Ahira's Hangar

Dedication:This website is dedicated to David Zindell who has blessed us with four incredible novels: Neverness, The Broken God, The Wild and War in Heaven. This is not an official Zindell website and no administrator or moderator is connected to Mr. Zindell in any way.
This forum is dedicated to discussions about the above stated books--you are welcome to start a topic on DZ's fantasy books as well, The Lightstone just came out and it begins a trilogy (?, maybe more...) called The Ea Cycle.

About Neverness: How can I begin to describe Neverness without giving it away? Kinda obvious I'm in love with the books... I quess I could say that in all my Sci Fi reading history (and I have probably read over 2000, at least) I've never encountered anything quite like it. I absolutely love Sci Fi that makes you think and probably no book, or series of books, in the genre has made me think about the essence of humanity, the promise of mankind and the beauty of life more than these books have. In fact in any form of literature I have ever read I don't think any book(s) has altogether blown me away more than Neverness (and the trilogy that follows) has.

Zindell is a Master universe crafter and he takes you SO far out in the future it's almost unbearable; the cold of planet Icefall and space seep into your bones, and the multitude of philosophic discussions, the poetry, technological evolution, coexistence with aliens, mathematics, music, art, explorations, science, politics and human relations literally take your breath away. It's sorta like integrating Dune with Foundation and throwing in bits of David Brin and a dash of Robert L. Forward and THEN taking it to the next level! Even though the character developements are outstanding, as are the fantastic descriptions of the city of Neverness and the planet Icefall, when Zindell takes you out into space, the Manifold and to the multitude of planets of the Civilized Worlds you are TOTALLY in a different dimension--it is so lonely, eerie, cold and twisted that one must cling to the main character ( be it Mallory or Danlo) as to not go insane.

Read Neverness! See where humanity has gone, they don't even read anymore and have banned the use of all weapons, take everything you have ever read in Sci Fi and either congeal it all together or throw it out the window--you will never read anything else like it--it will challenge EVERYTHING you believe and make your beliefs that much clearer, in the end! (even folks who don't get into the math and techincal stuff will easily comprehend it and will appreciate how gently Zindell sweeps you in and out of it with a loving hand)*** Please alert those reading, or those who haven't yet real Zindell with spoiler alerts whenever appropriate!
If you find the glossary to be inadequate that may be because I am trying to list some terms in a way that folks new to Zindell can understand without spoiling...

Glossary:
The Academy:The Order's home: contains schools and colleges for Pilots, Cetics, Cantors, Scryers, Eschatologists, Horologes, etc...(118+ disciplines)
The Alalio: carked neandrathals living far to the west of Neverness
Ahimsa: doctrine of never killing or harming another living
thing, even in one's thoughts
Ahira: Danlo's doeffel: The snowy owl
Architects of Ede: a strange/popular, intergalactic religion
Bardo: Pesheval Lal, Mallory's best friend
Borja: Journeyman prepartory school
Cardinal Virtue: The Sonderval's Lightship
Carking: bio-engineering
Danlo: main character of last three books
Danladi Wave: Manifold phenomenon
Descision Tree: Manifold phenomenon
Devaki: an Alalio tribe
Facing: Master Pilot's term: to become one with your Lightship
Farsider's Quarter: redlight zone, in Neverness, where many alien immigrants live
Friends of God: a strange/popular, intergalactic religion
Friends of Man: exotic aliens who communicate through the sense of smell
Fravashi: A wise and ancient alien culture
Fenestering: the complex mathematical art Pilots use to traverse their Lightships through the multitude of space/time layers in the Manifold
Glissades & slidderies: ice-roads that intersect Neverness
Halla: Devaki word: good, wonderful
Hanuman li Tosh: Danlo's best (?) friend
Hollow Fields: Lightship launch/staging area
Heaume: a device that implants data straight into the brain
Icefall: Neverness's planet
Immanent Carnation: Mallory's Lightship
Infinite Loop: Manifold phenomenon
Infinite Tree: Manifold phenomenon
Journeyman: an apprentice Pilot
Katherine: Scryer, Mallory's (human) love interest
Leopold Soli: Lord Pilot, Mallory's uncle
Lord: highest title one can attain in his/her discipline
Moira: Mallory's mother
Mallory Ringess: main character of Neverness
the Manifold: layers of space/time where Pilots may map hyperlinks to galactic locations
Master Pilot: earned title of respect, between Lord and Pilot
Moska: a multi-layered Fravashi philosophy
Neverness: The Unreal City
Old Father: a Fravashi Master
Perilous Hall: one of Borja's dormitories
Quicktime: A kind of suspended animation state Pilots use to condense years into hours on long voyages
A Requiem for Homo Sapiens: what many Zindellites call the trilogy that follows Neverness, written by Horthy Hosthoth
Resa: Pilot's College
Scryer: a psi disciple who can see into the past & future
Shaida: Devaki word: bad, evil
Shantih: Devaki word: peace
The Silicon God: a galactic entity
Slowtime: The act of a Lightship feeding data to a Pilot at such incredible speeds that time almost ceases to exist
The Solid State Entity: a huge intelligence field in deep space
The Sonderval: a key Pilot in the stories
The Snowy Owl: Danlo's Lightship
The Sword of Shiva: Bardo's Lightship
Summerworld: Bardo's home planet
Tamara Ten-Ashtoreth: courtesan, Danlo's beloved
Thickspace: area in space around Icefall that contains a multitude of pathways to and through the Manifold
The Timekeeper: Lord Horologe & Questmaster
Torsion Space: Manifold phenomenon
Vastening: the art of integrating consciousness w/computers
The Vild: region of space that threatens Icefall
Warrior-Poets: (for fear of immanent death no explantion can be given at this time! )
Wormrunners: nasty black marketeers
zazen: a type of deep meditation state that allows Pilots to totally focus on mathematics alone

planet sampler: Icefall, Summerworld, Lechoix, Darkmoon, Urradeth, Agathange, Catava, Qallar, Simoom, Rollo's Rock, Kaarta, Fostora, New Earth, Ocher, Freeport, Wakanda, Vesper, Nwarth, Farfara, Ksandaria, Solsken, Sodervald, Parpallaix, Yarkona, Altimuth Bridge

Quote: When man took to his bed the Computer, there was great rejoicing, and great fear, too, for their children were almost like gods. The mainbrains bestrode the galaxy at will, and changed its very face. The Silicon God, The Solid State Entity, Al Squared, Enth Generation- their names are many. And there were the Carked and the Symbionts, whose daughters were the Nuerosingers, Warrior-Poets, the Nuerologicians and the Pilots of the Order of Mystic Mathematicians. So beautiful were these daughters that man longed to touch them, but touch them he could not. And so was born the Second Law of the Civilized Worlds, which was that Man could not stare too long at the faces of the Computer or her children, and still remain as Man.--from A Requiem for Homo Sapiens by Horthy Hosthoh


Fall Far and Well Pilots!<i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 5/26/06 11:57 am
</i>

There's nothing more irritating to me than reading a good book all the way through, then realising that it's the last in a series. Happily for me then, Neverness describes the events leading up to David Zindell's Requiem for Homo Sapiens trilogy.

Let me make no bones about Zindell's writing. It is superb.

In attempts to create plausible future societies, many authors resort to cliché or give in to the temptation to caricature present-day social structures. Zindell just dumped the whole lot in the bin and set about building a cohesive whole where vocations like akashics, harijan, scryers, tinkers, cetics, wormrunners and warrior-poets have replaced the familiar professions of today. Yet we are soon so involved that the initial unfamiliarity is lost and we are swept along with the story.

The majority of the technology involved in the books (yes, I've now been through them all) is treated well, with emphasis being placed on the craftsmanship or elegance of a device, rather than the "gosh-wow-look-what-this-does" approach -- just as we treat hi-fis, cars, microwaves and so on today. Zindell uses this to illustrate how far apart the professions have grown, with no knowledge passing between them. His only in-depth treatment of the use of a technology is in describing how a pilot of a lightship traverses the galaxy from star to star, with all its strange geometry and mathematics. Without this, a lot of the impact of the craft of a pilot, and therefore its dangers, would be lost. For anyone put off SF by interminable chapters describing anti-gravity/wormholes/time machines/alien biology, this book is an ideal way to get into the field.

In a galaxy that includes insane computer "gods" the size of star systems, bizarre religious sects that worship death and poetry, men who have so altered their DNA across centuries as to be unrecognisable to ordinary humans, and a strange wavefront of exploding stars called "the Vild" which threatens to destroy the majority of humanity, we focus on the life of a young graduate pilot, Mallory Ringess, on the planet of Icefall, in the city of Neverness.

The overall story is huge and deeply complex, and leads, ultimately, to a quest for the meaning of life. Corny it may be as subject matter, but Zindell's almost spiritual handling of the revelations, as Mallory and his friends journey toward a deeper understanding of the universe and themselves, is something to behold. The canvas upon which the action takes place is masterfully drawn; there are hints of greater powers in the galaxy, intriguing glimpses into the lives of alien races, the descriptions of the city of Neverness itself are superb and the characterisations are rich and varied.

Neverness is told in the first person from the perspective of Mallory himself. He's a young, impetuous, and sometimes absolutely infuriating man, yet Zindell has the reader empathising with him as he goes through a succession of physical and mental trials. In fact, even when the idiot has dug himself into such a big hole that he frankly deserves what's coming, you still feel a rueful kinship with him. Brutally honest, brave, egotistical and often plain stupid, Mallory's flaws are held up for all to see, and in him Zindell has created a believable protagonist.

Neverness is a very human story, set in a future where mankind has changed, yet some truths still seem the same. In battling with these forces Zindell, through Mallory, holds out hope for something more than a hand-to-mouth existence for humanity, without succumbing to over-the-top optimism. A fine, and very absorbing, read.




Review by Mark Spencer.
Mathematics is a game. It's pieces are the axioms we create, and it's rules our logic. That mathematics is occasionally useful to mechanics and pilots is accidental -Mahavira Lal, third Lord Cantor<i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 7/25/02 10:25:13 pm
</i>

This is an except from a particullarly intelligent review of Neverness--Quote: Zindell's prose has a soft, unique style, and a certain poetic quality permeates all of the book. It is a long novel, with many threads finely interwoven from beginning to end. Zindell masterfully crafts a host of neologisms to go with the intricate detail of his world, from stone age hunter-gatherer to transcended goddess. The beautiful city of Neverness, with its many quarters, professions, human and alien inhabitants, is described in loving detail. "David Zindell writes of interstellar mathematics in poetic prose", a reviewer is quoted on the back of my copy, a phrasing I can't improve on. Never has space travel and battle been like this. Perhaps most remarkably, Zindell breaks with the often cherished notion of making Homo sapiens the pinnacle of intelligent life. Our current form is just an intermediate step to a future as immortal gods beyond human comphension

Generated: 2002-03-12

Christian "naddy" Weisgerber The true human being is the meaning of the universe. He is a dancing star. He is the exploding singularity with infinite possibilities. <i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 5/26/06 12:12 pm
</i>

I still cant find fenestering in your glossary... The planet he saw appeared to have continents that looked surprisingly like Northern Europe and North America. Ransom realized it was Earth he was seeing-Thulcandra, the Silent Planet <i></i>

It's right there Bubba! Right btween Fravashi and Glissades basically Fenestering is the complex mathematical art Pilots use to traverse their Lightships through the multitude of space/time layers in the Manifold. In otherwords your forum, for example, would mean traveling through the space/time layers of Lewis. The true human being is the meaning of the universe. He is a dancing star. He is the exploding singularity with infinite possibilities. <i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 10/17/02 4:48:45 pm
</i>

silly Mhory lol ..

health and healing<i></i>

Tricks are for kids! The dead pay the debts of the living. <i></i>

eyes are for seeing health and healing<i></i>

Was just at Hatrack, One of MsMary & Foam's fav boards! And found an outstanding review by OSC himself!

Quote:By Orson Scott Card
------------------------------------------------------------
Neverness, David Zindell

David Zindell's first novel, Neverness, is set in the same future as his compelling story "Shanidar," which was the standout of the first Writers of the Future anthology. But the novel bears the same relation to the novelet that a ten-lane interstate bears to a country road.

This is, at first glance, a space-opera future, set in a city without telephones, where the major mode of land transportation is ice skates, while members of the Pilots' Guild pop in and out of windows in the manifold, finding intricate pathways between stars. In true Romantic fashion the pilots embark on quests, answering the call of the Timekeeper. In five hundred or so pages we live through rivalry between father and son, incest, intrigue, murder, resurrection, unmasking, and conversations between gods who once were humans and humans who will soon be gods. There is a starfaring race that goes about devouring stars, and another that left a vital message for mankind before going off to live in a black hole. I can't remember reading a better Romance in all of science fiction.

But Zindell doesn't do just one thing. This novel does everything. The characters are not the one-dimensional role-fillers that are usually all that Romance requires. They change and grow, they become real. The grand events unfold through their utterly believable behavior in a fully-invented milieu.

It is also excellent hard science fiction, with serious treatment of difficult mathematical and genetic questions. Have you wondered what all the "extra" or "junk" genes in our DNA are for? Can space be folded so that every star is near every other star? Pilots meld with their ship's computers and then maneuver through the stars by constructing mathematical proofs that the movement they need to make is possible.

Ideas splash out of Zindell's mind and flow across the pages of this book -- yet the action doesn't stop for them. Rather the ideas pick up the story and sweep it along. Ultimately, the story is about the search for the meaning, the purpose, the secret of life. Zindell has the audacity to answer that great question. And it is in his daring to answer it that this book becomes, not just a brilliant novel, but a strong and serious view of human potential.

There are obvious echoes of Gene Wolfe in Neverness. Zindell has picked up some of Wolfe's stylistic quirks -- lists of arcane and archaic words, for instance ("eschatologists, cetics, akashica, horologes . . . scryers, holists, historians, remembrancers, ecologists, programmers, neologicians, and cantors" -- all of which are used in the story; Zindell does not list in vain.) It is daring to invite comparison with Wolfe, and sometimes a bit embarrassing. For instance, when Zindell lists all the different kinds of bars in one district of the city of Neverness, he ends the list by saying, "Somewhere -- and why not? -- there is a bar for those wishing to talk about what is occurring in all the other bars." Such anticlimax -- such an obvious punchline. Wolfe would surely have done a double-twist, like "A bar for those who believe there are no bars, and another for those who believe there are bars, but do not believe anyone has ever seen one."

But that is early in the book. Zindell soon becomes himself strongly enough that the reader no longer compares him with Wolfe or anyone else. Or rather, while I recognized that Zindell could not match Wolfe at Wolfe's best games, he had some strengths Wolfe doesn't have -- for instance, Zindell's individual episodes, powerful as they are, never obscure the main thread of the story, and while his narrator is self-conscious, he remains fundamentally innocent. He remains young, so that the narrative is always vigorous, and the narrator doesn't surprise us so much as he joins us in being surprised all over again by what happens in the tale.

Like all the best science fiction writers, Zindell came up with concepts and cultural patterns that required the coinage of words. Cark: To alter a human structure at a genetic level, so you permanently change the physical form. Slel: To take DNA from someone against his will, to create avatars of him, or perhaps children. Fenester: To pass through "window" after "window" in the manifold -- a verb that science fiction has long needed. Zindell has helped develop our collective language, which is a model of our collective mind.

I wish I had written this book. Not because I admire it (though obviously I do). My feelings are beyond mere jealousy. I wish I had written it because as I read it I heard Zindell say things I had tried to say in many of my own works, but never did, not this clearly, not this fully. I wish I had written it because it is the truth, earned truth, truth that grows out of a story that is at once grand and small, brilliant and dark, simple and intricate. I wish I had written it because a storyteller never truly knows a story until he has told it. I have read Zindell's book, and I want to know what he knew that allowed him to tell this tale. I want to tell it myself someday *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 3/30/06 10:21 pm
</i>

Hoping to find a background soon...bear with me *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i></i>