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The Broken God
This masterful work of science fiction by David Zindell takes place several thousand years after the destruction and abandonment of Earth. Humanity now covers thousands of worlds and shares the galaxy with many races of aliens. Gods roam the universe and several inhabit huge nebulae in the Milky Way, endlessly turning dead matter into the vast supercomputers that make up their brains. Among these are Nicolas Daru Ede, who imprinted his consciousness into a computer and became humanity's first god; and Mallory Ringess, who discovered an entirely different path toward godhood embedded in human genetic memory.
Danlo wi Soli Ringess, the son of Mallory Ringess, is born on the planet Icefall, heart of civilization and home of the Order, the group of intellectuals dedicated to discovering all that is knowable about reality. However, he is born deep in the Icefall's frozen wilderness into a group of primitives who know nothing more of civilization than a rumor of an Unreal City far to the east. When he is thirteen years old, an engineered virus kills all the members of his tribe. It is his fate to journey far across Icefall's frozen waste to the Unreal City, that is properly called Neverness, to join the ranks of the most glorified profession of the Order, the Pilots, and to learn of the infinite possibilities for humans.
What's Bad?[This section left blank intentionally.]
What's Good?Zindell displays incredible skill and imagination in constructing this universe. Neverness is populated by many species of aliens and groups of humans, each with its own philosophy and view of reality. More importantly, Neverness is the home of the Order of Mystical Mathematicians and Other Keepers of the Ineffable Flame. There are many professions in the Order, from Pilots to Librarians, and each dedicates itself to understanding reality more deeply in a different way.
While Neverness is civilization's most important city and the setting of the novel, Zindell does not neglect to describe the rest of the galaxy. Many philosophies, religions, and wars helped shape civilization, and the author presents this background information without disrupting the flow of the story.
This universe is apprehended through the experiences of Danlo Ringess. Because of his tragic childhood, heroic journey through the wilderness, and enduring love of life, the reader sympathizes with him. Because of his combination of primitive beliefs and desire to experience the world in different ways, he continually interests the reader. Because of his genius and wildness, the reader sees him as a hero.
What does an author need other than a beautifully crafted universe and a compelling character? Zindell has not forgotten to include a plot in his novel. It involves the birth of a religion, romance, assassins, warring philosophies, flight through the stars, virtual realities, and much more.
ConclusionMany Slashdot readers will like the computer ideas presented in this book, including his idea of "cybernetic philosophies" which view the universe as a computer program run to discover the answer to some question. There's also stuff about telepathic interfaces and virtual realities.
Much of this book can be thought of as the author discussing the difference between perception of reality and reality itself, and many other themes pervade the novel. The possibility of discussing such topics in the flow of an intriguing plot is why I enjoy science fiction so much, and why I view this book as one of the best recent examples of the genre. It's also why I think you should procede directly to mxbf.com (or your local used book store) and buy a copy of this book immediately. It's been out of print for a while now, so the big retail stores probably won't have it.
If you like this book, you should definitely read Neverness, by the same author, which might be considered the prequel to The Broken God. It's at least as good, though harder to get your hands on.
If such things offend you, you might want to know that there are occasional fairly graphic sex scenes.
Purchase this book at fatbrain.
It might be usefull to note that `The Broken God' is the second book written in the Nevernes usinverse. It is the first of a trilogy (with `The Wild' and `War in Heaven'. The first book is called `Neverness' -- strange that ;> There are a couple of web pages dedicated to it: http://www.7threalm.com/neverness/ yann.
Reviews are inherently biased, however, and negative comments do not imply objectivity. It's quite the opposite, in some cases; reviewers with the idea that they absolutely must say something bad tend to bring up negative aspects of what they're reviewing that they would otherwise ignore, elevating tiny flaws to the level of serious concerns.
If someone honestly thinks there are not any flaws with a work that merit mentioning, I have no problem with them not mentioning it. I agree that nothing's perfect -- the existance of minor (in the reviewer's opinion) flaws is evidenced by the less-than-perfect rating.
Note that I haven't read the book. I probably will, though -- it sounds like an interesting plot.
phil
And likely many other (on-line) bookshops.
If we don't do that, it's extinction for us. Maybe some other species will hit upon large brains and opposable digits, and dig up our remains in a few million years.
But if we do make ourselves smarter - not just smarter, but wiser - then the process won't stop until we become gods. We'll hit Vinge's singularity, and after that who knows? (Note: you may want to turn off style sheets when viewing that link, the font is illegible in my Netscape on MacOS.)
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Neverness is the first book in the series followed by Broken God, The Wild, and lastly, War In Heaven. So if you plan to read The Broken God, I would defintely read Neverness first since it will add a lot of context to the second book. :)
BTW, my domain plexity.net, comes from this book
--
Deepak Saxena
Deepak Saxena
"Computers are useless, they can only give you answers" - Picasso
In the US. Those in the UK (or with lots of disposable income) might wish to check out a mazon.co.uk, which lists The Broken God as "usually dispatched in 24 hours"
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Seeing as most metals and many plastics are recyclable, I find this an amazing speculation.
Surely it's more in line with the Henny Penny tone of the rest of your Comment to suggest that all the trees, and thus all the paper, will soon be gone.
Personally I regret reading reviews that claim there is nothing bad in a book. It immediatally causes me to discard the review as biased. (Which I did in this case, I skimmed it, saw the [this....blank] part and decided not to waste my time reading it). No matter how much you like a writer or how good you think a book is, it is never perfect.
Cheering and all positive reviews are great, but they provided little for the writer and the prospective reader of such an book. Writing down what was imperfect in your opinion helps the writer, and gives the propective reader a chance of his own to discard those things as very minor shortcomings.
The way it looks now, it looks like you wanted to give as positive a message about the book as you could. This will make people worry wether or not you read the book with intend to like it.
Edwin Oostra
Beware of Wight Supremacists!
What a disappointment it was for that character to get to Unreal City, only to find out that it was destroyed in a earthQuakeTest.
Gotta get this book. It sounds like a good read.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.