War in Heaven

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful ending to the best series I've ever read!!
Review: 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!!

Rating:
Summary: Simply astounding and mind boggling !
Review: My last two weeks have been most stimulating as I finished this remarkable series. From the first book, "Neverness" to "The Broken God" to "The Wild" and finally "War in Heaven", I just could not put the series down. Yes there are times when Zindell tend to be repetitive in his philosophical views but the intensity of the story and characters more than makes up for it. "Neverness" is simply exquisite with spectacular world building and intriguing characters. The protagonist, Mallory, a brilliant and complex personality is definitely one sci-fi character I will remember. "The Broken God" is simply profound though at times Zindell tends to be overboard with his philosophical views. At first I miss Mallory's narration as the first person. However by the middle of "The Broken God", I found myself engrossed with Danlo's fate and liking this protagonist immensely. From the negative reviews of "The Broken God", I perceive that some readers have stopped reading the series due to the slow pace of "The Broken God". That is a real pity because no sci-fi die-heart should miss "The Wild". Here Zindell displays his remarkable world building skills and vivid imagination once again. The pace here is fast and I found myself imprisoned by Danlo's adventures. "War in Heaven" is equally though provoking and captivating. Danlo's loss here is intensely written and I found myself moved to tears. "War in Heaven" is a sastisfying conclusion to the series as Danlo completes his soul searching and finally "sees" his role in the universe or should I say universes. As usual with any great stories, I am sad that the end comes too quickly. I will miss Danlo, Mallory, Soli, Bardo and the Solid State Entity but am glad to have discovered Zindell's world. I am please to add Zindell to my list of must read writers and look forward to reading his new fantasy series. It is a pity that this brilliant writer is not more widely recognized.

Rating:
Summary: You're kidding, right?
Review: The book started off great: gods fighting, the forces of mankind gathering for a war, the ranks of the pilots arrayed in a splendor of colors. So far, the book was matching the quality I found in 'Neverness'.
And then Danlo gets to Neverness, and the author throws the brakes on. There's only so many times I can be told about the starlight blazing out of people's eyes before I start to roll my own eyes. We're told that Danlo is as wild as wild can be, and has an unbreakable will, but in action, he's meek and mild. The vow of ahimsa he's taken which prevents him from harming any living thing is like a boulder around the narrative's neck: it took Danlo three chapters to man up and go kill something to feed his starving kid. And then the kid dies anyway.
The other thing that pissed me off was the interminable, repetitive philosophizing interspersed with descriptions of infinite fire and light in the universe.
I had to force myself to grind through the last twenty pages because I was so tired of reading about Danlo's eyes blazing away. The notions seemed a poor mimickry of Frank Herbert's ideas, in review. The author definitely has a vivid imagination, but he should have mixed things up a little bit more.