David Zindell's Neverness

[Hedgekettle]

Hello

I'm going to recommend David Zindell's Neverness. It has a sense of adventure & wonder that keeps me returning to it. Beautiful descriptions of nature & wild, subspatial mathematics. (Zindell makes solving equations sound so exciting). It juxtaposes a high tech society with its nanotechnology & its light ships with the quest for the meaning of life among arctic dwelling neanderthals. A ripping yarn with a lot of depth to it.

The protagonist, Mallory Ringess, is a refreshingly ambivalent character - in one sense he is the old hero-messiah (cf Paul Atreides) clichأ© but in another he is an arrogant man whose ambition causes a considerable amount of mayhem.

Zindell followed the book with a trilogy: A requiem for Homo sapiens, which also has some wondrous moments but to my mind is drawn out too long.

It's wordy & there is no shortage of philosophising but this sits comfortably within the flow of the novel.

& anyone who likes William Blake is all right by me!

Best wishes!

Hedgekettle

[Mikey_C]

I was very impressed with this book.

A friend of mine who is a mathematician explained to me that the "number storm" is very like the high he gets from maths.

Shame no-one told me about that at school ...

[Mikey_C]

http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/intdz.htm

Link to interesting interview with Mr Zindell. I didn't realise he was so interested in Eastern mysticism. I used to read tons of Hesse. Never managed to get into "The Glass Bead Game", though. Perhaps now is the time!

[Hedgekettle]

Hiya Mikey!

You said

Shame no-one told me about that at school ...

Yes, indeed.

Great interview, thanks! I wasn't suprised to hear that he was into some kind of meditation practice but I wouldn't necessarily have picked Advaita as the one... Zen perhaps.

A shame about the two series not being set in the same universe - I had this super theory that Kane from the Light Stone was the Time Keeper of Neverness in an earlier lifetime (remember how old he was & the way that his body was completely covered in scars).

BTW what do folks think of the Light Stone books? I must admit that I was a bit disappointed with the first one, particualrly when it started with chapter after chapter of history & geography lessons, but I thought that the 2nd one was brilliant - much darker, with the hero having to face up to his doubts & fears & not wanting to create any spoilers I'd better not finish that sentence.

See you later

Hedgekettle.

[Anonymous]

picked this up at the library on Saturday.

I'll read and report back. :)

[ReaveTheJust]

That's me above. dunno why I get logged out sometimes