Ahira's Hangar

So this board is dedicated to Zindell but I've never read a single word of any of his books.
Should I be flogged? Perhaps sacked?

I got into George R. R. Martin because danlo suggested it. I am quite thankful for it since I'm now among the legions that are awaitng the next book in the fire and ice series.

So where do I start with Zindell?

I guess that would depend on whether youare in the mood for science fiction or in a mood for epic fantasy.

He has a great four novel science fiction series that starts with Neverness.

He also has a four (sometimes the first book, which is mammoth in length is split into two books, so sometimes the series runs five books) epic fantasy series which starts with The Lightstone.

Both series are complete, but the entire fantasy series is not available in the US yet (though the series has been published in its entirety in Britain - the US publisher is just behind).

Read the short story Shanidar that you can access off the net in the Zindell forum and the read Neverness. All things Zindell start with Neverness. The read The Broken God as soon as possible after that.

Eh, I was made a moderator at this forum without ever having read any of his books.

Well I'm not going to give in and start reading his books out of order, so I've decided (gulp) to risk a trip to Gould's bookstore in Newtown Sydney. It's an absolute legend of a place, probably one of the cheapest bookshops you could imagine, with a huge amount of stock, but with one terrible drawback. None of the books is in any kind of order. The shelves, floor, ceilings, stairways are all festooned with boxes and boxes of books that the owner is just about to organise if you give him a minute. People have been known to get lost and reemerge days later, covered in dust and muttering to themselves.
I'm going inside. I may be quite some time.

*grin*

Sounds like fun. Have a good time!

And good luck on your hunt!

Well no luck in Gould's, which doesn't mean that the books aren't there, just that they may be in the modern cookery section and I didn't quite work that out for myself. Did get "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman for 3 dollars though, so every cloud etc...

It's very hard to find a copy of Neverness unless you really luck out at a used bookstore. Bantam/Spectra shafted Zindell with a limited publication of Neverness and The Broken God-then they published three times as many The Wilds and War in Heavens. Makes no sense-you can still find new paperbacks of those two, but not the others. The best way to find the new, beautiful, Voyager Classics (Harper, UK) trade paperback of Neverness is to go to Amazon UK.

Excellent idea Danlo, I'll try and get all the books in order.

Well raise my rent but I've gone and found Neverness, and the Broken God, and even got The Lightstone as well. Three different bookshops all had one copy of each!
Bad news is my computer died two days ago and I'm waiting on the delivery of some recovery disks from HP so I may be mia for a couple of days...which just gives me more time to get into Neverness!

excellent!

Bad news - computer still dead.
Good news - Got "War in Heaven" so only need "The Wild" to complete the Neverness cycle.
Potential bad news - what if I can never get "The Wild" !!?!

PM me your snail mail addy I'm mail you a copy.

Well I've made it through the numbers storm, lunched with the Alaloi, and am currently swimming with a few seals...