David Zindell's intensely driven and imaginatively detailed first novel takes us on a voyage of discovery. Over three millennia from the present day our planet Earth is a wistful memory belonging to the ages. Humanity and its descendants have scattered in diaspora throughout the galaxy. Many new branches of humanity have tinkered with their genetic makeup to suit the environments and solar systems in which they now live. There are those who have remained faithful to the old form and others who have chosen to return to simpler modes of life. On Neverness all or most forms of locomotion and communication are outlawed and people travel from point to point by way of ice skating on glissades.It was a refreshingly tilted view of humanity evolving space travel to reach the stars but not becoming lost in the superficial trappings that technology inherently brings with it. The front cover of the book illustrates this superbly. Mallory Ringess is a young pilot of the Order, and a native of beautiful planet Icefall. Neverness is situated in a point of space which allows pilots to traverse the manifold. It is a nexus point. The stars of the Vild explode, threatening to spread destruction throughout the galaxy. In a fit of pique and anger, Mallory, a fresh graduate out of the pilot's college,enters into a bet to penetrate the thick space of the Solid State Entity. He miraculously succeeds and returns to a hero's welcome. He is examined by other branches on the planet and his memories of his events are proven true. He is driven by cryptic clues given to him by the Solid State Entity and with the aid of his closest friend Bardo and various members of his immediate family he seek out the genetically regressed Neanderthal like Alaloi. It is after the events that place with the Alaloi that Mallory and his friends and family are changed forever. Zindell's writing is tender and his character portrayals are for the most part very accessible. What he writes about is how mankind tries to figure through the eyes of Mallory its place in the universe. He does have a tendency to rhapsodize the belief that it has a purpose. It must have a purpose. The fact that we question why only illuminates a tiny portion of what humanity is capable of. It's space opera mingled with an unknown quest for a man to find and seek out his destiny. At the same time, Mallory, fights to retain semblances of his humanity, while the attainment of becoming a god shadows his unwritten future.
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