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David Zindell's Neverness

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  • #1

    David Zindell's Neverness

    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
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  • #2
    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 ...
    \"...an ape reft of his tail, and grown rusty at climbing, who yet feels himself to be a symbol and the frail representative of Omnipotence in a place that is not home.\" James Branch Cabell

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    • #3
      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!
      \"...an ape reft of his tail, and grown rusty at climbing, who yet feels himself to be a symbol and the frail representative of Omnipotence in a place that is not home.\" James Branch Cabell

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      • #4
        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.

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        • #5
          picked this up at the library on Saturday.

          I'll read and report back. :)

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          • #6
            That's me above. dunno why I get logged out sometimes

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