Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best science fiction novels ever written.,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Gameplayers of Zan (Paperback)
I'm not much of a reviewer, but I figure this book is worth taking a minute to talk about. My father was always a big reader as a younger man. From Michigan, to Los Angeles (where I was born), to a crappy little racist town in Maryland (currently residing, age 22), he picked up some great books that eventually made their way into boxes in the attic. Being a hardy if bookish kid, I naturally spent many long hours poring through them. I tried my hand at Dune and Gravity's Rainbow by the age of 12; of course I had to put them down before picking them up again a decade later. I ended up reading a lot of Asimov, re-reading a lot of William Gibson, and countless other great works of science fiction that have been largely sidelined in the face of such tripe as "Harry Potter."So there was that. And then, this book. I read it as a kid, then read it again a few times these last few years - and wow. Now that I'm finally able to appreciate the full spectrum of skill and nuance involved in this book (and to a somewhat lesser degree, it's sequels), I've come to realize that this is quite simply one of the best science fiction novels ever written. Like a previous reviewer said, it is a crime that this is out of print. My advice? Either order one of these cheap copies, or go browse your local used book store for a copy. I found 6 first editions just gathering dust at the local Wonder Book & Video. Read it a few times, then either sell it back or pass it on to a friend. You'll walk away a better person.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The aliens are us!,
By map "Mark" (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Gameplayers of Zan (Paperback)
Gameplayers of Zan is the sublime prequel to the excellent Warriors of Dawn and is really a book about 'first contact': however, the aliens in our midst aren't spacefarers but a genetically modified subrace of humans - the Ler.Humanity dwells in soulless totalitarian hypercities on an overpopulated Earth. Searching for the ultimate Superman in their gene labs, they instead accidentally create the Ler: a quiet, reflective race of diminutive people with whom humans can no longer interbreed. As the hubristic genetic dream collapses, the 500 created new-humans elect to separate themselves from their larger, more aggressive cousins. Decades later, a few thousand Ler live in a pastoral reservation, regarded with hostility, incomprehension and envy by the hordes of ordinary humans that press in on their idyllic life. But the Ler have secrets and the book begins with a young Ler leaving the reservation and committing an unthinkable crime out in human society. The ensuing investigation, both within Ler society and by the ruthless human bureaucrats outside the fence makes for a tense race against time. Foster creates a fabulously intricate but utterly plausible alien society, albeit one which has sprung from our own genome. We learn that the Ler, for all their differences, still face the dilemma of Nature vs. Nurture, but with a poignant twist - they are without the comfort of a sustaining myth about their origins: they have only to look beyond the fence of their precarious home to see their 'maker'. This is a haunting, well-written and engaging story and a mystery with a staggering conclusion. But avoid the "zencoyote" Amazon.com review: it gives away the ending!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
