Customer Reviews

The War in Heaven

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In War in Heaven, Zindell has Danlo wi soli Ringess return to his home planet of Neverness to face his former best friend but now arch-enemy Hanuman. In what has become classic Zindell style, the prose is just the most flowing yet intense stuff there is - you'll totally get lost in the characters and in the writing. This book was a little more like The Broken God than The Wild, in that it is a little less sci-fi and more like a fantasy plot with larger-than-life characters in a small setting. I'd recommend anyone, sci-fi fan or not, to read this series. I should also note that if one does read any of these books, they are really meant to be read in order - it would be a little hard to understand what was going on in this book without having read The Broken God and then The Wild first. Five stars from me!!

This is one of the, if not THE, most philosophical series that I have ever read. Sit back and enjoy, while at the same time ponder on how you see your life. I have read the series twice already and will read it all again in another 5 years or so. I realize that this is a review of the whole series but I think that every book in the series is worth 5 stars. This really is a MUST read for all serious readers of sci-fi or anyone that wishes to think about the path on which they tread through this life. Honestly and truly a Requiem for Homo Sapiens.

Within the past year I managed to acquire and read Neverness and the Requiem for Homo Sapiens. I must say in all the years I've read science fiction, no book or series of books has affected me as deeply as The Broken God and War in Heaven. The sequences between Danlo and Hanuman Li Tosh are both heartbreaking and mesmerizing. Highly recommended for anyone who likes their science fiction with a dose of philosophy and beautiful imagery.

This is a series of beautifully written books that are additive so beware! I have reread the series 4 times and each time only discover how much i missed the time before. If you want an experience that you can not explain, you must read these. I have never been able to find anything to compare. Enjoy.

War in Heaven is an interesting book. I will remember for a long time the characters I met there. There are atleast three thoroughly defined and impressively unique characters in this book. The plot lags at some points, but when Zindell gets to it's high points, he hits home every time. He is very good at conveying the emotions of his characters, one of the most essential skills of any novelist. The world building is intricate and well thought out, the characters couldn't be any more alive, and the ending is a sure suprise. This is a book I may find myself rereading at some point in the future.

The Requiem for Homo Sapiens is by far the best SF series I've ever read. It goes far and beyond the supposed "classics" of SF like Dune, Foundation, The Time Machine and whatever else I can think of. Zindell's ability of creating a truely complex, immersive and original world is second to none. The way he artfully spins philosophy, morality, concepts of technology and human emotions into this complex and mind bending universe is so complete that it is mind boggling. I totally lost track of time when I was reading this.

Only this man can devote an entire 3 pages into describing a single scene and manage to not only make it exciting, but manage to illustrate it with a visual and emotional viscera that feels like the reader is actually standing right next to the protagonist, seeing what he's seeing, feeling what he's feeling and knowing his thoughts like the back of your hand.

Part of this immersive quality, I believe, is because Zindell's characters are among the most complex and realistic as you'll ever meet. Trans-realism, perhaps, would be the word to describe it. As you'll not only know them as characters the protagonist talks to, but as human beings where you are privy to their own thoughts and emotions, motivations and desires, and know them as where 'you are them and they are you' truely can.

The antagonist Hanuman is the perfect example of this. While most other author would give you a caricature to condemn, Zindell gives you insight to the very thought processes that lead him to make the decision that he did, and Zindell does it in such a way that not only allows you to empathize with the character, but ask yourself... if you were in his shoes would you do anything different?

I can't say enough good things about this book and I realise I'm probably gushing and sounding like some marketing ad so I'll stop. But if you're considering whether to buy this or not, my recommendation is... BUY IT!

Then tell all your friends about it. As surely this little gem deserves to be displayed and recognised as one of the best pieces of literature ever written.

David Zindell's first novel in this series, "Neverness," is nothing short of astounding. His imagination - and the incredibly rich world that has sprung forth from it - is boundless. But "War in Heaven," the fourth and final book in the "Requiem for Homo Sapiens" series, does not match up to the breathtaking "Neverness," nor even to its own promising beginning.

At the start of this book, the protagonist Danlo wi Soli Ringess has just returned from a perilous mission. His goal was to convince a well-meaning but badly misguided religious order (the "Architects") to change its doctrine of advocating endless procreation - a doctrine which is slowly but surely killing the galaxy. Danlo is successful, but at a price: a splinter group (the "Iviomils") determined to preserve the old ways has broken off & threatens terrible violence.

Danlo, back at "home," finds himself not in the city of Neverness but in Lightstone, a new city on a new planet. Danlo's enlightened academic Order has created a mirror of itself on a distant, hidden planet as a hedge against the possible destruction of Icefall, where Neverness and the original Order are located. Soon, we find out, a new schism is brewing between the new & old Orders, with religion (this time, a controversial new faith called "Ringism" has made inroads into the old Order) again being the cause.

And finally we learn that even the galaxy's gods are at war. A super-entity called the Silicon God has slain two of his kind, and the gods who oppose him are banding together to stop him.

In short, as the title rather explosively proclaims, there is war in heaven.

But we get to see little of it. The Architects and Iviomils barely appear for the rest of the book, and except for a couple of oblique references, the gods don't show up at all. The two academic Orders do fight a pair of bloody, spectacular space battles, but nearly all of the "action" (such as it is) is centered on Neverness. Danlo (who, as an ambassador to Neverness, is utterly unable to prevent the impending war) spends hundreds of pages in a virtual holding pattern - he does almost nothing except bide time while hatching a new plan.

I won't reveal any more of the plot. I will say that the book has its merits - Zindell's world is still intensely interesting, and he still has some new, mind-bending ideas to share. (How about an ethereal ecosystem that thrives in the near-vacuum at the edge of space, or a perverse, megalomaniacal god intent on consuming all the matter and energy in the universe?)

Just expect some disappointment after the first 150 pages, but enjoy the ride anyway.

Zindell writes beautifully and deeply. He ranges across technology, religion, philosopy and the human condition. His books are excellent. This is SF at its best. Why not 5 stars, then? There are two things that detract from this book. Firstly, there are two or three occasion when I want to throw the book across the room (which I don't) and scream "just get on with the story" (which I do, much to the consternation of the others in the room): Zindell has a tendancy to go overboard on the detailed philosophising. Secondly, there is the ending. The baddies are killed, the goodies survive (with the obvious exceptions), the future looks bright and rosy. Given the darkness permeating the rest of the series, this "happily ever after" scenario jars. So only 4 stars. But I wouldn't have missed reading it.

What a shame that David Zindell's other books are mostly out of print! War In Heaven is one of those rare reads that satisfy so many needs of discriminating SF readers. There are gods and humans, good and evil (halla and shaida), spiritual and technological, evolution and delusion, and many, many more dichotomies in this work--enough to warm the cockels of the heart of any would-be eschatologist thirsting for cosmic paradoxes and mind-bending visions of the future. Well done, Mr. Zindell! When's the next one coming out. . .?

Danlo alas keeps this sporadically annoying habit that's so much a part of his nature throughout what I think is probably the last in the series of books that began with Neverness (for everyone but Danlo) or The Broken God (for Danlo himself). While the last book was a strange, yet oddly intoxicating mixture of philosophy and SF, it lacked the intrinsic cohension that the first book had somehow managed to convey, maybe because of the sublime setting of the city of Neverness, about the finest and best detailed futuristic city in all of SF. Here, after a brief start, we're back in Neverness as Danlo tries to keep war from breaking out and tries, to various degrees of success, to also piece together all the fragments of problems he's either been involved in or created. Zindell sets up quite the dilemma for all the protagonists, not only has the Order of Pilots fragmented and is threatening to fight the other (one part's in exile, the other part is falling sway to a new religion started by Danlo's former best friend and based on the fact that his father might have become a god), the Warrior-Poets are trying to kill anyone who might become a god, Neverness is falling into riots as the Ringists are killing all the nonbelievers. Danlo has never seemed more human and less human here, his very much tries to keep to his vow not to harm anyone and for the most part keeps it, but he's sorely tempted otherwise. He runs into old friends and enemies and enemies who used to be friends (yeah, we're talking to you, Hanuman). This is the most brutal of the three books and Danlo doesn't have an easy time of things, however, as exhilerating as it is to have him succeed, the efforts almost make him seem superhuman and as the book winds to a close, you wonder if ANYTHING can stop this guy. Some points of the book also fall prey to Philosopy Syndrome, where Zindell drowns you in pretty prose depicting Danlo debating some inner struggle, which while great to read and has some absolutely beautiful writing, makes you want to shout at the book "Get on with it already!". But I can't say I didn't like this book, heck, I more than just liked it, this was a satisfying end to the cycle that builds on what came before and takes it to new places. Danlo is one of the best characters to appear in the last decade, and the rest of the people are all lovingly detailed, no one is all good, no one is all bad, everyone has reasons and motivations, some you agree with, some you don't. The clarity and scope of Zindell's ideas, enough to make you think without making your head hurt, are fascinating and his attention to detail, both in dialogue and description and philosophy, will make you want to read the entire series again and again. Even with Danlo's annoying question habit, this has to rank as one of the finest series of the last couple of years, without a doubt.