Better Angels [Hardcover]

Howard V. Hendrix (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1999

A novel of unparalleled brilliance from the author leading the way into the new millennium..."One of the very best of the new science fiction writers."(Kim Stanley Robinson)

With his astonishing future vision, Howard V. Hendrix has emerged as one of the new masters of science fiction, drawing extraordinary praise for his debut novel Lightpaths, "a taut...space-age slice of life" (Publishers Weekly) and its "brilliant" (Locus) follow-up, Standing Wave. Now he meshes virtual reality, deep-space exploration, and human nature in a novel starkly breathtaking in its portrayal of the quest for meaning against a backdrop of scientific and spiritual chaos...

Spanning the first, turbulent decades of the twenty-first century, Better Angels revolves around the mystery of an ancient, alien artifact resembling an angel's shoulder blade, and the transcendent effect it has on five people, whose lives and relationships lead to--and are forever altered by--its discovery...

Praise for the novels of Howard V. Hendrix:

"Mindbending...If Robert A. Heinlein had grown up reading William Gibson...Lightpaths is the novel he'd have written."--Robert J. Sawyer

"Standing Wave is worthy of the best writers in the field--a brilliant blend of scientific ideas with a complex vision of the future."--Locus

"Packed with ideas...in the best tradition of thoughtful science fiction."--Denver Post

* Thematically, Hendrix can be compared to Arthur C. Clarke, while his contemporary sensibility likens him to Kim Stanley Robinson

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

This hardcover debut from the author of Standing Wave, etc. arrives too late for a full review. By 2014, a religion-obsessed government is repressing scientific endeavor. Some years previously, however, Jacinta Larkin discovered a South American Neanderthal population whose religion was based on ingesting a fungus that produced cosmic mental connections and eventually would transport them through a wormhole to meet the alien Allesseh. (When an Allesseh ship crashed on Earth millions of years ago, they left the fungus in case intelligence someday evolved.) Jacinta's skeptical brother Paul watches in disbelief as Jacinta and friends vanish into space. Eventually, he sells the fungus to Dr. Vang, who hopes to develop mind/machine linkages of such information density that a transcendental singularity will open. Others take the fungus drug with varying degrees of enlightenment. Meanwhile, researcher Lydia Farbro discovers an alien artifact in a California tar pit. Extraordinarily rich in ideas, but bogged down by indistinguishable characters and laborious exposition. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

Howard V. Hendrix is one of those abundantly talented writers, and BETTER ANGELS, a prequel to his two earlier books, LIGHTPATHS and STANDING WAVE, defies genre boundaries with great panache. . . . Matter and antimatter, Apollonian and Dionysian, Christ and Antichrist, Logos and Chaos -- all these opposites will come into play by the end of what is also a splendid adventure novel, equally at home in big-time transcendence and a very human scale where everyone does matter . . . Like the sciences themselves, SF and the sense of wonder have grown increasingly sophisticated over the years. Though purists may decry his refusal to stay within the boundaries of genre, Howard V. Hendrix can be claimed as one of our very best. -- Locus Magazine, December 1999, p.19

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 373 pages
• Publisher: Ace Hardcover; 1st edition (October 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441006523
• ISBN-13: 978-0441006526
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,607,478 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent work, October 25, 1999

By 

Mallory Kane "Mallory" (Tennessee, US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Better Angels (Hardcover)

It starts when Professor Fabro finds a human shoulder bone in the La Brea Tar Pits. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, the bone contains evidence that it is not a natural substance. Jiro Yamaguchi is consulted to help with the analysis. The media inevitably gets hold of the story, and concocts a brilliantly twisted theory that the shoulder blade is the bone of an angel, which does more to legitimize its veracity than a hundred serious stories would have.

In an alternate USA of the next millennium which has been thrashing in the throes of its second civil war, rebelling against a tyrannous theocracy, and wheresuch scientific pursuits as archeology, anthropology, and paleontology are banned, the disappearance of the brilliant scientist Yamaguchi causes all sorts of rumors and questions and fears.

In a book he himself describes as the prequel to his astonishing prior novels, Lightpaths and Standing Wave, Howard Hendrix explores the outer limits of human imagination and religious fervor. Hendrix's claim that one can enter his universe from any one of his three books, may be a bit optimistic. He suggests, if you haven't read them, to read Better Angels first, then Lightpaths, then Standing Wave. But he doesn't insist.

Mr. Hendrix is adept at placing humanity within science, or perhaps science within humanity. He is well-versed in high concept scientific principles, and has an incredibly awesome imagination, which he puts to good use as he explores what might happen if there were scientific proof of such things as angels. For those who have already read Lightpaths and Standing Wave, some questions and confusions may be answered. Others may be created by this ambitious prequel.

There is no doubt that Howard Hendrix is a brilliant writer. Better Angels brings his Lightpaths universe full circle. One can only imagine what his next universe will be like.

Rickey R. Mallory

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars ending goes to pieces, November 11, 2000

By 

Stephan Arndt (Iowa City, IA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Better Angels (Hardcover)

The book starts off with a very creative set of suppositions. With a little imagination, the beginning goes off very well and sets a stage for an exciting book. Unfortunately, the author cannot hold the force for long. The various subplots don't tie together very well and actually get boring. Then it goes downhill after that. The last part of the book reads as if Timothy Leary wrote it on a particularly incoherent day. Too bad - given the start, it was a disappointment.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Weakly done, June 12, 2000

By 

"richhorn7" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Better Angels (Hardcover)

I was really bored with the people in this book. I read mysteries and some science fiction and neither the mystery or the "science fiction" grabbed me because the chracters were all cardboard and so was the dialog. I did finish the book but I never liked it; if you want fun and adventure don't try this.