Balshazzars Serpent [Hardcover]

Jack L. Chalker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2000

"On a Galactic Mission from God"

Here begins an exciting new epic adventure by Jack L. Chalker, a favorite of science fiction fans for years!

When the wormholes mysteriously failed and the Great Silence fell across a third of humanity's interstellar civilization, it was up to the Church to tie together what remained. As had happened long before, during the Middle Ages, faith kept hope alive in a new Dark Age for mankind.

Ishmael Hand, one of the Church's "Prophets" or cyborg scouts, comes across a system with a gas giant and three habitable moons, matching the description of the fabled star system of the Three Kings, an El Dorado long sought by prospectors across the galaxy. Like most Prophets, Hand is not completely sane; he disappears after his final message -- which does not include the location of the system.

Centuries later, Doctor Karl Woodward, preacher and leader of the starship "The Mountain," brings the Word to a lost colony of farmers on an uncharted world, and discovers that saving their souls is the least of his problems. A stranded crew of space pirates has terrorized the peaceful villagers for decades. Now their captain holds Woodward's crew hostage as well. And he wants "The Mountain..."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Told as a kind of mythic moral tale, this far-future, action-oriented SF novel, set in an era of space exploration gone awry, opens with this story: for many years, travelers could journey between Earth and a far-away universe by way of a wormhole. Then the wormhole disappeared, leaving a generation of travelers stranded. A long time passed; the stranded invented their own myths and divided themselves into two factions: the pirates and the religious. Both are now seeking three illusive planets, said to be rich in treasure and alien artifacts, that a prophet long ago called the Three Kings. On a routine missionary expedition, the interstellar evangelist ship Mountain (moved by faith)--led by the unorthodox, devout and shrewd Dr. Karl Woodward--makes a promising discovery. Arriving on a planet, Mountain missionaries encounter a group of apparently friendly and cooperative colonists. But it turns out that they are secretly under the control of a refugee band of pirates led by one Captain Sapenza, who attacks the Mountain, only to find that his weapons are no match for the Faithful. In return for mercy, Sapenza gives Woodward directions to the Three Kings, and with the hardiest of the faithful aboard, Mountain travels the perilous path of a wild wormhole to Balshazzar, an Eden-like planet. There's a serpent in this Eden, an alien super-intelligence who challenges Woodward to a contest. Obviously intended to launch a series, this novel is nothing to get excited about: Chalker (Ghost of the Well of Souls, etc.) uses a well-worn plot, rushes past interesting people and places and occasionally slows the pacing with expository lumps. The book does contain some unusual theological explorations but, overall, its intelligence outshines its narrative prowess. (Aug.)

Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The search for the legendary planetary system known as the Three Kings occupies starfaring humans. When an exploratory crew from The Mountain, a spaceship operated by a colony of religious zealots, lands on an unknown planet, they discover that in order to find the way to their goal, they must first travel through a valley of trials and tribulations. The latest novel by sf veteran Chalker, the beginning of a new series, features the author!s characteristically fresh approach to standard sf themes. Inventive and surprising in concept and execution, this far future tale of faith and survival belongs in most collections.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Baen (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671578804
• ISBN-13: 978-0671578800
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,576,646 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Chalker at "fair", August 2, 2000

By 

Geoffrey Kidd (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Balshazzars Serpent (Hardcover)

There's excellent, good, fair, mediocre, poor, and gawdawful.

This one rates a "fair." It's the first book in what is clearly going to be a series of either three or four books, and each one is patently going to deal with the exploration and mysteries of a treasure-trove system called "the Three Kings." This system contains three worlds named either after the Three Magi who brought gifts to the infant Jesus, or "Inferno", "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso."

Chalker essentially spends the entire book doing the background for "How Our Heroes Got Into This Mess." I found the middle so tedious and strung out to fill pages that I nearly abandoned the book at that point. I persevered right up to the massively unsatisfying ending, which essentially amounted to saying "OK, that's the background, I'll start the *story* in the next volume." I was not amused.

I suspect that what I'm going to do is wait for the *rest* of the series to appear and then read the other volumes as a group, assuming Chalker doesn't tedious them out again just to fill a length requirement. However, my personal take is that I'll wait for them all in paperback before I start.

Chalker is justly famous for the richness of his creations. The "Well World" saga is as rich as the Bayeux Tapestry, and the "Four Lords of the Diamond" a Bokhara Carpet. This is a throw rug, and I think Chalker's fans deserved better.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad - a good start to an interesting series, March 22, 2004

By 

M. Griffith (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Balshazzar's Serpent (Mass Market Paperback)

I'll admit up front I have never written a book, I am a consumer not a producer of books. I acknowledge the fact that good ideas and great stories are hard to come by. I'll also acknowledge that in art there are themes and patterns that are unique to an artist and make up distinctive and recognizable styles. However I expect this more in terms of styling than story line. Having read a ton of Chalker (since I was 12) there are times when his themes though could be construed as bordering on the lack of original ideas. I wouldn't exactly characterize this book in that vein, but I did notice at least one simliarity, namely the setup of planetary system which three inhabitable worlds was similar to his The Four Lords of the Diamond series (which I highly reccomend). However I can't fault him for that entirely, just noting a thematic similarity.

Regardless, its clear Chalker sets out to write a series, and this book largely sets up the books to come, but I found that over all I enjoyed the book. The major story lines centers on a evangelical Christian group proslytizing colonial outpost worlds that have been cut off from contact since the "Great Silence". I was worried that Chalker would use this as a means to grind an ax against religion in general, and was pleasantly surprised to find not only a fairly balanced account, but an exploration of faith in the face of doubt and the individualism of worship juxtaposed against congregational preaching.

I am looking forward to finishing the series, and am glad that the other two books have already been published and I won't have to wait for publication to finish the series.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Start, September 15, 2000

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Balshazzars Serpent (Hardcover)

Chalker is a great writer and doesn't let up with this book. Although B's Serpent is clearly written to introduce characters and the worlds of 'The Three Kings' it is a compelling story in its own right. I would have liked to see more character development. Perhaps because Chalker is introducing characters who will play vital roles in future novels, we do not truly learn to fully empathize with very many in this introductory novel. Pretty good.