Customer Reviews

On My Way to Paradise

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is everything the "positive reviews" above say, and more. From the first page until the last paragraph to the last three words of that last page, this book will awe, inspire, stay with you. It's been sadly overlooked in best of lists and fan appreciation. Your time reading it will be very well spent.

If you read only one Sci Fi book in the next year make it this one. And keep your copy, it gets better with successive readings. Well worth reading more than once. It's simply that damn good.

I wish Dave Wolverton would do this kind of book again, and do it well. Someone tell him he should.

Jack

I read this novel after reading review by Orson Scott Card praising it highly. It is my favorite sci-fi novel of all time.
It is powerfully psychological,clearly influenced by Phillip K Dick, but it is also marvelous for its "hard" technical content, as well as very intellectual in the way the hero examines the moral questions of his world. Plot is also handled very well, with lots of violent action, and images which are simply unforgettable. How can this be a first novel? It is moving on every level and I consider it a masterpiece.

I read this book ages ago. I lent it to a friend. She never gave it back.
The hero, Angelo Osic, is not young, nor is he a stereotype of the action-adventure genre, and yet Wolverton makes Osic's odyssey believable.
The warmth of this existential, humane character, his gradual transformation into a warrior, and his involuntary exile across the galaxy haunts me to this day.
It saddens me to read that this novel is out of print. I thought this was adventure-SF's last gasp before the cyber and alternate universe genre took over.
_On My Way_ is what the Star Wars prequels wish they could have been...
I must find another copy at a used bookstore and read it again. I'll probably like it so much, I'll end up giving it to another friend. This Dave Wolverton classic is too good not to be shared.

Angelo Osic, an aging pharmacist in wartorn Panama, is drawn into a complicated political plot when he reaches out in compassion to help an injured woman fleeing shadowy forces. Osic kills a man, and is forced to flee Earth and make a new life among Latino refugee/mercenaries, hired to help a Japanese-derived culture on a distant planet defeat its cultural rival. Trained ruthlessly in war, he struggles to return to his own self image of a man of peace, a healer, and a man of compassion -- even as he sees these things fail and fade.

For a scifi lover, this book is a feast for the mind; nay, more than a feast: a smorgasborg. Neural implants, brain transplant, genetic alteration, jacked-in training, bioweapons, AI, space travel, future weapons; you name it. Yet all of these technological developments are worked into the plot smoothly and believably. And most important, they are not the focus of the novel: that focus is the moral development of a man struggling to make sense of what his life has become; struggling to regain moral agency in an immoral world. Yet there are many other interesting ideas on display, as well: culture clash, the nature of reality, what it means to be human, and what the meaning of culture is.

Most novels are fire and forget; they do not touch your self in any real way beyond the pleasure of escape. This one will have you thinking about it years after your read it for the nth time.

Angelo Osic, an aging pharmacist in wartorn Panama, is drawn into a complicated political plot when he reaches out in compassion to help an injured woman fleeing shadowy forces. Osic kills a man, and is forced to flee Earth and make a new life among Latino refugee/mercenaries, hired to help a Japanese-derived culture on a distant planet defeat its cultural rival. Trained ruthlessly in war, he struggles to return to his own self image of a man of peace, a healer, and a man of compassion -- even as he sees these things fail and fade.

For a scifi lover, this book is a feast for the mind; nay, more than a feast: a smorgasborg. Neural implants, brain transplant, genetic alteration, jacked-in training, bioweapons, AI, space travel, future weapons; you name it. Yet all of these technological developments are worked into the plot smoothly and believably. And most important, they are not the focus of the novel: that focus is the moral development of a man struggling to make sense of what his life has become; struggling to regain moral agency in an immoral world. Yet there are many other interesting ideas on display, as well: culture clash, the nature of reality, what it means to be human, and what the meaning of culture is.

Most novels are fire and forget; they do not touch your self in any real way beyond the pleasure of escape. This one will have you thinking about it years after your read it for the nth time.

I read a lot of science fiction and this is quite possibly the best sci-fi novel that I have ever read. The fact that the characters were latin american (and japanese, of course) was a refreshing change from the typical anglo american sci-fi character. It was nice to read about experiences from the perspective of characters with a little ethnicity.

The ending wasn't a complete surprise, but the way that it was resolved was enlightening. I would recommend this book be read by one and all.

Although not quite the same, you might also enjoy reading John Steakley's "Armor"

I'm a political consultant - this is my life yet this book gave me quite a bit to think about. To my shock, it also gave me views that have held up well years after having read this. The only negative I can say about this book is that it's not required reading for EVERYBODY.

It is rare that you come across a book that moves you on such a basic level that you revisit your presumptions about basic social dynamics. Wolverton has set up a magnificent world where the bucolic serenity of the gentle protagonist has been destroyed by the callous intrusion of political conflict and the desperate bravado of other victims of that conflict. Angelo Osic's battle to preserve his humanity in the face of a circumstance that demands he lose it makes for a poignant story. Unlike many other books in the genre, Wolverton manages to use technology to accentuate the very human conflicts his characters face, rather than trivialize them. Osic is about as well developed a character as I have ever seen; Wolverton also succeeds in creating wholly believable and sympathetic characters out of a minimum of verbiage. It is amazing how he can offer a few lines of description and somehow convey the entire sense of an actor in this stark but passionate world. I have bought six copies of On My Way to Paradise and given them out to various friends, and cannot praise this book highly enough.

I first read this book some years ago and was impressed with the breadth of vision and the sheer fun of reading it since I have loaned it to many a friend all gave much praise, and had some trouble getting it back. Recently I read it again and it was as fresh as all those years ago it is a rare find indeed a real ripper of a story

I read avidly and appreciate quality work, and I read almost anything. This book crosses all the lines. It is Science. Fiction. Literature. Spiritual. Easily in my all time top ten, any genre. In used book stores there are two books I will always buy - Micheal Herr's "Dispatches" and Dave Wolverton's "On My Way to Paridise". Then I give them to someone.