Customer Reviews

Second Genesis

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I began reading Second Genesis long before I realized that there was a first book. I have yet to read the first book.

This is a book that stands easily on its own and truly should be considered one of the classics of scifi literature. Imagine humanity achieving all its greatest dreams... conquering death and the distance between the stars. Humanity has spread across the galaxy with the power to literally break apart planets and reform whole star systems into habitable rings which double as massive radio telescopes spreading humanity's knowledge to other galaxies. Then, at the height of their power and knowledge... humanity simply vanishes.

But the Nar, a race of strange but generous beings in a far galaxy, receives the messages sent by humanity, and begins to slowly adopt their technology and transform their culture. Until, one day, in gratitude for all that humanity has done for their race, they literally recreate humans from the genetic code embedded in the signals from space.

And, of course, this distant outpost of newly created humans will soon long to know of their full history and origins. Just as adopted children, after coming of age, often seek out their biological parents, so does this adopted segment of humanity long to seek out its biological forebears.

So begins "Second Genesis," the long and fascinating journey of hundreds, made newly immortal, traveling across unimaginable distances seeking to find where their biological forebears have gone.

Its a book that really engages your imagination, more so than most any book you'll read. Why this one has not been adopted by the SciFi Channel for the creation of a miniseries, I have no idea.

Someone please tell them they are missing a guaranteed winner.

David Flanagan

In Donald Moffitt's sequel to The Genesis Quest, Bram and his fellow humans are on their way to the home of Original Man, some thirty-seven million light years from the homeworld of the Nar. The humans were created by the Nar from the genetic code provided in a transmission that originated from the Milky Way. That story is told in The Genesis Quest and is summarized in chapter two of Second Genesis, a longish chapter you don't need to read if you've read and can recall the first novel. By the same token, the second chapter is so detailed that it's possible to read Second Genesis without reading The Genesis Quest first.

As they travel, the humans encounter an astronomical event that threatens the Nar worlds and the humans who remained with them. Much later, nearing the home of original man, they encounter a huge disc-shaped world, prompting an extended discussion of the engineering involved in its construction. A good chunk of the novel describes the archeological digs that enlighten the travelers about the lifestyles of Original Man. Additional adventures include contact with well-imagined insect-like aliens and confrontation of a crisis that threatens to doom the second incarnation of humankind. The novel ends with a nice symmetry that should please those who have read both novels.

The most serious problem with The Genesis Quest is its wordiness. Moffitt could have eliminated about 40 percent of the text, leaving a tightly spun story of mankind's search for its roots. Moffitt tends to get carried away with science lectures. For that reason, the narrative sometimes tends to drag, although a welcome dose of action in the last third of the novel brings the story back to life. Moffitt isn't particularly skilled at crafting sentences -- the novel has an unpolished feel -- but the writing style is an improvement over his first novel, The Jupiter Theft. As always, his human characters lack individual personalities. The novel's strength is the powerful imagination Moffitt brings to his epic view of the future, particularly with regard to evolutionary responses to extinction events. Most fans of future histories and space opera should enjoy Second Genesis.

I really enjoyed the prequel to this novel (Genesis Quest) because of its fascinating portrayal of an alien society and its relationship with its human creations. So I really looked forward to reading this book...but alas, it was not nearly as good.

One of the reviewers asked why this book isn't considered a classic in the league with Asimov's Foundation. I'll tell you why: it is a book only an astrophysicist could love. The first 3rd of the book seemed to take forever. There are pages and pages of dialog, exposition and description about orbits, propulsion, space maneuvers etc. I really began to skim a lot. Because of this, my involvement was superficial. In fact the author did not spend a lot of time making these characters come to life. They are mostly just abstractions--vehicles to tell a story that spans millions of years. Oh yes, did I mention that these characters are immortal, which makes them seem even less three-dimensional. It was an interesting travelogue as the ship skirted a black hole and discovered Original Man's artifacts. But the only time I felt emotional involvement was to be scared sleepless when the travelers encounter the horrors that Original Man's genetic meddling have unleashed on the galaxy. And still, even when the characters are fighting for their lives, the prose is weighted down with minutiae of engineering and physics.

I realize that it is very difficult to tell a story that spans millennia. Perhaps it could have been handled better as a series of generational epics. The Foundation series is a collection of novellas. Perhaps if Asimov's entire future history had been seen through the eyes of one set of characters, it might have been compared with this book. But it probably wouldn't have been as good, and it certainly wouldn't have been the Foundation series we know and love.

A reviewer says that this is not a galactic shoot-em-up. I agree on this point. In fact Moffett's characters, having been created and reared by the empathic Nar, have no conception of violence or defending themselves against hostile species. We have humans who can traverse light-years....trying to invent a bow and arrow. Hmm.

"This book spans millennia...and takes just as long to read."

Why isn't this, and the first in the series, The Genesis Quest, considered classics in the same league as Anderson's Tau Zero, Asimov's Foundation-Trilogy or many of A. C. Clarke's titles? These stunning visions lacks NOTHING! They are both superb examples of what true science fiction is about, and it is NOT about thinly disguised contemporary criticism, nor cheap shoot-'em-ups a la Star Wars. This is about true sense of wonder, a honest attempt, and a successful one, to get us face to face with truly cosmic visions. I hope to God Mr Moffit's books are successfully greeted in these new editions, because they deserve to be

Long ago the dying human race broadcast a signal into space containing all of their knowledge and instructions on how to rebuild them. The Nar did just that, and when they realized that humans needed to be on their own a tree-space vessel capable of traveling near the speed of light. Mankind has crossed the 37 million light year gulf of space (only 500 years subjective time to make the trip) to reach their home world, but they didn't find what they expected.

Donald Moffitt excels at alien beings. The Nar, which are discussed in the first book, Genesis Quest (to which Second Genesis is a sequel) are beautifully described, in both their physical shape and the nature of their mind. In this book, we encounter more alien creatures, all of which are just as alien. Moffitt has a good understanding of what an alien mind might think. For example, the group has trouble making contact with the aliens. For some reason, they simply don't acknowledge the humans' presence even though they seem to be intelligent beings.

I only give it four stars because the ending is a bit weak. Things simply wrap up with little or no action on the part of the characters. All in all, if you are interested in unusual alien characters in your science fiction, this is must read book.

Moffitt shows us quite a vision of the grand scheme of things. Though you might not believe in flying trees, the explanations he gives for the various evolutions and extinctions are great. I really like the universe he has built, and the sense of overall inevitability and futility of existence you get.
I actually picked up this book first, not realizing it was a sequel; so I went and bought and read the first book, but you really don't have to - Moffitt spends the majority of one of the early chapters rehashing everything that happened in the first book. You probably could read only the second book, and then maybe go back and read the first if you want to learn more about the Nar.

The story follows on from Moffitt's earlier (and slower paced) Genesis Quest. A band of genetically reconstructed humans embark on an odyssey covering immense distances to return to their home world. The travellers are culturally impoverished, they have inherited little from original man, and they are still suffering the mental trauma of being created and raised by the benevolent and long lived Knar. When the travellers reach what they believe to be their destination what they find is less than pleasant and things rapidly take a turn for the worse. Superlatives fail me when I talk about this book, It is simply one of the top ten books of the genre that I have ever read.

A group of humans raised on the Knar world want to go back to their homeworld in the Milky Way galaxy. Man's D.N.A. Sequence had been beamed to the Knar world and the Knar resurrected man with the addition of an immortality virus. The Knar use a huge sentient tree called (Yaggisdril?) to fly between the galaxies. Fantastic description of using the center black hole of their galaxy to slingshot Yaggasdril to the Milky Way. Time dilation of 99.99% of the speed of light is fantastic. Exciting conclusion

The Nars had recreated mankind and now man wanted to go home. With the help of the Nars, in the form of a interstellar tree, mankind started a journey to return to the Milky Way and find the system of Sol. In return the humans broadcast the Nars' genetic description. The journey is long, both in time and distance, and it turns out to be VERY dangerous. Even a race gifted with immortality has to be careful when entering the region where Original Man used to be the masters.
Because the Earth has new masters now...