Warpath [Mass Market Paperback]

Tony Daniel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1994

As inhabitants of the earth spread throughout the galaxy, they discover that a group of Mississippi Indians from before Columbus's time had preceded them into space, and an interstellar Indian nation conflicts with the new colonists. Reprint.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An original premise, interesting characters and stylish writing distinguish this first novel, but they are buried under a mountain of pseudo-mystical philosophy and fuzzy science. Set five centuries in the future, the narrative concerns a conflict between settlers and Native Americans. However, these settlers are colonizing not new continents but new planets, on which they find Indians who began to inhabit these far-off realms long before Columbus discovered the New World. Individual character portrayals of both settlers and Indians are well-rounded and credible, but the structure of each society is only vaguely suggested. Much of the conflict, for example, is caused by the manipulations of the Clerisy, which seems to be a spiritual descendent of the Catholic Church but whose tenets are never adequately explained. Characters complain that politics on Earth are creating trouble, but the reader never gets a clear picture of the political situation there. Too many pivotal plot developments take place off-stage, and the narrator keeps interrupting the action to give us his views on the Life and the Universe, views that are neither new nor particularly deep. Soft science fiction need not be technically accurate but it does have to be convincing. Daniel's effort, despite his evident talent, leaves important details unfortunately vague.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The planet Candle becomes the focus of a conflict between technologically superior spacefaring humans and a group of American Indians whose mystical knowledge of space travel predates modern science. Daniel's first novel uses Native American lore and hard science to create a compelling visionary tale that is part adventure and part dream quest. This impressive debut belongs in most sf collections.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books (April 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812519663
• ISBN-13: 978-0812519662
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,931,926 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tony Daniel is the author of five science fiction books, the latest of which is Guardian of Night, as well as an award-winning short story collection, The Robot's Twilight Companion. He is Hugo finalist for his story "Life on the Moon," which also won the Asimov's Reader's Choice Award. Daniel's short fiction has been much anthologized and has been collected in multiple year's best compilations. Daniel has also cowritten screenplays for SyFy Channel horror movies and during the early 2000s was the writer and director of numerous audio dramas for critically-acclaimed SCIFI.COM's Seeing Ear Theatre. Born in Alabama, he has lived in St. Louis, Los Angeles, Seattle, Prague, and New York City. Daniel is currently an editor at Baen Books. He is married and has two children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you can take the premise, you'll love it, November 15, 2001

By 

Daniel J. Linehan (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Warpath (Hardcover)

Egads, these reviews are appallingly negative. "Steal this book and then burn it"? This must be one crap-fest, this wacky Indian book here. It must suck something fierce, no? I admit, the summary is probably turning you off. I felt the same way; I found it in a used bookstore and giggled. Indians in space on birchback canoes?

However, that summary and most of the reviews here can't tell you how good this book is. They don't mention the sheer inventiveness of the novel; Daniel has half a dozen good ideas weaved in and out, along with themes of imperialism and cultural sensitivity, and a sly satire of secular humanism to boot. On the surface, it seems like a future-western, with white folk facing off with Native Americans, but to be so simplistic does the novel a disservice.

Now, it is true that sometimes it seems like Daniel is stringing his book along more on pathos and cool sf ideas than by actual plot, but my enjoyment never suffered for it. I loved the exhilaration of creativity; why should mere logic come into the picture? Daniel is brilliant, and should he ever control and direct that brilliance, you can be assured that nothing less than a masterpiece will result.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Steal this book, then burn it...., December 16, 2000

By 

Arnold (Fort Worth, Texas, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Warpath (Mass Market Paperback)

Good grief... how do you justify having Indians paddle about between the planets in canoes as the basis for a modern SF novel? There's usually plenty of elements and devices in the plot of any SF novel or story that you just have to let go of - there's no sense wasting any of your mental energy trying to determine the legitimacy of the physical sciences portrayed within their pages. Just take a break from reality and enjoy the book, that's what reading SF is all about. But Indians in canoes traveling between the planets? If it had been marketed as juvenile SF, I wouldn't be so harsh about it, but it wasn't, so I'm not cutting it any slack.

Anyway, as my previous statements imply, the book combines many of the common elements associated with native American Indian culture, animal gods and the like, being one with nature, canoes (yeah, right), and lots of stupid white people, into one seriously bad SF novel. What was sort of funny was that even though these space traveling white folk were living on a distant planet, they totally lacked any real technological capability? They were using sheet fed printing presses to publish the local newspaper, and culturally still seemed to fit the backwater image of the average southern hillbilly with a racist attitude towards anything that didn't look Caucasian. Maybe they traveled there using rafts made by binding tree limbs together?

The real unfortunate thing about reading this book was that I had to review it for a local newspaper. The editor for book reviews was a friend of a friend of the author. So with no real way to slash the author for writing a complete piece of garbage, and not damage my relationship with the book reviews editor, I did what I had to do. I wrote a pretty basic review of the book that did little more than outline the plot elements, collected my fee, and never went back for another book to review for fear of getting a reputation for delivering nothing for something! THE END...

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Writing style counts for a lot, June 14, 2001

By 

C.K. "C.K." (Boise, ID) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Warpath (Mass Market Paperback)

I will admit that Warpath forces a tighter suspension of disbelief than many S.F. novels.

The writing, however, is superior!

I would much rather have a off-beat, or even odd, alternate universe written tightly and with a very enjoyable style than most of the poorly-written, but straight-line extrapolation, SF novels one runs across.

Daniels writes fluidly, engagingly, and I felt very connected to the characters, the plot, and the alternate universe he created. I'll admit that some fo the universe conceptualizations were hard to accept, but have you every tried analyzing the universe A.E. Van Vogt created in "Slan"? It's got more inconsistencies than one could shake a cliche at, but in the end it doesn't matter because you enjoy how it's written, and you have a good time reading it. Warpath and Daniels writing affected me that way. I want to read more, and have two Danniels books on pre-publish order here at Amazon based on his entertaining and professional writing style.