Endless Universe [Paperback]

Marion Zimmer Bradley (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Ace (August 1, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441206689
• ISBN-13: 978-0441206681
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,242,332 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Marion Eleanor Zimmer was born in Albany, NY, on June 3, 1930, and married Robert Alden Bradley in 1949. Mrs. Bradley received her B.A. in 1964 from Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, then did graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1965-67.
She was a science fiction/fantasy fan from her middle teens. She had written as long as she could remember, but wrote only for school magazines and fanzines until 1952, when she sold her first professional short story to VORTEX SCIENCE FICTION. She wrote everything from science fiction to Gothics, but is probably best known for her Darkover novels and for her Arthurian novel, THE MISTS OF AVALON.
In addition to her novels, Mrs. Bradley edited magazines, amateur and professional, including Marion Zimmer Bradley's FANTASY Magazine, which she started in 1988. She also edited an annual anthology called SWORD AND SORCERESS, which is still published annually under the title MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY'S SWORD AND SORCERESS.
She died in Berkeley, California on September 25, 1999, four days after suffering a major heart attack.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "'Tis not too late to seek a better world...", April 14, 2002

By 

Michele L. Worley (Kingdom of the Mouse, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Endless Universe (Paperback)

This excellent short story collection is the revised and expanded edition of _Endless Voyage_. The major difference between these two collections of short stories about the crew of the Explorer ship Gypsy Moth is that the latter includes "A Time To Mourn", which among other things explains how Gilmarina came to be named for Gildoran's childhood friend, lost in "Planets Are For Saying Goodbye".

Galactic civilization travels by Transmitter, a technology that allows people to step into a booth and travel anywhere to any receiver within a few light-years. Nobody needs to actually travel through the intervening distance anymore, except the Explorers: the small fleet of ships who discover new worlds, set up the first Transmitter hookups, and open them for colonization. They have their own culture, and even differ subtly between ships; this is the story of the Gypsy Moth, particularly Gildoran, who in ship-years is quite young, but with relativistic effects is far older in planet time.

Explorers are set apart, not only because of long years spent in isolation, and seeing sights and running risks that no one else ever faces, but because of the adaptations they need for the life they lead. Explorers must undergo DNA surgery as infants to survive drive effects - and the dangerous surgery can only be successfully performed in the drive field, so all Explorers are raised in the life. Raised, but not born; radiation effects leave them all sterile, with paper-white skin, while low-g gives them great height. They're only a legend on many worlds, but a legend people hate: they need to take unwanted babies to keep going.

The stories present in this edition are:

"Planets Are For Saying Goodbye" - The Gypsy Moth is preparing for departure, after spending 2 years opening up this new colony world, where Gildoran has spent his youth. Planning in terms of 5-15 year voyages, Gildoran is dispatched with his friend Ramie to buy 6 new babies from a Hatchery that's willing to deal with Explorers, even though his friend Gilmarin was lost on the same assignment. And in transit through Lasselli's World, 'Doran learns what it is not only to lose his oldest friend, but makes and loses another friend, who not only saves him from lynching, but gets him back to the Moth before liftoff.

"A Time To Mourn" - Nearly a year out, four of the six infants are still alive and beginning to talk; Explorers don't name the kids until about this time, when they're sure the children will survive the DNA surgery's aftermath. 'Doran has spent this year on Nursery duty, helping ensure that the kids will pick up human language and social skills, and not just become Poohbears in human bodies (the aliens who serve on every Explorer ship, raising the kids). He's both delighted that Rotation Day has arrived to liberate him from toddler-land, although secretly he'll miss seeing the brightest of the little 1-year-olds every day, a really cute young imp of a girl who'll need a name soon.

The Rotation assigns him to learn the skills of a Transmitter technician, and when Gypsy Moth discovers its next planet - a desert showing traces of a lost civilization - he's sent with the crew performing the first survey and Transmitter tie-in. What they find gives the world its new name, Ozymandias, and gives 'Doran the courage to suggest the only proper name for his favourite young imp.

"Hellworld" - Gildoran gets the official credit (mainly the right to name it) for discovering the lovely world, as the first member of the Bridge crew to spot it, and Gypsy Moth really needs the finder's fee for a good world, since they've been discovering a lot of bad real estate lately. They'd have settled for anything with iron-based biochemistry and heavy metals, but this one's pretty enough to be a resort. Unfortunately, the flowers of this paradise conceal deadly secrets, threatening even the almost-immortal Poohbears of the crew.

"Cold Death" - Even an uninhabitable world like Tempest can be good for something, if you're low on minerals when you happen to find it. Unfortunately, it's not quite as lifeless as it seems; the winds of Tempest carry a deadly virus that defeats all efforts to kill it, which drains the body heat out of its victims. If Gilban and the medics can't find a way to beat it, Gypsy Moth will become a floating tomb.

"A World With Your Name On It" - Gypsy Moth's crew has to swallow their pride and head for the nearest known world; they've had too many deaths and disasters, and haven't got the resources to properly open a good world even if they finally found one. But even if Lazlo welcomes them, how can they get enough manpower to return to space?

I recommend getting _Endless Universe_ over the shorter version if possible (they're both good, but this one has 1 more story than _Endless Voyage_, so it's more of a good thing.)

5.0 out of 5 stars A Diamon in the Rough, February 3, 2006

By 

Taylor (Rhode Island, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Endless Universe (Paperback)

I found this book in a used bookstore many, many years ago. I make it a point to read it once every couple of years. The stories are excellent, and are well told. I only wish that there were more stories to be had. An excellent read.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't live up to its potential., December 20, 2007

By 

Kenneth Simon (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Endless Universe (Paperback)

Endless Universe was a good enough read while it lasted. A rewrite of the previously published Endless Voyage, this features (according to the back cover) a greatly expanded text. ("Over 30,000 additional words!")

We follow a group of Explorers, the crew of a spaceship whose mission is to discover class M planets (to borrow a Trek term) for human colonization. The planets are terraformed as needed and then populated via a gateway that allows for instant travel between planets. The Explorers set up this instant travel gateway, but the catch is that before the gateway is set up on a planet, getting there is not at all instantaneous. As the Explorers travel between worlds, a year or two may go by on the ship -- but a hundred years or more go by for those living on planets. So, they only have each other. Anyone they meet on the surface is elderly or dead by the time they make another landing. This means they have developed their own culture, their own morals.

The ethics of modifying an endless series of planets for human habitation is only lightly treated -- I think we're supposed to assume that it's ok, as long as they're careful. Hmm.

The situation is complicated by the fact that cosmic radiation renders the Explorers sterile. To maintain a full crew complement, they are forced to, um, obtain children when they stop at various planets. Depending on the planet, this is welcomed -- or considered kidnapping. They take children from orphanages, which they say makes it all right. I was never at ease with this.

They also have another species on board their ship whose sole purpose is to nurture and raise the human children. Why they weren't raising their own children is beyond me, and I found this bizarre and not well accounted for. It felt uncomfortably close to some kind of slavery or servitude, since this species didn't seem to have any goals or interests of its own -- or at least, the Explorers weren't aware of any and didn't seem to care.

Lots of interesting setup, isn't it? The problem is there's not much story to flesh out all these elements. The Explorers bump around to a few planets, and after a series of Unfortunate Events, end up running with a skeleton crew. Oh, no! Will they be forced to decommission because they are short staffed? That's essentially the storyline. The main character, Gildoren, comes of age and we see him mature from a petulant teenager (I assume) into a responsible adult. But the transition didn't particularly excite me, and the twist at the end that determines his fate, and that of his crew, was predictable from a mile away. Ho-hum.

This was good to pass the time, and engaging enough as it went along, but it never really took off.