the Solid State Entity but am glad to have discovered Zindell's world. I am please to add Zindell to my list of must read writers and look forward to reading his new fantasy series. It is a pity that this brilliant writer is not more widely recognized.

You're kidding, right?
The book started off great: gods fighting, the forces of mankind gathering for a war, the ranks of the pilots arrayed in a splendor of colors.So far, the book was matching the quality I found in 'Neverness'.
And then Danlo gets to Neverness, and the author throws the brakes on.There's only so many times I can be told about the starlight blazing out of people's eyes before I start to roll my own eyes.We're told that Danlo is as wild as wild can be, and has an unbreakable will, but in action, he's meek and mild.The vow of ahimsa he's taken which prevents him from harming any living thing is like a boulder around the narrative's neck: it took Danlo three chapters to man up and go kill something to feed his starving kid.And then the kid dies anyway.
The other thing that pissed me off was the interminable, repetitive philosophizing interspersed with descriptions of infinite fire and light in the universe.
I had to force myself to grind through the last twenty pages because I was so tired of reading about Danlo's eyes blazing away.The notions seemed a poor mimickry of Frank Herbert's ideas, in review.The author definitely has a vivid imagination, but he should have mixed things up a little bit more.

closing the loops
My co-author Denis Bridoux recommended me to read all of David Zindells books. He considers them as a resource for helping people to think beyond their boundaries, and I agree with him.

This book picks up where the third of David Zindell's books left the reader.However, there is no need to have read previous books: since the author will recapitulate what you read in the previous 3 ones. As refreshing as the first books were, for me, this one was rather "more of the same".Of course, given the quality of the previous books, that's still a compliment. So, I enjoyed reading it, being on holiday, but I didn't find any new messages that may help the reader to break through it's own thinking (as Zindell's previous books did)....

Not "Neverness"
David Zindell's first novel in this series, "Neverness," is nothing short of astounding. His imagination - and the incredibly rich world that has sprung forth from it - is boundless. But "War in Heaven," the fourth and final book in the "Requiem for Homo Sapiens" series, does not match up to the breathtaking "Neverness," nor even to its own promising beginning.

At the start of this book, the protagonist Danlo wi Soli Ringess has just returned from a perilous mission. His goal was to convince a well-meaning but badly misguided religious order (the "Architects") to change its doctrine of advocating endless procreation - a doctrine which is slowly but surely killing the galaxy. Danlo is successful, but at a price: a splinter group (the "Iviomils") determined to preserve the old ways has broken off & threatens terrible violence.

Danlo, back at "home," finds himself not in the city of Neverness but in Lightstone, a new city on a new planet. Danlo's enlightened academic Order has created a mirror of itself on a distant, hidden planet as a hedge against the possible destruction of Icefall, where Neverness and the original Order are located. Soon, we find out, a new schism is brewing between the new & old Orders, with religion (this time, a controversial new faith called "Ringism" has made inroads into the old Order) again being the cause.

And finally we learn that even the galaxy's gods are at war. A super-entity called the Silicon God has slain two of his kind, and the gods who oppose him are banding together to stop him.

In short, as the title rather explosively proclaims, there is war in heaven.

But we get to see little of it. The Architects and Iviomils barely appear for the rest of the book, and except for a couple of oblique references, the gods don't show up at all. The two academic Orders do fight a pair of bloody, spectacular space battles, but nearly all of the "action" (such as it is) is centered on Neverness. Danlo (who, as an ambassador to Neverness, is utterly unable to prevent the impending war) spends hundreds of pages in a virtual holding pattern - he does almost nothing except bide time while hatching a new plan.

I won't reveal any more of the plot. I will say that the book has its merits - Zindell's world is still intensely interesting, and he still has some new, mind-bending ideas to share. (How about an ethereal ecosystem that thrives in the near-vacuum at the edge of space, or a perverse, megalomaniacal god intent on consuming all the matter and energy in the universe?)

Just expect some disappointment after the first 150 pages, but enjoy the ride anyway. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Lord of Lies
Another great book in the Lightstone series! Wonderful characters and a unique story made this a most enjoyable book and as in all great books I was distressed to have it end. I am eagerly awaiting the next book in the series having ordered it shortly after finishing the Lightstone. I cannot say enough about this author and am still puzzled that I could have missed his work for so long. This series goes to the top of my favorites.

Lord of Lies
The Lord of Lies is the second book in Zindell's ambitious epic fantasy.It leads straight on from the Lightstone and though it's a much shorter book than LS, it doesn't lack any of the imagery and story.
The plot of the series seems one that's been done before, obviously Lord of the Rings has an influence and so do many other books in the genre seem to ring a tune throughout, but, Zindell still brings a richness of original story and imagination not to mention brilliant characterization that he weaves into one of the most ripping epics I've ever read.I could tell you more, but am afraid to spoil the plot.
As I write this, I'm just getting into the 3rd book Black Jade, and it is blowing me away.This series is NOT becoming bland or stale like some other epics floating around at the moment and it appears that it may finish in 4 installments.That would be enough I'd think.
So get into it, I insist, you'll not be disappointed. ... Read more

Book Description
A galactic search for the truth fires this magnificent epic of war and discovery on both a human and cosmic scale.The Wild: a chaotic place where ten elite lightship pilots dared to venture. A place where one of those pilots, Danlo wi Soli Ringess, will learn the fate of his father. Did Mallory Ringess die during that first expedition to the Wild? Or did he become a god? Opinions vary, but Danlo's search is focused on one objective: the truth. It is a truth that will not only reveal his father's assassin, but could also lay bare the secret to a killer virus that only Danlo survived.


From the Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Maintains the quality of the first
I thought the prequel The Broken God was excellent.This one is just as good.The pages keep turning and new concepts and imaginative prose keep flowing.In The Wild, we follow Danlo off Neverness and into space as he sets off on his Order's mission to:Learn why an ancient religious cult is destroying entire star systems by supernova and then convince them to stop.A tall order.Danlo doesn't quite accomplish it, hence the sequel War in Heaven.

There's more philosophy in this one than in The Broken God.About as much action, which isn't saying much since with Zindell the action tends to come in short and intense bursts separated by long periods of peace and quiet.Lots of space travel and several very different alien worlds visited.

I believe that as with The Broken God, this book is out print and selling for exhorbitant prices on the second-hand market.See if you can get lucky on eBay or something, it's really worth the read.

I can't wait to read the sequel so I can learn how the gods do battle!

The best of all the Neverness books
While "Neverness" beats this novel for originality, this one is better in every other way. The author is now more polished there is more of what I liked about the Neverness universe presented in this book. Mostly, we see Danlo's search for the God Ede, which leads him to system after system in what is certainly a quest for the holy grail.

I feel that if you liked the other Neverness books, or any other books by Zindell, you will also like this book.

I don't think that there are any other authors who capture the feel of these novels, only Frank Herbert is close in his Dune series. I feel that Zindell is actually better though. I'm sure that many would disagree, but you don't see an author like Zindell very often, and I feel he should be given his due.

If you thought there was lots o' thinking in the LAST book
Zindell takes them up another notch here, both increasing the "philosophy" department and the "science-fiction" department at the same time.Here, Danlo (our hero) ventures into the Vild with a bunch of other Pilots in an attempt to find a cure to the disease that might just ravage his people . . . and maybe in the process find out just what his father became, if he's even still alive.And to say that this just scratches the surface of the stuff that's going here isn't any hyperbole at all.Before the quest is over (if it really ends) Danlo will find himself talking to gods, visiting strange worlds, playing a game of wits with an assassin and basically trying to avoid getting killed by basically not trying to avoid getting killed (it makes more sense in the book).It's a change of pace from the last book on the surface only, there's more science-fictional elements but since Danlo is visiting different cultures with different technologies it's perhaps inevitable and Zindell throws out enough ideas to give a horde of other writers enough meat to work with for years.At the same time, the philosophy has become more cutting, I think Zindell is hiding some of his own comments on various subjects, religion in particular, or even just having too much belief in any one thing.Danlo remains as fun as ever, though it is becoming a bit of a running joke that he tends to answer everyone's questions with questions of his own, but hey, it's part of the fun.Most of the characters are well rounded, more than just mouthpieces for various arguments (most of them at least) . . . if there's anyone I could compare this too, it'd have to be Isaac Asimov, since at the core his novels always were two people debating some highbrow concept for a bunch of pages . . . while at the same time there was very little action.Same here.If you want rampaging shoot 'em ups with bodies piled everywhere and wild careening space fights and people saying things like "So, Zolar, we meet again", this isn't the place to look.However if you want a brooding, thoughtful SF epic that might just stimulate the brain cells a bit and make you care about the wacky people infesting this book, well here you go.It's right here.

Another beautiful book in this epic series.
Zindell carries on from where he left off with The Broken God with his usual and ummatched blend of great plot, interesting characters (my favourite being the Warrior-Poet), stunning imagination and more beautiful prose all intermingled with mathematics and philosophy. Simply awesome.

Wow!! Even better than his previous 3 books!
I've read Zindell's previous 2 books - Neverness and The Broken God - andI didn't think it would be possible, but he improved even on those two.This book, The Wild, is probably a little more science-fictionesque thanthe other two, since Danlo visits some worlds where the technology is moreadvanced (and more a part of the plot) than on Danlo's home planet ofNeverness, where the other two books take place. But since I'm a hardsci-fi fan, that to me was good. The previous reader maybe has a point withthere being a lot of philosophy, but I didn't find that overbearing - itjust seems to be a part of Danlo's persona, to think about that kind ofthing a lot. But of all things about this book (and the other two), Zindelldoes a great job of making Danlo to be a likeable and even admirablecharacter, with just enough flaws to make him seem human. Can't wait toread the last one in the series. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

terrific good vs. evil fantasy
While much of the large island landmass Ea has fallen under the evil spell of the Lord of Lies Morjin, King Kiritan of Alonia selects Prince Valashu "Val" Elahad to begin a quest to obtain THE LIGHTSTONE Cup of Heaven before Morjin finds it.Val carefully heeds the prophecy in order to prevent Morjin from freeing the Lord of Lies.This seventh son of the ruler of Mesh successfully assembled his magnificent seven and retrieved the Sword of Fate Alkaladur (see THE LIGHTSTONE).

Val and his team begin the second trek of their quest which is more dangerous as they must enter dark lands under Morjin's malevolent control.Using the Alkaladur's glowing gelstei magical gem as a guide, the magnificent seven fight the enemy horde until they reach their second major stop, the Library of Khaisham, where they learn the location of the Lightstone.To his consternation and fear, Val realizes that the journey ends in the darkest place in the island, Morjin's underground city of Argattha; he expects to confront the evil face to face with only one leaving alive in possession of the Lightstone.He does not yet understand that dead has an entirely different meaning when the Lord of Lies is the power behind the throne as allies are traitors and war between the Kingdoms of Ishka and Mesh is imminent.

The action picks up in the second Lightstone saga as the magnificent seven's quest takes them behind enemy lines.However, the increase in daring deeds comes at the cost of the fascinating sidebars that made the first tale unique such as the minstrels' ballads providing the history of the island and the words of the ancient prophecy.Still Val and his crew display their valor as the escapades never stop.David Zindell's sequel is a terrific good vs. evil fantasy with a fabulous finish.

Harriet Klausner ... Read more

Book Description
Word count: 999. ... Read more